presentation blitz

You've said the elevator pitch so many times that the words lose all meeting. The key, as far as I can tell, is to avoid trying to memorize and recite it. There's usually just a few key ideas I try to always get in (read: none of them are web 2.0 buzzwords, like "web 2.0"). This keeps it fresh every time, which seems to make it a better experience for everyone involved.

We were invited to present reddit this week at the Boston Web Innovators meeting and the Berkman Blog Group. This was a remarkable contrast to our normal levels of human interaction, which usually peak when our third roommate comes home from the lab. All of a sudden, you've got the attention of a room full of people, some of whom are even interested in what you're working on (or at the very least, need to put up with listening for the next 10 minutes). Fortunately, speaking about the site nowadays comes fairly naturally, considering it's almost the only thing we ever seem to be thinking/talking/dreaming about.

Valuable lessons learned included the following: if you are ever worried about winning over an audience, people love free stickers and pins. Now if only I could remember to bring enough business cards... (or if only stickers were a suitable alternative).