elevator speech
n.— «Tom Boardman urges that we always have available a 30-second “elevator speech” for when we ride the elevator with our chief executive officer and are asked, “Well, what’s new in the numbers game?”» —“Statistics-Aided Manufacturing: A Look Into the Future” by Gerald J. Hahn American Statistician May, 1989. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Brenna, a nurse in Rapid City, South Dakota, says she was on a hospital elevator full of people and when the doors opened and someone in the back was trying to get off, she piped up with One side or a leg off!, but no one understood that phrase. It...
A young caller from the Hudson Valley of New York wonders about his grandmother’s use of stemwinder to praise a speech she thought was excellent. In the early 1800s, people used pocket watches that had to be wound with a tiny key. Once someone...