February 8th, 2010
It’s no secret that the first 30 sexonds of your presentation can make or break your whole relationship with the audience.
How about when YOU read that opening line? Did you notice that we typed “sexonds” instead of “seconds”? The element of surprise is one way to get your audience’s attention right off the bat. Here are our top ideas for killer openings:
1. Create the element of surprise.
This can occur with a impact statement, a shocking image, a gesture, immediate audience participation, anything. It tells the audience straight away: “I’d better pay attention because I’m not sure what’s going to happen next.”
2. Create curiosity.
This is easily accomplished with a peculiar prop, article of clothing, gesture, statement, etc. It puts the audience on alert and gets their right and left brains engaged — their left brain starts asking, “what is the logical reason for this?” while their right brain is beginning to concoct ideas “why.”
3. Open with a question.
In order to create maximum impact, we recommend opening with a shocking question (“Why is THIS company content to rest on its laurels instead of completely dominating its field?”) or a non-rhetorical question that invites audience participation (“What are the top 3 changes we could make right now to skyrocket our sales?”)
4. Create drama.
No matter what anyone says, people of all walks of life love drama. If that weren’t true, box office sales wouldn’t be where they are today. You can create drama with a single word followed up by a personal story (“Bankrupt. That’s where I was, at the age of just 32.”) or with a single impact statement (“Nobody can hold you back — nobody — without your express permission.”) or an odd statistic (“In South Africa, road accidents cause the most deaths among children between 4 and 15 years. Nearly every day two children die on these roads, and half of these children are younger than age 8.”). Your impact statement should be startling (in a positive or negative way, depending on the nature of the rest of your presentation) and relative to the subject matter at hand.
These are just a few ideas, but they should give you enough creative ideas to get you started. Remember to prepare for your presentation by renting a projector from Projector123.com. Reserve yours today!
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