Student Pioneers perfect their pitching skills

Aspiring entrepreneurs from across Birkbeck joined the latest Pioneer event to learn about developing confidence and performance in business pitches. 

Birkbeck’s Pioneer programme continued with a hands-on, practical session on Saturday 9 February, focused on developing enterprise students’ confidence and performance when pitching.

The session marked the halfway point of the programme, funded by Santander Universities, taking hundreds of Birkbeck students on a journey to develop their business ideas and entrepreneurial skills.

To start the day, students were given a task to pitch their idea to as many different people as possible during the regular morning coffee networking.

When the main workshop kicked off, the energy in the room was inspiring as Henry Blanchard, Speaker and Facilitator as well as Founder of Uganda International Marathon, welcomed the group of over 100 students. The initial session had everyone replicate a human yo-yo with students on their feet and back down again more times than we can remember.

Actor Jamie Satterthwaite provided a brilliant twist to the content, sharing valuable presenting tips from someone who has shared the stage with a range of impressive names. There was also an interesting warm up taking place so that students could prep their faces, voices and knees ready for a great pitch.

The activity continued with the group splitting into three smaller teams and taken through a series of mini training workshops to work in their delivery, imagination and content when pitching their business ideas.

Hugo Metcalfe, freelance speaker, writer and coach, co-ran the session with Henry and led one of the workshops while Birkbeck’s Bal Hothi and Jenna Davies joined in the action to complete the mini workshop series.

If that wasn’t enough activity, movement and energy for the morning, students were treated to more coaching to end the session with plenty of tips and advice to conquer their pitches and hone their presentation skills.

The session’s topic was particularly timely with applications now open for the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards, where students submit a two-minute video pitch about their business. It also coincides with the Pioneer competition, where students on the programme can put their skills into practice and enter their idea for the chance to pitch to a judging panel in June’s awards evening.

Pioneer continues next month and if you have any queries or would like to get in touch you can contact enterprise@bbk.ac.uk

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