How to prepare for your 5 minutes pitch at the 2021 AEA Europe Online Conference

At the AEA Europe conference you have  5 minutes to introduce your poster and to entice the attendees. The better this works, the more people will be visiting your poster and contacting you to listen into more detail to what you have done and the results of your work. These discussions will enhance your chances  of winning AEA Europe’s Poster Award and an opportunity to visit Cito in the Netherlands

Your presentation should not attempt to give everything away, but should concentrate on capturing the interest of the attendees to maximize the number that would like to contact you.  It is not possible to cram an entire abstract worth of information in 300 seconds. So, you should focus on introducing yourself and setting up the main question(s), or objective(s) of your research. You should be able to give your pitch effortlessly without notes or relying on your poster. It should comprise a ‘hook’, an introduction and an ‘appetizer’.

The hook is the short opening statement you use to draw the interest of the attendees. For instance, a question or a statement that introduces the topic and its importance in a way that makes sure the audience will remember you and your topic. Next, you should explain who you are, who you worked with whilst conducting the work, in what capacity you did this work, and what your exact role was. Then it is time to explain why your topic is of interest to the attendees of the AEA Europe online conference and to make clear what your central research question or finding is.

Remember you only have  5 minutes (any more is less). It is wise to write out and practice your presentation and to make sure that it fits within the 5 minute time frame. Also, bear in mind that the session chair will not give you any more than the allocated . Remember also,  practice makes perfect!