Art deco styled elevators in the lobby of the Empire State Building.
What is it?
An elevator pitch is a short description of an idea, product, company, or oneself that explains the concept in a way such that any listener can understand it in a short period of time.
Why ‘elevator’ pitch?
The name—elevator pitch—reflects the idea that it should be possible to deliver the summary in the time span of an elevator ride, or approximately thirty seconds to three minutes.
Backgorund story
There are many origin stories for the elevator pitch or elevator speech. One commonly-known origin story is that of Ilene Rosenzweig and Michael Caruso, two former journalists in the 90s. According to Rosenzweig, Caruso was a senior editor at Vanity Fair and was continuously attempting to pitch story ideas to the Editor-In-Chief at the time, but could never pin her down long enough to do so simply because she was always on the move. So, in order to pitch her ideas, Caruso would join her during short free periods of time she had, such as on an elevator ride. Thus, the concept of an elevator pitch was created, as says Rosenzweig.
[Source: Wikipedia]
Which do you think are the DOs and DON’Ts of a good pitch presentation?
Some ideas here.