How to run a pitch final with live jury scoring and an audience vote

Plan the running order and the rules

A pitch final is the last round of a pitch competition: shortlisted teams present on stage, a jury scores them and the results are announced the same evening. Send the rules to the finalists in advance, so nothing has to be decided on stage.

Set the running order in a way the finalists accept: by lot, by application number or by category. Publish it a few days ahead. Agree what happens when a team is late: it moves later in the order and keeps the same pitch time.

In Juryline, the pitch order starts by application number and you change it with arrows. When a team is late, you put another team on stage. The late team comes up again when you call the next finalist.

Time every pitch and every question round

Every team gets the same time. Choose 3 to 5 minutes for the pitch and 3 to 5 minutes for questions. Show the countdown where the speaker and the audience can see it.

Agree what happens at zero: the moderator stops the pitch and the jurors judge only what was said in time. In the question round, each juror asks one question before anyone asks a second.

In Juryline, the stage screen on the projector shows the team on stage, its running number and a countdown for the pitch and for the questions. You start each phase from the control page. You can change both defaults: 5 minutes for the pitch and 3 for questions.

What jurors score and when

Jurors score each team straight after its question round, before the next team starts. Scores given at the end of the evening favour the teams the jurors remember best.

Use 3 or 4 criteria on a scale of 1 to 5, each with one line on what a high score means. For example: the pitch (clear, convincing and on time), the potential (how far the idea can grow) and the team (whether it can deliver).

Jurors do not see each other's scores or the ranking during the evening. Brief them on the criteria before the first pitch, so the first team is judged by the same standard as the last.

In Juryline, jurors score on their phones from the moment a team's pitch starts, never before. The phone moves on to the next team by itself. Before you call the next finalist, the control page names any juror who has not yet scored. The live leaderboard is shown only on the organiser's control page.

How the audience votes

An audience vote, also called a public vote or people's choice award, lets the guests in the room choose their favourite team. It measures popularity in the room, not quality against criteria. A team that brings many supporters has an advantage.

Open the vote after the last pitch for 3 to 5 minutes, so the first teams do not get more voting time. Show a QR code and a short address on the screen. One vote per phone is the practical minimum.

In Juryline, the stage screen shows a QR code and the voting address with a six-character event code. Guests vote on their own phone without an app or an account. Each phone votes once. For a stricter check, voters confirm with a 6-digit code sent by e-mail; Juryline keeps the addresses only as hashes. If you open the vote early, the ballot lists only the teams that have pitched.

Keep the jury prize and the audience award separate

A jury prize and an audience award answer different questions. The jury decides which team is best against the published criteria. The audience shows which team the room liked most.

Decide in advance whether one team can win both; allowing it is the simpler rule. Keeping the two awards separate is a sound default for three reasons:

• The numbers do not mix well. Jury scores sit on a criteria scale, while audience votes are counts that depend on how many supporters each team brought.
• Any weight, such as 20% audience and 80% jury, is a choice that is hard to defend to a team that loses by a fraction.
• The jury's verdict stays clear. The audience still gets a winner of its own.

Juryline keeps them apart. The audience vote is counted separately, the jury podium comes only from the jurors' scores and the audience award goes to the team with the most votes. Juryline does not combine them into one score.

Settle ties with a rule written in advance

Two teams can end on the same jury score. Write the tie rule into the competition rules. For example, the higher score on one named criterion decides. If that is equal too, the teams share the place.

For the audience award, a shared award is the simplest rule. A second vote on the night costs time.

In Juryline, a round can have a criterion that breaks a tie. Without one, teams with the same score share a place. When two or more teams have the most audience votes, they share the audience award.

Reveal the results place by place

Close jury scoring before the reveal, so no score can change while the results are on screen. Check the results with the jury chair, then reveal the places from third to first. Announce the audience award before the jury places, so the evening ends with the jury's winner.

What the audience has seen must not change by itself. If you find a mistake after the reveal, correct it openly and record the correction.

In Juryline, the first reveal closes scoring and freezes the podium on the stage screen. From then on, jurors cannot change their scores and the podium stays as revealed. Up to three places per category appear one at a time, starting with third place. The stage screen never shows jury scores or personal data.

Keep a record of the evening

The record shows that the results follow the rules. It contains the actual pitch order, the jurors, every juror's scores, the ranking, any tie and how it was settled, the audience votes per team and the winners. Note incidents too, such as a team that ran over time.

Publish the results the same evening or the next day, with the names of the winners and the jury.

In Juryline, the jury protocol of a live finale records the order in which the teams actually pitched, every score and the audience votes with the audience award. Lock the round and create the protocol: it is sealed with a verification code anyone can check.

Questions

How long should each pitch be?

3 to 5 minutes for the pitch and 3 to 5 minutes for questions, the same for every team and shown on a countdown.

Should the audience vote count towards the jury result?

As a default, no: give a separate people's choice award. If you want one combined result, publish the weight and the formula before the final. Convert votes into each team's share of all votes before you weight them.

How do you stop people voting twice in an audience vote?

Allow one vote per phone and keep the voting window short. For a stricter check, ask voters to confirm with a code sent to their e-mail address, so each address votes once.

When should the audience vote open?

After the last pitch, for 3 to 5 minutes. A vote that opens earlier gives the first teams more time to collect votes.

What if a juror misses a pitch?

A juror who did not see a pitch does not score it. The team's result then rests on the other jurors' scores. Write this rule down in advance and apply it to every team.