This material gives you the secret sauce for creating a pitch video to submit to any hackathon + CodeTheCurve hackathon that closes its application process on April 15th.

1. Pitching Best Practices:Ade & Mel
Recording for the talk that goes along with this presentation:
http://ibm.biz/codethecurve-pitch-webinar

2. Your CodeTheCurve rock stars for today:
Mel, Ade, Davide & Sudharsana
Melissa Sassi
Chief Penguin, IBM Z
Founder & CEO,
MentorNations
@mentorafrika
Ademola Olajide
Ajayi
Global Coordinator, Africa
Code Week
@OlajideAdeAjaya
Davide Storti
Media Development and
Media and Information
Literacy Section
UNESCO
Sudharsana Srinivasan
CodeTheCurve Program
Manager, IBMZ
@Sudharsana_SS

3. UNESCOGLOBALVIRTUAL HACKATHON
Education
Information & data management
Current & post-COVID-19 health & social issues
Bring your rad idea to this 3-day virtual hackathon & also experience 2-days of self-paced
online learning & 2-days of instructor-led sessions & activities
 personal development – design thinking, personal branding & communication skills
 hands-on machine learning & analytics lab
 data protection, privacy & security
 entrepreneurship deep dive – pitching best practices & business model canvassing
 80 technical & business mentors
TIMELINE
HACKATHONTHEMES
#CodeTheCurve
Dedicated machine learning track.
Launch
Apr-6
Application
Close
Apr-15
Announce
Teams
Apr-20
Access to
Resources
Apr-20-21
Online
Learning
Apr-22-23
Hack
Apr-24-26
Announce
Winners
Apr-30
Bring
to Life
Ongoing
Apply by 11:59 pm EST April 15
https://codethecurve.org
PRIZES
Free access to
IBM LinuxONE
Community
Cloud for one
year
Free training
courses from
OpenSAP
3-4 pitch
opportunities
with IBM & SAP
Free access to
enterprise grade
IBM Z & ML suite
for six months
Mentorship for
one year
It only takes a video to apply!

4. So, what do we mean by pitch video?
It’s a brief, 2-3-minute video.
It’s used to provide the judges with a quick overview of your idea.
It can be scrappy.
You can film it with your phone.
You don’t’ need to hire a camera crew or worry about extensive editing.

5. What should
you include
in your
video?
1. Introduce yourself.
2.Talk about your team.
3.Tell us the problem you’re trying to solve.
4. Share a stat or two.
5. Describe at a high-level what you want to build.
6.Tell us a bit about who will use your proposed product/service.
7. Share what support IBM, SAP, UNESCO & our collaborators can do
to help you make your dream come true?
8. Close
Remember: this is in 2-3 minutes. It’s not the end of the world if you go over.

6. Tell us about you!
• Introduce yourself!
• Are you a student?
• Practitioner?
• Researcher?
• Entrepreneur?
• Teacher?
• Developer?
• Data scientist?
• Designer?
Pretend like you’re meeting a new friend & introducing yourself.

7. Talk about your team & don’t stress if you’re
still recruiting.
Include someone under the age of
25.
Don’t have the team built yet?
You can still submit your video while you’re building your team.
Inclusivity is Key.
Hacker. Hipster. Hustler. Humanitarian.
Developer or Data
Scientist.
Designer. Project Manager.
Subject Matter
Expert.
Teams are 2-6 people.
Include at least 1
male & 1 female.

8. What’s the big, wicked problem you’re trying
to solve?
Be concise.
Tell us the problem you want to solve.
Make us feel the problem.
Persuade & influence us.
Can you summarize your problem statement into one sentence? If not, do your best. It takes practice.
The hackathon training will help you refine your pitch.

9. Share a few data points to demonstrate
your understanding of the problem.
Do you have a reputable, credible &
reliable source?
Remember the source of the data.
Your goal is to relate the data to the problem you have identified.

10. What is your amazing idea?
Your goal is to share an idea that solves the problem you’ve identified.
Education Information & Data Management Health & Social Issues
Track 1 Track 2 Track 3
Some ideas to consider:
 Continued education
 Distance learning
Some ideas to consider:
 Addressing disinformation and/or
misinformation
 Fact checking
 Business services
 Data monitoring and/or privacy
Some ideas to consider:
 Addressing current and post-COVID-
19 crises challenges
 City, community, regional, academic
institution-specific, and/or global
infrastructure services
 Information sharing (healthy behavior,
digital skills, language barriers, etc.)
 Safety and population

11. Want some other ideas? Check out these
thought starters!
Contributing to fostering empathy and humanitarian behavior within your local community and the community of others
Combating the spread of misinformation and disinformation, and promoting digital literacy skills for fact-checking
Facilitating access to educational materials and support for teachers, students, parents, and communities
Innovating in the field of virtual learning with a lens on empowering your local community and the community of others in local languages that might not
be represented online currently
Addressing relevant social issues, such as confinement (parenting, virtual activities, etc.)
Addressing local city-services and/or business needs
Addressing the need for the monitoring, analysis, and utility of relevant information, including adhering to protecting and securing sensitive data, while
maintaining privacy requirements when collecting, storing, and/or transmitting sensitive data, including leveraging existing open data and data models
Anticipating future changes and needs following the COVID-19 pandemic

12. Tell us what you think you want
to create at the hackathon.
 What’s the tech solution you want
to build?
 Is it an app or a web solution or
both?
 Something fun with predictive
modeling, machine learning, and
big data?
You can always evolve your idea during the
hackathon.Trust us, you will!

13. Who will use
the solution
you want to
build?
Do you have a specific geography you want to reach?
Is there a specific group of people you are targeting?
Tell us a bit about your proposed customer!
During the hackathon, you will learn how to tie your solution to customer needs, wants, aspirations & frustrations.
You will also learn about user research & design thinking from experts during the hackathon & better refine all of this later.

14. Tell us how we can help you.
Professional
Development
Mentorship
Entrepreneurship
Mentorship
Hand-OnTech
Mentorship
SystemsAccess Pitch Practice

15. Captivate your audience
with your close.
Show your
passion.
Tell us where
you need
help.
Inspire us.
Rock your
close.
People remember how you start & end.

16. Questions?

17. Thank you!
Now, go and rock your pitch video!
Melissa Sassi
Chief Penguin, IBM Z
Founder & CEO,
MentorNations
@mentorafrika
Ademola Olajide
Ajayi
Global Coordinator, Africa
Code Week
@OlajideAdeAjaya
Davide Storti
Media Development and
Media and Information
Literacy Section
UNESCO
Sudharsana Srinivasan
CodeTheCurve Program
Manager, IBMZ
@Sudharsana_SS
Videos due April 15 at 11:59pm EST
Upload to http://codethecurve.org
Trouble uploading? Submit your video to codethecurve@outlook.com