The elevator pitch - by Sahar Ahangari

Have you ever dreamt about getting in front of an influential manager or investor? Imagine that suddenly this dream comes and they are in front of you, waiting for you to speak up about yourself.

This is exactly the situation that some of the ESRs went through at the European Association for Nuclear Medicine (EANM) conference in October in Barcelona. This year we had the chance to actively participate in the EANM conference, to meet and interact with friends and also to break away from the daily routine. But besides all the scientific discussions, there was a HYBRID side-meeting with PIs and representatives of the industry partners in which we were asked to give a pitch, all in the short amount of time it takes for an elevator ride. The intention was to capture the attention of industry partners and practice how to motivate them to hire you. None of us were ready for this kind of scenario and we didn’t know how to quickly captivate the interest of the audience. It was hard at first, which is why the first pitch got a lot of comments and suggestions for improvement. All of us tried benefit from the comments on previous pitches and apply them in our own to make our talks better. Gradually, one after the other, the pitches improved because we learned from the ones before us. It was a great chance for all of us to improve our confidence and learn how to prioritize the things we want people to remember about us.