A Guide to the GovCamp Scotland pitching session

We're excited you'll be joining the GovCamp Scotland unconference. 

The overall theme is how organisations can work together to make public services in Scotland the best they can be, but the actual agenda for the day will be created by the participants like you.

The Pitching Session

The pitching session kicks off the unconference. It's a lively and fast-paced opportunity for you to suggest topics for the discussions sessions that will run throughout the day. 

Not everyone has to make a pitch, but if you have an idea, a question, a challenge, or a case example related to our theme of improving public services through collaboration, bring it along! 

Here’s how it will work:

Come up with your pitch

As you travel to GovCamp and as you settle in, you'll have some time to think about potential topics. We'll provide sticky notes and pens for you to jot down your ideas. You could discuss these with other participants over a cuppa.

The pitching process (10:15 - 10:45 am)

1. Anyone who wants to propose a session will be invited to come to the front.

2. You will have 30-60 seconds to pitch your idea to the group.

3. Your pitch should clearly state the topic you want to discuss.

What makes a good pitch?

• Pose a question: Instead of stating a solution, ask a question that encourages discussion. For example, ‘How can we effectively share data between charities and local government to improve service delivery?’

• Identify a challenge: Is there a common problem you've faced? For instance, "I want to co-design services with the public, but what incentives work to get them involved?"

• Share an Experience: Have you been part of a successful (or unsuccessful) collaboration? Offer to share the lessons you learned. For example, ‘I can share how my organisation partnered with an AI company to build a new application for service users.’

• Be Clear and Concise: With limited time, get straight to the point of what you want to talk about.

• Pitching is informal: You don't need to be an expert on your topic; you just need to be passionate about discussing it. Simply read your idea from your sticky note.

Creating the agenda (10:45 - 11:00am) 

• After all the pitches, the organiser team will create the session schedule on a large board and an online spreadsheet. We'll use a simple voting system, to see which topics have the most interest. This will help us assign sessions to different time slots and spaces. 

• We may ask people to combine their pitches and share a session where the topics are similar. We may not have space for all the topics that people want to discuss.

• The day will split into 4 ‘tracks’, each track will have 4 sessions (each with its own room) and each session will last up to 45-minutes. There will be up to 16 slots to fill.

We look forward to hearing your ideas and creating a fantastic day of sharing, learning and collaboration together!