Let's start with the mechanics of how the actual pitch works. 

You'll be asked to report to the holding room ten or fifteen minutes before your pitch time.  Organizers will show you the map of tables so you can find your assigned table, and get you lined up with your time group. 

The pitchees, representatives of agencies and production companies, will be seated at tables lined up in a large conference room or ballroom.  The pitchers enter the room, go to their assigned table, introduce themselves, sit down and start pitching.

You have five minutes.

Let me repeat that.

You have five minutes.

From the moment you enter the room to the moment your butt should be leaving the chair, you have five minutes.

Don't hope for an exception in your case, don't think you'll be so dazzling that your pitchee will talk to you for an hour.  You have five minutes.  And there's someone else right behind you. 

The time limit is rigorously enforced. Don't embarrass yourself.  When time is up, thank your audience and leave.

If you've interested and intrigued them with your pitch, they'll ask you to send the script to them to read, and give you a business card.  (Don't bother bringing a stack of screenplays to hand out; I've never heard of a producer or agent actually accepting the screenplay itself at a pitch.  What you're after is the invitation to send it to them.)

"Only five minutes?!  That's not enough time!"

Now, now.  It's plenty of time.  If  you haven't caught their interest in the first five minutes, you won't in the second five minutes either. 

(In fact, with an unreceptive listener, five minutes can seem like an eternity!)

You don't want to tell them the entire plot of the movie anyway.  Hit the high points.  Tell them what it's about, don't tell them the whole story.   You will of course have practiced your pitch in advance to make sure you can run through the highlights in the time allotted.  You can refer to notes, but please don't have your pitch written down and read it to them.

Have more than one plot to pitch.  Sometimes you'll barely get out your logline (the brief capsule sentence that tells what your script is about), and the producer/agent will turn it down.  Don't argue with them!  Don't try to convince them that this 'Die Hard in A Laundromat' is different, and one they'll really like.  Accept the pass and go on to your next plot.

Tell them the twist.  The part of your script that you're proudest of, that makes it stand out from the herd, that will leave the audience gasping.  Don't hint around and hope that curiosity will cause them to ask to read the script to find out about it.  This sort of coyness only irritates your audience.  

It's also the mark of the paranoid amateur who's trying to protect his Big Idea from being stolen.   Producers and agents will take a chance on a new writer with a great new idea.  They won't take a chance on a paranoid new writer who claims to have a great new idea but doesn't trust them enough to tell them what it is.  That spells Trouble On Two Legs.

So there's the pitch.  You walk in, make your pitch, and if you're very good and very lucky, you'll walk out with a business card and a request to send the screenplay for a read. 

And if you've bought the five pack, you get ready to do it all over again.

More points on pitch fests:

"What do I wear?!"  Dress is casual.  Somewhere between office attire and beach attire.  Don't be a slob, but don't go looking like you're going to court either.  Wear comfortable shoes!  There's a lot of standing around.

"What else is there to do?"  Pitch fests are held in association with screenwriting seminars.  There will also be a lot of presentations from industry leaders that you can attend.  Go to these if you think you can actually listen, and won't be sitting there muttering over your pitch notes.

There's a lot of hanging around at pitch fests.  It's a good idea to hang around the lobby or registration area.  Why?  Because things happen.  People don't show up, schedules get rearranged.  And occasionally an event organizer will be walking through the lobby calling out that there are free pitches to be had.  Check the times available and take one if you can.  Hey, it's a free pitch.  Good practice even if nothing comes of it.

When you get home, if you scored one of those coveted business cards, send them the script!   Address it to the person at the fest who requested the screenplay, and write "Requested Material" on the outside of the envelope to keep it from landing in the slush pile (or worse, in the trash).

Keep your cover letter brief, just a few paragraphs.  Producers and agents have a massive amount of reading to do every day; don't make them waste time on a lengthy letter, however charming.  You want them to devote their reading time to the script.  So just remind them where you met, and that you're sending the script (title, logline) as they requested. 

If you didn't get an invitation to send the script, well, you had a valuable learning experience.  Review how the pitches went, so you'll do better next time.  Were you almost inaudible with stage fright?  Practice, practice, practice.  Were you poised and persuasive, was it the script description itself that failed to impress?  Take aboard what your pitchees said, maybe the screenplay needs work.

Hone and polish, both the script and your presentation of it.  And be ready to do it all over again next time.

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