A Pitch Deck for Online and In-Person Judging

How to create a pitch deck that works for both online and in-person judging comes down to clarity under pressure. Judges need to absorb the business idea, understand the evidence and remember the team, whether they are watching from a conference room in Ulaanbaatar or joining the “Believe & Achieve” competition remotely.

A BYUMS Asia Pacific pitch must bridge distance without losing the personality of the presenters. The same slides should hold up during a live presentation, in a file viewed after the event and on a screen shared through a video platform. Visual discipline, strong narration and reliable technical preparation make that possible.

The most effective deck is not simply a shortened business plan. It is a structured argument that guides judges toward a clear decision, anticipates questions and makes the next stage of the competition easy to imagine.

Design Around the Judging Moment

Start with the decision you want judges to make. They should quickly identify the customer, the problem, the proposed solution, the evidence of demand and the amount or type of support required. A useful narrative might move through the problem, market insight, business model, traction, competitive advantage, team and financial outlook. Each slide should advance that sequence rather than operate as a separate document.

Keep the deck within the competition’s presentation time, ideally using no more than one core idea per slide. Charts, diagrams and large figures are preferable to dense paragraphs. The presentation should work even if a judge cannot hear the speakers clearly, while the speakers should add context, interpretation and conviction rather than read the slides aloud.

Build a Clear and Consistent Story

Write each slide headline as a conclusion. Labels such as “Market opportunity” describe content, while “A growing need is creating a $120 million opportunity” explain why it matters. This approach gives judges a chain of reasons even when they review the deck independently.

Use evidence that can be traced. Label market estimates, explain the calculation behind financial projections and distinguish verified results from assumptions. For a business plan competition, this credibility may matter as much as an ambitious forecast. Judges assessing different award categories should be able to connect every claim to the category criteria without hunting through an appendix.

Consistency also reduces cognitive effort. Use one set of colours, clear icons and the same terminology throughout. Australian audiences generally favour direct, plain communication in business settings, so familiar language and specific figures are often more persuasive than abstract jargon or elaborate marketing language.

Make Every Slide Work at Distance

A slide that looks balanced on a laptop may become unreadable when compressed into a video thumbnail. Use large type, strong contrast and generous space around charts. Avoid small legends, embedded spreadsheets and important text placed close to a screen edge. Check the deck at full-screen size and at the smallest size used by the online platform.

Build the master version in a standard presentation format, then export a flattened PDF for easy sharing. Charts should remain sharp when enlarged, and links should be tested before upload. If the presentation includes video, sound or animation, provide a static alternative and avoid media that starts automatically. Captioning and meaningful image descriptions also improve access for remote participants.

Judging condition	What the judge experiences	Deck and presenter response
Live video connection	Slides may flicker, lag or appear in a small window	Send a PDF, simplify animation and narrate each visual clearly
Independent PDF review	Slides are viewed without spoken context	Use conclusion-led headlines, explicit sources and page numbers
In-person presentation	Projectors, glare and room layout affect visibility	Use large type, high contrast and a printed backup
Hybrid question session	Judges may speak over each other or miss names	Repeat each question, address the judge directly and keep slides visible

Ground the Pitch in Australian Reality

Australian conditions vary significantly across the country. A pitch focused on Sydney or Melbourne may overlook customers and operating challenges in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane or regional centres. Time-zone differences also matter for hybrid events: Perth is two hours behind Sydney during daylight saving, while other states may shift between standard and daylight time. For the Mongolia conference, list presentation times in Ulaanbaatar and each participating Australian city.

Local market evidence should reflect how Australian businesses actually operate. Opportunities might involve mining supply chains, agriculture, tourism, clean energy, health technology or digital services, but the claim must be supported by region-specific evidence. Consumer markets are geographically dispersed, making logistics, service coverage and realistic unit economics more persuasive than a broad national population figure alone.

Financial slides should use Australian dollars, explain whether figures include GST and use familiar date and number conventions. Australian English—such as “organisation”, “prioritise” and “behaviour”—should appear consistently. For pitches made in cafés, coworking spaces or hotel meeting rooms, treat connectivity as part of the business environment: test the venue network, carry a mobile hotspot and keep critical files available offline.

Rehearse Both Delivery Modes

Rehearse the full pitch in a room and then repeat it through a webcam with the slides shared on screen. The second rehearsal exposes problems that do not appear in person, such as a presenter looking away from the camera, audio drifting out of sync or an online judge being unable to see a chart clearly.

Prepare both a complete presentation and a concise version for short questions or technical interruptions. The shorter version should still communicate the customer, solution, traction and funding need. Avoid relying on the words “as you can see here”, because an online judge may be viewing a different part of the slide.

Australian business discussions are often friendly but direct, so the team should be ready for plain, probing questions about customers, margins and execution. Assign one presenter to answer financial questions, another to explain operations and a third to monitor time and technology. During a hybrid session, speakers should identify the judge’s name and location before answering when possible.

Protect the Final Handover

Create a handover checklist covering every file the judges may receive. It should include the final PDF, the editable presentation, supporting evidence, speaker biographies, financial assumptions and clear instructions for accessing any additional material. Use descriptive file names and version dates so every copy can be identified without opening it.

Test the upload link from a different device and network. Confirm that permissions allow judges to open documents without requesting access, and check that images, music and customer information have the necessary permissions. A reliable backup should sit on a USB drive and in a secure cloud folder, with printed copies available for the in-person venue.

Technical preparation is part of the pitch, not an administrative detail. It allows the business story to remain the focus when a connection drops, a file will not open or a projector's colours look different from the team’s screen. That reliability gives the judges a clear and credible experience of how the team may operate beyond the competition stage.