How to Sell Ideas: Pitch Training for Researchers

Dirk Lehmann on the last WAITRO Capacity Development of the year

“How to Sell Ideas: Pitch Training for Researchers” the final Capacity Development workshop of this year was hosted by the WAITRO Office Germany on November 4th.

The pitch training was held to answer members’ needs and tackled a very important and frequent issue within the innovation world: how to raise funds or convince investors about the value of a research project?

The workshop was conducted by Dirk Lehmann, an international pitch trainer with over 10 years of experience. He focused on the most common mistakes when giving a presentation: failing to connect to the audience, presentations without substance, or over-concentration on the slides instead of the story.

“I learned that pitching skills are for everyone. I am grateful for having been given the opportunity to attend the workshop. The speaker delivered an outstanding workshop. We can follow and practice his teachings. WAITRO has given me the tool to be successful in my academic career.” – Attendee feedback

In the three-hour workshop, Dirk Lehmann managed to keep the audience’s full attention the entire time. He explained a small sub-topic of how to give a great pitch, and then gave the audience the time to directly apply what they learned for a project they are planning to pitch. The audience additionally had the opportunity to present what they had been working on and get direct feedback from the trainer himself and their WAITRO peers. Turning theory immediately into practice.

With over 150 participants from 25 member organizations, the WAITRO Capacity Development Workshop on “How to Sell Ideas: Pitch Training for Researchers” was a success. To provide all WAITRO members the opportunity to attend independent of their geographical location, the workshop was held in two sessions.