Boot Camp Final Day Presentation Guidelines
The Boot Camp will culminate with a head-to-head “present off” on Thursday, June 14, where each team will advance the merits of their innovation before a panel of distinguished judges, their Boot Camp colleagues, and other Boot Camp attendees. At an appointed time, the students who make up each team will make their way, as a team, to the front of the room to make their presentation. One student team member should be pre-selected to serve as the spokesperson who will make the presentation on behalf of the entire team; however, judges may, and likely will, call upon other team members to expand on, or clarify, aspects of the team’s presentation during the question and answer periods that will follow each presentation. This makes it essential that each team member thoroughly understand all aspects of not only their proposed innovation, but also the team’s presentation.
Rules and Other Pertinent Information Governing the Final Presentations
(1) Presentations may not exceed 5 minutes. Each presentation will be timed. Presenters who exceed 5 minutes will be summarily cut off.
(2) Each team may supply one digital, still image that best exemplifies its innovation to use as a backdrop during its presentation. These images will be collected first thing in the morning on the last day of the Boot Camp. At that time, a flash drive will be circulated among the teams. Images should be copied from a laptop to this flash drive as a single file named as follows: [NAME OF TEAM].jpg or [NAME OF TEAM].png (where [NAME OF TEAM] is replaced by the name of each team’s community college).
Images must:
• Be in JPG or PNG format
• Be in 4:3 horizontal format
• Be high-resolution (minimum resolution 72 dpi, 960px X 720 px)
• Include the name of the community college
• Be free of watermarks, and be owned, licensed or used with permission
• Minimize the use of additional identifying or explanatory text (generally, no more than 10 words)
(3) Aside from the one digital, still image, the presentations will have no other visual display elements.
(4) Each team must address the following target audience when designing and delivering their presentation.
• The target audience for your formal presentation is the CEO, accompanied by her senior staff, of a mid-sized and highly successful local company—Computer Ninjas, Inc.—that provides IT services to large corporations, organizations, and government agencies throughout the region.
• She began her education studying computer science at YOUR community college before going on to earn a BS in computer networking and cybersecurity, as well as an MBA, at a respected state university.
• She is a long-term resident of the community, and deeply cares about giving back to make the community, the region, and the world a better place.
• She has never forgotten that YOUR community college launched her career, at a time when women generally, and minority women in particular, were dramatically underrepresented in STEM fields. Consequently, she has been one of the college’s most consistent and generous benefactors. In addition to unrestricted, annual gifts to the school, she also has established a well-endowed fund that annually awards $25,000 grants to one or more student teams that have innovative STEM projects deserving of further development.
• Your team wants to tap into this fund. To do so, you must first pass muster during an initial review where you will present your innovative STEM project to the CEO and her senior staff. Many teams present each year, so presentations are strictly limited to 5 minutes. Following this initial review, several teams will be selected to make longer and more detailed presentations during subsequent meetings.
• The CEO and her team apply multiple criteria in determining which teams will advance to the next round of presentations. Here are a few of their considerations:
o Why do this?
o What makes the project different?
o What’s its potential?
o Is it realistic?
o Is it sustainable?
o How will it make tomorrow better than today?
o Has this furthered STEM education and participation at the college?
o Will this cast the college in a positive light?
o How will the money be used?
o How might this benefit Computer Ninjas, Inc.?
NOTE: Each team will receive considerable instruction, coaching, and practical experience with strategic communication and entrepreneurial skills on site at the Boot Camp to aid in this presentation.