Imagine Cup Tips

Imagine Cup

55 tips towards success

André FurtadoImagine Cup 2005 World Champion

First of all...

• Congratulations!

• Thanks for being here.

• Please remember:– The following information reflects my own point-

of-view!– It is not official Microsoft

information/instructions!

Why are we here?

• Presentations, demos, judges’ questions... do you need help?

• Is there anything you can do during the last months?

• What should you do once you are in the battlefield?

How can you maximize yourwinning chances in the Imagine Cup?

Who am I?

• André Furtado– Microsoft Student Partner (Brazil)– Imagine Cup 2005 World Champion– afurtado1980.spaces.live.com

What have I done?(Imagine Cup 2005)

• Office Designer Invitational– Solvent-OD Team– ArtiFACTORY Solution– 1st place worldwide

• Software Design Invitational– Solvent-SD Team– TravelMates Solution– Brazilian champion– 4th place worldwide

ArtiFACTORY (OD)

• Goal– Improve performance of people related to

document-centric process

• Three tools– ArtiFACTORY Modeler– ArtiFACTORY Consolidator– ArtiFACTORY Discoverer

• Other features during document editing

ArtiFACTORY (OD)

ArtiFACTORY (OD)

ArtiFACTORY (OD)

ArtiFACTORY (OD)

TravelMates (SD)

• Goal– Enhance tourist experience with innovative,

practical and comprehensive features

• Implementation– Based on a reusable services oriented

architecture, named InContext Framework

TravelMates (SD)

Search and view information on a map

of the region being visited, according to your current position

Take part in communities to

create and share your own customized

tourist points

Access detailed information about tourist points and

services, generated by your friends and

communities

Interact with local people by

translating typical tourist phrases and playing them in the

local language

TravelMates (SD)

Share your travel experience easily by making real time mobile posts in your mobile and web blog, and by letting the

TravelMates to make automatic posts for you

Receive the best consumer information

at the right time according to your

preferences

Consult tourist information on sights you can see in a

panoramic view

TravelMates (SD)

Explore tourists points with the aid of your

virtual agent, who will help you with

suggestions and related links

Search and interact with old friends near and far, as well as use the TravelMates Interaction Indicator to discover people with

similar interests and to make new friends

Famework for mobile, context-aware and social applications

Customizable and integrated services that can be used in domains other than tourism

Knowledge Extraction Service

Context Logger Service

Social Networking Service

Content Management Service

Location Service

User Profile Service

Custom Service

Map Service

Notification Service

Blog Service

• InContext Framework

TravelMates (SD)

OK, show me the tips!

• In the following slides I’ll present 55 tips for improving your experience in India:– Final preparation tips– Presentation tips– Powerpoint tips– Demo tips– Judges’ questions tips– On-site tips

• Most important tips will be marked with this decorator:

HOT TIP!

Final preparation tips

What’s left for this last month?

Leo and Gustavo (SD) @ Guarulhos airport

#1If you have time, evolve application towards

feature bombing!

Final Preparation Tips

Final Preparation Tips

• ArtiFACTORY Feature Bombing:– Change requests with

e-mail integration– Reasearch pane– “Mapper” to associate

entities to artifacts

#2Get your presentation stable

as soon as possible!

Final Preparation Tips

HOT TIP!

#3Create additional promotional goodies for your solution, such as posters of leaflets!

Final Preparation Tips

Final Preparation Tips

• TravelMates leaflet: outer-side

Final Preparation Tips

• TravelMates leaflet: inner-side

#4Do not include gifts (mugs, pens, etc.) as

additional presentation resources!

Final Preparation Tips

#5Design and print business cards!

Final Preparation Tips

#6Polish your English!

Final Preparation Tips

HOT TIP!

#7 Try to finish presentation and

demos before traveling!

Final Preparation Tips

HOT TIP!

Coding at Yokohama Pan Pacific Hotel: not a good experience at all!

#8Try to know more about the local culture

and language in advance

Final Preparation Tips

HOT TIP!

#9Ensure required documents (passport,

visa, etc.) are all OK!

Final Preparation Tips

Presentation tips

Time to sell your fish!

Igor and Leo (SD) @ Fish market, Tokyo

Presentation Tips

#10Check your environment prior to

presenting

HOT TIP!

Presentation Tips

#11Be polite: introduce yourself and the team!

Presentation Tips

• Solvent-SD introduction:– “Technology enthusiasts with complementary skills”

GustavoThe Balance Restorer

LeonardoThe Visionary Innovator

AndréThe Operative Engine

IgorThe Sparkle Brain

Presentation Tips

#12Have a pain slide (one or more)!

HOT TIP!

Presentation Tips

• Pain slide:– Key points you are trying to make: what's the

pain to be solved?– Don’t solve the pain on the pain slide! Leave that

for the presentation– You have the answer, but the question must

appear on the pain slide– Keep it humorous, if possible at all

Presentation Tips

• An ArtiFACTORY pain slide:– Documents...

Are they friends?Are they friends? ……or boundaries?or boundaries?

Presentation Tips

• Another ArtiFACTORY pain slide:Semantics from one

document to the other are not carried out automatically!

Presentation Tips

#13Briefly introduce your application

before demo-ing!

Presentation Tips

#14Bring competitor analysis into discussion!

Presentation Tips

• TravelMates competitors:

Presentation Tips

#15Develop and present a persuasive

business plan!

HOT TIP!

Presentation Tips

#16Avoid “reading impression”!

Presentation Tips

#17Make fun of yourself, but not others!

Presentation Tips

#18Allow only relevant content to be part of

your presentation!

Presentation Tips

#19Respect the time in qualifying rounds!

Presentation Tips

#20In the final round there may be a time

tolerance. Explore it!

HOT TIP!

Presentation Tips

#21 Avoid saying “I’m nervous”,“Sorry, but I’ve forgotten this”

or similar

Presentation Tips

#22Keep focus on technical/innovation “meat”;

forget about exceptions, robustness, etc.!

HOT TIP!

Presentation Tips

#23Rehearse, rehearse and rehearse!

Then rehearse again!

SUPER HOT TIP!

Presentation Tips

#24Do a final rehearsal just before presenting!

Presentation Tips

#25 Sleep well the

night before!

“I have a dream”: Madson @ Yokohama Pan Pacific Hotel

Powerpoint tips

Beware obvious but treacherous traps

Solvent-SD final presentation @ Yokohama

Powerpoint Tips

#26Do not use standard templates!

Powerpoint Tips

#27Use enough color contrast!

Powerpoint Tips

#28Avoid small fonts!

Powerpoint Tips

#29If something cannot be seen/understood,

cut it from the ppt!

Powerpoint Tips

#30Cut not useful slides as well (such as a

“Credits” slides at the end)!

Powerpoint Tips

#31Don’t let the “Agenda” slide

to be too boring

Demo tips

Proving your competencepractically

Solvent-SD Final Presentation @ Yokohama

Demo Tips

#32 Reduce demo load time: shortcuts, pre-loading

to the cache, defrag, turn off antivirus, etc.

Demo Tips

#33 Adjust Windows for better

performance unless you need all of its “beauty”

Demo Tips

• ArtiFACTORY needs “windows beauty” because of the Document Actions Pane:

“adjusted for performance” layout more visually pleasant layout

Demo Tips

#34Start with the sexiest demo first to grab

them, build others to a crescendo!

HOT TIP!

Demo Tips

#35 Bring real world experiences

to supplement your demo!

TravelMates Language Translator

Demo Tips

#36 Emphasize advantages:how worse do people live

without that feature?

TravelMates journey diary

Demo Tips

#37 Summarize each and every demo by

answering the question: "So what?"

Demo Tips

#38Need to skip demos to make up time?

Don't let they know!

Demo Tips

#39Ensure you can always set the machine to

the demo initial state

HOT TIP!

Demo Tips

#40Have a few extra demos in your pocket!

Demo Tips

#41 Have a demo script that you can “cheat

from” whenever you need

HOT TIP!

Demo Tips

#42 Use Virtual PC if you can and if

performance permits!

Judges’ questions tips

Ensuring the “grand finale”

Software Design Judge Panel, Yokohama

Judges’ QuestionsTips

#43Let the judges finish asking their

questions!

HOT TIP!

Judges’ QuestionsTips

#44Before answering, repeat the question,

rephrase if possible!

Judges’ QuestionsTips

#45 There are better ways to say

“Sorry, we did not implement that”!

HOT TIP!

Judges’ QuestionsTips

#46 There are better ways to say

“I don’t know”!

HOT TIP!

Judges’ QuestionsTips

#47Ask for clarification, case you need!

On-site tips

Once there, go for it!

Solvent-SD (and others) arriving at Japan

On-site Tips

#48 Be ambitious; earn

victory appetite!

Leo (SD) @ Solvent-SD celebration

HOT TIP!

On-site Tips

#49 Carry a whole nation

with you!

Solvent-OD awarding @ Yokohama

HOT TIP!

On-site Tips

#50Relax from the competition when you can!

On-site Tips

#51 Observe every detail,

learn from everything!

On-site Tips

#52 Dive into the

local culture!

“Bento box”, traditional japanese food

On-site Tips

#53Blog to the community!

ex.: afurtado1980.spaces.live.com

On-site Tips

#54 Do as much networking

as you can!

Coffee-break hall @ Yokohama

HOT TIP!

On-site Tips

#55Please... have FUN!

Many teams @ Sankein Garden, Yokohama

HOT TIP!

Domo arigatô!

• I wish you a greatImagine Cup!

• May I help you?– afurtado1980.spaces.live.com

• Thank you andgood luck!