Elevator pitches, crowdfunding, and the rhetorical politics of entrepreneurship

Designing an Artificial Agent for Cognitive Apprenticeship Learning of Elevator Pitch in Virtual Reality

“…An elevator pitch, also known as elevator speech or elevator statement, is a short description (30-120 seconds) of an idea, plan or concept that a listener can understand in a short period of time [1]. A good elevator pitch may help jobseekers convince potential employers that they are qualified for a particular job.…”

“…However, learning and developing elevator pitch skills is not all about memorizing those key concepts. It is a social skill that people will have to eventually exercise in front of others in real environments [1,17]. It is thus recommended to practice elevator pitch with a partner, so that learners can get used to the scenario and feel more comfortable whenever they need to conduct it.…”

“…To acquire social skills like elevator pitch through the cognitive apprenticeship model of situated learning, coaching is the most essential part of the entire experience [3]. Effective coaching can correct learners' mistakes in a timely manner, accustoming them to how to behave in that particular situation [1,17]. Therefore, as a first step of exploring how to design a VR system for practicing elevator pitch, we are mainly interested in coaching in this paper.…”

“…We quantify the performance of an elevator pitch in a way that it can be measured by existing sensors such as Kinect 1 . Although there may be some kinds of mistakes in an elevator pitch that cannot be identified by our system, the types of issues covered by our system are generally enough for the purpose of exploring users' perception on virtual characters' embodied feedback in VR.…”

“…Elevator pitch or elevator speech, i.e., delivering a quick persuasive pitch to arouse interest in an idea or a product, is an important social skill that can potentially bring opportunities for jobs, collaborations, and investments [1]. Developing and mastering such a skill, however, is considered very challenging, as elevator pitch requires one to deliver or convey an idea within a short amount of time (usually 30 to 120 seconds) and often in an unfamiliar environment [2].…”