Elevator Pitch

Students devise a creative or business project and pitch it to classmates in timed rounds. "Investors" allocate a fixed budget across their favourite ideas — the pitch with the most funding wins.

Procedure

1. Introduce: Explain the elevator pitch concept — you have 2 minutes to convince someone your idea is worth backing. Show examples from crowdfunding sites if possible.
2. Plan: Students develop their own project idea (a product, app, event, community project, etc.) and make brief notes: what it is, who it's for, why it matters, what makes it unique.
3. Pitch rounds: Students mingle. At each time signal (2–3 min), they pitch to a new partner and listen to their partner's pitch. Both take notes on ideas they like.
4. Invest: Give each student a fixed "budget" (e.g. €250). They allocate it across the pitches they heard — all to one idea or split across several. Post-its or slips of paper work well for pledges.
5. Results: Tally funding per project. The highest-funded pitch wins. Winners explain what made their pitch effective.

Variations

• Panel format: 3–4 "judges" hear pitches from the front, ask tough questions, and decide — reality TV style.
• Written pitch: Students write a short pitch blurb (like a crowdfunding page) before presenting orally.
• Community focus: Restrict ideas to things that would improve the school, neighbourhood, or city.

Tips

• Pre-teach pitch vocabulary: investor, backer, start-up, innovative, ground-breaking, fund, pledge.
• Shorten pitch time across rounds to increase pressure and fluency — start at 3 min, end at 1 min.
• Emergent language: persuasive language, describing purpose (It's designed for people who...), passives (It's inspired by...), indirect questions.