Speed Pitching at MyLongLunch

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a MyLongLunch event but unlike my previous visits to these events, I was actually presenting. If you don’t know what a MyLongLunch event is (and no, it’s not some sort of Ready Steady Cook thing) it’s a networking event for people working in the recruitment advertising industry and those who are trying to court them. Roughly 15 media publications (websites, newspapers, magazines) meet 15+ recruitment advertising agencies and get 10 minutes to talk about their business and what’s cool about it. It’s such a great idea as the media publications attending would never get the chance to pitch to this manay agencies in one day otherwise. The events take place in a pub, so though there’s a real and genuine opportunity to do business, the fact it’s in a relaxed atmosphere takes the edge off things.

Those representing the media rock up with laptops, handouts, bags, sweets, CDs, books, pens, memory cards, tins of mints – anything that might help the agency remember who they are on Friday morning – and set themselevs up at a table. The agencies are then all seated with a media representative who then has just 10 minutes to try and tell them why their publication is the perfect solution. I’ve never been speed dating but I imagine this is just what it’s like. We went representing Boring Student. Though the site hasn’t launched yet we felt that we had a very interesting propositiong for people attending this Graduate themed event. All of the other media there were very much focused at those alread in university or graduates but we were able to present a case that focused on people who don’t quite know whether University is even right for them. It presented lots of opportunity. The only problem was that 10 minutes never seemed to be enough. Jamie Leonard (@jamieasleonard), the MD of MyLongLunch and time keeper, always seemed to shout out just as we got to the interesting bit.

Aside from being a great chance to meet lots of new people it’s also a great way to hone your presentational skills. Meeting in excess of 15 different businesses in a few hours ment that by the end of it I found the presentation we started with was about 10% of the presentation we finsihed with.

If you get the chance to attend one of these events, do. www.mylonglunch.com/events

picture source: flickr – lwr