This guide will provide both general and scripted guidance on perfecting your tabling pitch. But ultimately, the contents of your pitch can only go so far. The key to tabling is being friendly and casually passionate about EA.
Every tabling interaction has two components
Tabling can be tense and feels uncomfortable at first, but the following framing for tabling makes everything a lot less stressful for me.
“I’m here to offer a framework for doing good to my classmates who approach me and are interested in what I have to say, as well as answer questions about a movement/club I’m excited about and see as important.”
Note: This differs from an activities fair, where you should actively seek out students instead of letting them approach you.
When tabling (except at the activities/club/org fair) it’s better to let people come to you, many people will be in a hurry, and you don’t want to be overbearing.
Students will glance at your table as they walk past. If they’re in earshot you can offer them whatever you’re handing out. If not, just try to make eye contact and smile or nod at them.
<aside> 👥 Numerous EA groups have observed that the rate of students approaching your table increases with the number of students at your table. In other words, if you’re talking to a couple students, other passing students are significantly more likely to approach you.
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Thus, it’s beneficial to draw out conversations (within reason) when there are only one or two people at your table, even if the conversation isn’t super valuable.
In these cases, after finishing my pitch, I like doing something like this:
“By the way, what’s your name?”
“Cool nice to meet you! I’m Max. Okay so out of curiosity what drew you to this table?”