Successful presentations and speeches need to hook the audience’s attention in the first few seconds. It’s so obvious that I am amazed at the number of people ignore this and start their presentations by giving their name and their credentials.
“Good afternoon, my name is X and I am the marketing manager,,,,,”

Yawn! How many times have you heard a presentation start this way? Is it any wonder that our audience starts to drift off before we get to the important parts of our talk?

Imagine if a film, TV programme or play started off with the credits. What are the chances that you would keep watching unless you absolutely had to?

So what should you do instead? Take a leaf out of the film director’s book. Start with something attention grabbing and interesting! Here are some ideas to get you going.

• A startling statistic
• A powerful quotation
• A challenge to your audience
• A dramatic short story – “Imagine….”

Set the scene and hook their attention BEFORE you tell them who you are and what you are going to be talking about. The purpose of your first few words should be to arouse curiosity and gain attention. So next time you are preparing a speech or presentation test out your opening remarks. Are they dramatic? Are they different? Will they raise questions in the heads of your audience for which they want answers?

Go on, dare to be different