Today I was talking to Robert Paterson, a well-respected member of my weblogging cohort, who lives on Prince Edward Island. We were conversing about attempting to explain the benefits of weblogging to our non-blogging friends, acquaintances, and business clients, and receiving blank stares in return for our efforts. [BTW, Robert has a great blog post on this today — Sex Education and a 6 year old.]

As we were discussing this dilemna, we came up with the idea of holding an 'Elevator Pitch Competition' [extremely concise presentation delivered to potential clients — not lasting more than a minute, or a short elevator ride] to describe the potential benefits of corporate weblogging. I have included related links to two current articles on creating an effective 'Elevator Pitch' below.

There will be simple rules: One entry per author, entry between 50 - 110 160 words.

We will have an international panel of respected webloggers to judge the entries, and will publish the winning entry here on the Social Software weblog and also, potentially, on the weblogs of the esteemed panel of judges.

Watch this space for more details. If you have recommendations for members of the panel of judges — please leave them either as tips [via the right hand column 'Participate' box — click the 'tips' link] or simply as a comment on this post. Nominees for panel of judges complete! Thanks!