"Alan Sugar" vs The Alley Marketing Dept

The Alley Marketing officer recently took part in the Arts and Business course entitled "The Art of the Pitch", a 2 day practical development training programme (27 & 28 April 2009) which offered the Alley and 5 other arts organisations the opportunity to develop and hone our business skills to 'pitch' to the business world. A mixture of the Apprentice and the Dragons Den, this exciting course really made me think about how to make the perfect pitch and avoid being fired.......

Held in Blick Studios in Belfast (thanks for opening up early guys!) and Whitenoise Creative Design Studios, the training culminated on a third day, entitled 'pitch' day, where all six participants were given the opportunity to 'pitch' to a panel of local business representatives (30th April 2009), including representatives from Autoline, Royal Mail, Davy, FG McClure Watters, BT, Texeco, Tesco and PWC.

The training was undertaken by Cathy Law from Cathy Law Communications (great trainer, gets a 5 star report) in partnership with Arts & Business (great as usual, thanks Beverly) and a crack team of experts to including a creative team of designers (whitenoise), a presentation expert from UTV and a really interesting talk from image consultant Paul Smyth from Outlook, a personal image consultancy.

Some top tips from Paul Smyth
1. Wear a blue tie to show calmness and authority

2. Wear a red tie when you want to grab attention, the "look at me" idea

3. Always look well groomed, you never know you might meet your sponsor when you do the weekly shop, do you really want him to see you in your joggers and ripped T-shirt?

I have to admit these three little golden rules are now my mantra! For more information about Paul Smyth and his personal image work, visit http://www.outlook-image.com/

The Grand Opera House Marketing officer won the overall pitch competition, however as the yanks would say "Everyone was a winner", as many of the participants overcame major fears in developing or presenting a pitch.

One thing I would certainly say is one of the major things on the course I thought I would not enjoy, but did, was the South African image consultant, Paul Smyth....well worth further investigation!