Pitching

This Saturday, I will be participating in The Pitch at New Langton Arts. I printed out all my support materials on the large Epson printer today, and I feel ready. I've never done anything like this before, so it will be very interesting to see how things go. I feel a little nervous about being so exposed, but it will be good practice for any future endeavors in public speaking. Winners are announced for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. An additional prize is given for Best Presentation (highest score for Presentation only). 1st place wins $200 cash; others win smaller amounts.

The Pitch, the brainchild of San Francisco artists Jon Rubin and Jason Mortara, is an evening of live art that revels in the promise of a good idea. The duo pre-screens and recruits fifteen individuals to pitch their original ideas to a live audience and panel of judges. The presenters compete for cash prizes, selling ideas brilliant and outlandish, pragmatic and fantastic.

The judges include a local building contractor, newscaster, brand strategist, librarian, urban planner and cognitive scientist. The Pitch privileges the idea over the work, the imagined over the realistic. And in the end, as any self-respecting car salesman will confess, it all comes down to the act of persuasion.