Bold Introduction
Body and Discussion
For all entrepreneurs, this portion is for you. To gratify your needs and to enlighten you on how to start a business presentation. Here are the basics.
Always start with a concrete plan to strengthen the body of your presentation. With that, your listeners can’t easily stab your presentation.
If you are discussing in a formal setting, pick a deck with gray colors, choose dominant colors, and then combine.
To balance the whole presentation, put some icebreakers and funny idioms about your topic. Make sure it is sensible.
It helps your audience to get intact through the presentation. Try to use signal transitions, such as words or phrases that would give interconnections.
Of course, images and charts are vital. Make sure to use HD photos and reliable maps from data websites.
After the presentation, evaluate it by asking your listeners if they have any questions.
Questions like these must be considered and answered in your presentation.
Watch this live Speech <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:271">A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27"><strong>Components of a Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73"><strong>Content:</strong> The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106"><strong>Delivery:</strong> The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0"><strong>Structure:</strong> The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21"><strong>Speech in Action:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88"><strong>Informing:</strong> Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119"><strong>Persuading:</strong> Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93"><strong>Motivating:</strong> Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0"><strong>Entertaining:</strong> Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32"><strong>Public Speaking and Anxiety:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="20:1-20:227">Many people experience <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong>, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32"><strong>Different Types of Speeches:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81"><strong>Informative speech:</strong> Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102"><strong>Persuasive speech:</strong> Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99"><strong>Motivational speech:</strong> Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0"><strong>Entertaining speech:</strong> Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33"><strong>Crafting a Compelling Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106"><strong>Know your audience:</strong> Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107"><strong>Have a clear message:</strong> Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111"><strong>Engage your audience:</strong> Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0"><strong>Practice, practice, practice:</strong> Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="38:1-38:281">Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech or business seminar to get different hooks and other strategies to impress your listeners with your business presentation:
As your supervisor and other executives watch you presenting, stand tall and present like a boss through these points.
It organizes the presentation and connects the main points to sub-points. With that, you can have minimal effort but impactful results.
Try to begin asking the “why’s,” furthermore, enlighten them of “hows.” How to conduct, how to execute, and how to surpass their limits.
Stop introducing your presentation with your name. Always start to implore your audience with no cliché intro.
You can be ideological, symbolic, and rhetorical, and these things are not yet easy to comprehend without visuals. That’s why it is essential to develop and expand your data to make it understandable.
Suppose you want to have a good impression when presenting a business proposal to your bosses and other hotshots. Watch this video on striking tips and techniques for a presentation:
Case study presentations are more technical, unlike the other displays. It should be specific, tangible, credible, and substantial.
Also, here are the vital points to follow.
Facing new students is challenging, right? If you want to get a good impression from your class in different situations, take a look at these tips.
Tell them briefly who you are and why you are there in front of them while showing the right conduct and manners.
The material or your material must be the center of any presentation. Discuss its factuality and how tangible it is. Along with these, tell stories that may catch their interest and attention throughout the presentation.
End it with a bang! Make them think and stare at you. You can also give them riddles and some metaphorical set of words as an ending remark .
Indeed, you will gain their participation, plus you are helping your listeners to think critically.
Become a pro presenter. Download Orai and start practicing
To give more emphasis on how to start a business presentation and to help young entrepreneurs. I’ll share with you this detailed outline. I hope you tuck this with you.
Always set the stage with objectives. Since you are presenting to get clients and investment, it would help if you cleared how long it takes your business proposal.
Never underestimate the power of storytelling. Initiate your presentation with real-life stories.
Stating provoking questions can grab attention, positive or negative, is a good result. It helps you to get your listener’s ears and eyes.
This recommendation is similar to a word game, the “4-pics, One Word,” demonstrating the idea or topic with photos will be more immersing.
Visuals are one of the key points to expand a presentation. They are depicting patterns, diagrams, and trends. Lend quick analysis and predictions.
By using graphics, you can easily sustain the interest of your listeners and attract more viewers.
Master your presentation and fill loops. And on your topic. Study the weak points and establish more of the strengths of the presentation.
With that, you can derive the information smoothly. Take note of this. It is also vital on how to start a Board Meeting <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:200">A formal gathering of a company's board of directors, where they discuss strategic matters, review financial performance, make key decisions, and oversee the organization's governance.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:21"><strong>Key Participants:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-11:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:102"><strong>Board members:</strong> Elected or appointed individuals responsible for guiding the company's direction.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:94"><strong>Executives:</strong> Company leaders like the CEO, CFO, and COO, who provide updates and reports.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:88"><strong>Secretary:</strong> Oversees logistics, records minutes, and ensures compliance with rules.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-11:0"><strong>Legal counsel:</strong> Offers guidance on legal matters and ensures adherence to regulations.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="12:1-12:12"><strong>Purpose:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="14:1-19:0"> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:78"><strong>Strategic planning:</strong> Setting the company's long-term direction and goals.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:81"><strong>Financial oversight:</strong> Reviewing financial reports, budgets, and investments.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-16:86"><strong>Risk management:</strong> Identifying and mitigating potential risks to the organization.</li> <li data-sourcepos="17:1-17:76"><strong>Executive evaluation:</strong> Assessing the performance of company leadership.</li> <li data-sourcepos="18:1-19:0"><strong>Decision-making:</strong> Approving key initiatives, investments, and policies.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="20:1-20:11"><strong>Format:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="22:1-25:0"> <li data-sourcepos="22:1-22:43">Varies based on company size and culture.</li> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:91">Typically includes presentations, discussions, voting on proposals, and Q&A sessions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-25:0">It may be formal with strict agendas or more informal with brainstorming sessions.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="26:1-26:26"><strong>Public Speaking Roles:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="28:1-30:0"> <li data-sourcepos="28:1-28:125"><strong>CEO and other executives:</strong> Act as a <strong>public speaker</strong>, presenting reports, answering questions, and defending proposals.</li> <li data-sourcepos="29:1-30:0"><strong>Board members:</strong> May participate in discussions, ask questions, and occasionally propose or speak in favor of motions.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="31:1-31:39"><strong>Addressing Public Speaking Anxiety:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="33:1-36:0"> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:87">Many executives and board members face <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong> in these meetings.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-34:93">Preparation, practicing presentations, and visualization techniques can help manage nerves.</li> <li data-sourcepos="35:1-36:0">Some companies hire <strong>public speaking coaches</strong> to offer personalized guidance and improve communication skills.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="37:1-37:248"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="37:1-37:248">Effective board meetings require clear communication, active participation, and informed decision-making. By understanding the format, roles, and potential challenges, participants can contribute to a productive and impactful session.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/board-meeting/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">board meeting presentation.
Put the top 10 successful corporations, traders, companies, and other information that may help you present your goal. Flash the motto of some famous entrepreneurs. Analyze or contradict it to gain more attention.
Try to spiel some business jokes as an icebreaker. Any possible facts about business that you can use — catch it!
Play videos like a Public Service Announcement (PSA), but make sure it is connected to your topic.
Learn how to start a business presentation that has movement and action for society. With that, your listeners may think your presentation is worth investing in.
Stay calm and don’t even think about drawbacks or shortcomings, especially the night before the presentation.
Make sure to pamper your body. Create also a plan B for unexpected circumstances.
In your run-through, always set a timer. It gives you a heads up if you may look rushing or too slow in explaining each slide.
Being not responsible for other people’s time is a turn-off, especially in business, where time is essential in the industry.
To present other samples wisely. Let me share some videos to rock and how to start a presentation:
Successful presentations like “How Google Works” and “Start with Why” prove the power of Clarity <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:269">In <strong>public speaking</strong>, <strong>clarity</strong> refers to the quality of your message being readily understood and interpreted by your audience. It encompasses both the content and delivery of your speech, ensuring your message resonates and leaves a lasting impact.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:16"><strong>Key Aspects:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-13:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:133"><strong>Conciseness:</strong> Avoid unnecessary details, digressions, or excessive complexity. Focus on delivering the core message efficiently.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:149"><strong>Simple language:</strong> Choose words and phrases your audience understands readily, avoiding jargon or technical terms unless you define them clearly.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:145"><strong>Logical structure:</strong> Organize your thoughts and ideas logically, using transitions and signposts to guide your audience through your message.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-10:136"><strong>Effective visuals:</strong> If using visuals, ensure they are clear, contribute to your message, and don't distract from your spoken words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="11:1-11:144"><strong>Confident delivery:</strong> Speak clearly and articulately, avoiding mumbling or rushing your words. Maintain good eye contact with your audience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="12:1-13:0"><strong>Active voice:</strong> Emphasize active voice for better flow and avoid passive constructions that can be less engaging.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="14:1-14:24"><strong>Benefits of Clarity:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="16:1-20:0"> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-16:123"><strong>Enhanced audience engagement:</strong> A clear message keeps your audience interested and helps them grasp your points easily.</li> <li data-sourcepos="17:1-17:123"><strong>Increased credibility:</strong> Clear communication projects professionalism and expertise, building trust with your audience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="18:1-18:111"><strong>Improved persuasiveness:</strong> A well-understood message is more likely to resonate and win over your audience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="19:1-20:0"><strong>Reduced confusion:</strong> Eliminating ambiguity minimizes misinterpretations and ensures your message arrives as intended.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="21:1-21:15"><strong>Challenges:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="23:1-27:0"> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:129"><strong>Condensing complex information:</strong> Simplifying complex topics without sacrificing crucial details requires skill and practice.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:128"><strong>Understanding your audience:</strong> Tailoring your language and structure to resonate with a diverse audience can be challenging.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:85"><strong>Managing nerves:</strong> Nerves can impact your delivery, making it unclear or rushed.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-27:0"><strong>Avoiding jargon:</strong> Breaking technical habits and simplifying language requires constant awareness.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="28:1-28:22"><strong>Improving Clarity:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="30:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="30:1-30:117"><strong>Practice and rehearse:</strong> The more you rehearse your speech, the more natural and clear your delivery will become.</li> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:107"><strong>Seek feedback:</strong> Share your draft speech with others and ask for feedback on clarity and comprehension.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:161"><strong>Consider a public speaking coach:</strong> A coach can provide personalized guidance on structuring your message, simplifying language, and improving your delivery.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:128"><strong>Join a public speaking group:</strong> Practicing in a supportive environment can help you gain confidence and refine your clarity.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0"><strong>Listen to effective speakers:</strong> Analyze how clear and impactful others achieve communication.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:250"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="36:1-36:250"><strong>Clarity</strong> is a cornerstone of impactful <strong>public speaking</strong>. By honing your message, focusing on delivery, and actively seeking feedback, you can ensure your audience receives your message clearly and leaves a lasting impression.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/clarity/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">clarity and simplicity. Both Schmidt and Sinek captivate audiences with straightforward messages enhanced by visuals (slides or whiteboard) that support, not overpower, their narratives. The lesson: ditch complexity, focus on your core message, and deliver it with a conviction for maximum impact.
Effective group presentations require thorough rehearsal, clean transitions, and speaker handovers. Recap your section, introduce the next speaker, and gesture towards them to link sections and keep the audience engaged.
Ditch the podium! Move around the stage to grab attention, connect with listeners, and emphasize key points. Strategic shifts in location signal transitions, while your energy and passion come alive through purposeful movement. Make your presentation dynamic and memorable – get moving!
To master the “remaining method,” Briefly introduce the controversy, dive deep with your side (logos & pathos!), acknowledge and dissect opposing solutions, and then unveil your “remaining solution” as the superior answer. Wrap up with a strong summary and a call to action. Guide your audience, earn trust, and win them over!
Ditch the dry facts! Captivate your audience with stories. Use classic structures like the hero’s journey or jump into the action with “in media res.” Craft your narrative with a clear plot, relatable characters, and a consistent tone. Tie it all back to your key points for maximum impact. Storytelling makes presentations memorable, engaging, and impactful – go forth and win hearts (and minds)!
Hook them, hit them, fix them! Problem-solution presentations start with a clear pain point, delve deep with causes and impacts (think logic and emotions!), and then unveil your solution as the hero and its amazing benefits. Finish with a call to action – tell them what to do next! Simple, powerful, persuasive.
Forget the slides; show and tell! Demo presentations explain the “what” and “why” of your product, then dazzle with a live showcase. Highlight problem-solving and potential uses to keep them hooked. Leave them curious and wanting more with a glimpse of what your product can truly do. It’s all about interactive understanding and engagement!
Q&A isn’t just an add-on! It’s a chance to clear confusion, recap key points, and answer burning questions. Wrapping up the discussion, offering deeper dives, and inviting audience participation – it’s the perfect way to seal the deal and connect with your listeners.
Ditch the tangents and deliver on your promises! The main body is where you unpack your points. Organize it clearly, hit each topic with evidence and examples, summarize as you go, and link your ideas. Keep it focused, relevant, and audience-friendly – take notes, stay on track, and make your impact!
Hook, roadmap, and expectations – that’s your intro! Briefly introduce the topic, explain why it matters and what you’ll cover, and tell the audience how long they’re in for and if they can participate. Set the stage, guide them through, and make them feel comfortable – then dive in!
Get organized, and get remembered! Structure keeps your audience engaged and learning while boosting your Confidence <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:305">In the context of <strong>public speaking</strong>, <strong>confidence</strong> refers to the belief in one's ability to communicate effectively and deliver one's message with clarity and impact. It encompasses various elements, including self-belief, composure, and the ability to manage one's <strong>fear of public speaking</strong>.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:16"><strong>Key Aspects:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-12:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:108"><strong>Self-belief:</strong> A strong conviction in your knowledge, skills, and ability to connect with your audience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:95"><strong>Composure:</strong> Maintaining calmness and poise under pressure, even in challenging situations.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:100"><strong>Assertiveness:</strong> Expressing your ideas clearly and concisely, avoiding hesitation or self-doubt.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-10:104"><strong>Positive self-talk:</strong> Countering negative thoughts with affirmations and focusing on your strengths.</li> <li data-sourcepos="11:1-12:0"><strong>Strong body language:</strong> Using gestures, posture, and eye contact that project confidence and professionalism.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="13:1-13:27"><strong>Benefits of Confidence:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="15:1-19:0"> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:99"><strong>Reduced anxiety:</strong> Feeling confident helps manage <strong>fear of public speaking</strong> and stage fright.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-16:133"><strong>Engaging delivery:</strong> Confident speakers project their voices, hold eye contact, and connect with their audience more effectively.</li> <li data-sourcepos="17:1-17:137"><strong>Increased persuasiveness:</strong> A confident presentation inspires belief and motivates your audience to listen and remember your message.</li> <li data-sourcepos="18:1-19:0"><strong>Greater impact:</strong> Confidently delivered speeches leave a lasting impression and achieve desired outcomes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="20:1-20:15"><strong>Challenges:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="22:1-26:0"> <li data-sourcepos="22:1-22:112">Overcoming <strong>fear of public speaking</strong>: Many people experience some level of anxiety when speaking publicly.</li> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:101"><strong>Imposter syndrome:</strong> Doubting your abilities and qualifications, even when objectively qualified.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:92"><strong>Negative self-talk:</strong> Internalized criticism and limiting beliefs can hamper confidence.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-26:0"><strong>Past negative experiences:</strong> Unsuccessful presentations or negative feedback can erode confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="27:1-27:24"><strong>Building Confidence:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="29:1-36:0"> <li data-sourcepos="29:1-29:102"><strong>Practice and preparation:</strong> Thoroughly rehearse your speech to feel comfortable with the material.</li> <li data-sourcepos="30:1-30:101"><strong>Visualization:</strong> Imagine yourself delivering a successful presentation with confidence and poise.</li> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:100"><strong>Positive self-talk:</strong> Actively replace negative thoughts with affirmations about your abilities.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:106"><strong>Seek feedback:</strong> Ask trusted individuals for constructive criticism and use it to improve your skills.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:157">Consider a <strong>speaking coach</strong>: Working with a coach can provide personalized guidance and support to address specific challenges and confidence barriers.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-34:114"><strong>Start small:</strong> Gradually increase the size and complexity of your speaking engagements as you gain experience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="35:1-36:0"><strong>Focus on progress:</strong> Celebrate small successes and acknowledge your improvement over time.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="37:1-37:282"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="37:1-37:282"><strong>Confidence</strong> in public speaking is a journey, not a destination. By actively practicing, embracing feedback, and focusing on your strengths, you can overcome <strong>fear of public speaking</strong> and develop the <strong>confidence</strong> to deliver impactful and memorable presentations.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/confidence/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">confidence and delivery. It’s a win-win for both the speaker and the listener!
To be an effective speaker or presenter, you must master how to start a presentation. Learn the basics and dynamics.
Earn persuasive skills and grasp how to start a PowerPoint presentation with the steps and tips above to disseminate the information in a free-lingual way effectively.
I hope you find this helpful; you are free to use these tips for any goals.
You can try Orai , an AI-powered Speech Coach <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:411">A <strong>speech coach</strong> is a trained professional who provides personalized guidance and support to individuals seeking to improve their <strong>public speaking</strong> skills. Whether you aim to <strong>master public speaking</strong> for professional presentations, overcome stage fright, or simply hone your everyday communication, a <strong>speech coach</strong> can tailor their expertise to meet your needs and goals.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:32"><strong>What Does a Speech Coach Do?</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-13:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:124"><strong>Conduct assessments:</strong> Analyze your strengths, weaknesses, and communication style through evaluations and observations.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:149"><strong>Develop personalized plans:</strong> Create a customized roadmap with exercises, techniques, and feedback to address your specific areas of improvement.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:167"><strong>Offer expert instruction:</strong> We will guide you through various aspects of public speaking, including vocal control, body language, content delivery, and overcoming anxiety.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-10:168"><strong>Provide practice opportunities:</strong> Facilitate mock presentations, simulations, and role-playing scenarios to refine your skills in a safe and supportive environment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="11:1-11:114"><strong>Offer constructive feedback:</strong> Identify areas for improvement and suggest strategies for achieving your goals.</li> <li data-sourcepos="12:1-13:0"><strong>Boost confidence and motivation:</strong> Encourage and support you throughout your journey, empowering you to become a confident and impactful communicator.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="14:1-14:40"><strong>Who Can Benefit from a Speech Coach?</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="16:1-20:0"> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-16:174"><strong>Professionals:</strong> Refining public speaking skills can benefit executives, entrepreneurs, salespeople, leaders, and anyone who presents in professional settings.</li> <li data-sourcepos="17:1-17:160"><strong>Students:</strong> Teachers, public speakers, debaters, and students wanting to excel in presentations or classroom settings can gain valuable skills with a coach.</li> <li data-sourcepos="18:1-18:176"><strong>Individuals who fear public speaking:</strong> Coaching can help those who experience anxiety or nervousness when speaking in public develop strategies and gain confidence.</li> <li data-sourcepos="19:1-20:0"><strong>Anyone seeking to improve communication:</strong> A coach can provide guidance to individuals seeking to enhance their communication skills for personal or professional development.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="21:1-21:28"><strong>Types of Speech Coaches:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="23:1-26:0"> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:110"><strong>Private coaches:</strong> Work one-on-one with individuals to provide highly personalized attention and feedback.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:130"><strong>Group coaches:</strong> Offer workshops or classes in group settings, often at a lower cost but with less individualized attention.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-26:0"><strong>Specialization coaches:</strong> Some coaches specialize in executive communication, storytelling, or presentation design.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="27:1-27:35"><strong>Finding the Right Speech Coach:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="29:1-33:0"> <li data-sourcepos="29:1-29:91"><strong>Identify your goals:</strong> What areas do you want to improve? What are your specific needs?</li> <li data-sourcepos="30:1-30:109"><strong>Research credentials and experience:</strong> Look for qualified coaches with relevant experience and expertise.</li> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:122"><strong>Consider availability and budget:</strong> Set a budget and explore options that fit your schedule and financial constraints.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-33:0"><strong>Schedule consultations:</strong> Talk to potential coaches to assess their personality, approach, and compatibility with your needs.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="34:1-34:418"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="34:1-34:418">Investing in a <strong>speech coach</strong> can be a transformative experience, enhancing your communication skills, boosting your confidence, and empowering you to achieve your communication goals. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting your journey, consider exploring the potential of working with a <strong>speech coach</strong> to unlock your full potential as a communicator and <strong>master public speaking</strong>.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech-coach/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech coach that perfectly suits your budget! They provide instant feedback on you to help with your public speaking needs. Start your free trial with Orai today!
How many words is a 5-minute speech, good attention getters for speeches with 10+ examples, quick links.
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Written by: Nayomi Chibana
Wondering how to start a presentation that makes your audience sit up in their seats with excitement?
"Today, you will learn something that will add 10 years to your life."
"20 years from now, your job won't exist."
"Did you know that more people have access to a mobile phone than a toilet?"
Presentation starters like these are key to grabbing your audience's attention and making the most of the time allotted to you.
Instead of thanking the audience, making an unrelated joke or apologizing for a technical issue, why not dive right into the subject matter with a gripping statement or thought-provoking question?
To help you craft your own killer presentation starters, we've sorted through some of the most popular TED talks in history and created this list of the most effective ways to start your next presentation .
Many of these presentation starters are successful because they appeal to human emotions such as curiosity, awe, surprise or fear. You can read more on creating viral content that triggers emotional responses in this post .
Better yet, check out the video version of this blog post. This video distills 12 killer strategies to start your presentation and keep the audience's attention throughout.
Knowing how to start a presentation is just as crucial as the message you're trying to convey. If you can't start it effectively, you might not be able to leave a strong enough impact by the end of it.
TED speakers are some of the best presenters in the world, and there's a lot you can learn from their talks. Below, we've handpicked some of these presentations that start with a bang and manage to keep the audience hooked till the very end.
"I want to discuss with you this afternoon why you're going to fail to have a great career."
One surefire way to get your audience's attention is to make a provocative statement that creates interest and a keen desire to know more about what you have to say.
The presentation above, for example, does just that by making a surprising first statement that inspires surprise, amusement, curiosity and fear at the same time.
With 4.8 million views and counting, this talk by an economics professor draws you in precisely because it steers clear of the traditional talk, using blunt humor to enumerate all the irrational excuses people make for not pursuing their dreams and passions.
"I need to make a confession at the outset here. A little over 20 years ago, I did something that I regret, something that I'm not particularly proud of. Something that, in many ways, I wish no one would ever know, but here I feel kind of obliged to reveal."
Another way to grab your audience by the collar is to incite curiosity. In this popular TED talk viewed over 15.4 million times, career analyst Dan Pink succeeds at getting the entire audience to look at him intently, waiting for his next word, by resorting to an opening statement that builds suspense.
Since human beings are by nature curious creatures, most people in the audience were probably asking themselves "What did he do?" and imagining all sorts of possible scenarios.
"You will live seven and a half minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just because you watched this talk."
In many ways related to the previous two presentation starters, this hook involves making a counter-intuitive or paradigm-shifting statement that goes against a popular belief or simply shocks due to the perceived impossibility of the proposed statement.
This introduction by game designer Jane McGonigal, for example, achieves a level of surprise by making a seemingly improbable assertion. After hearing this kind of statement, most people will want to listen to your entire talk, if not out of genuine interest, then at least for the sake of pacifying their incredulity.
(By the way, she makes good on her promise by revealing a game she designed to boost resilience, which is backed by scientific research.)
"When I was seven years old and my sister was just five years old, we were playing on top of a bunk bed..."
As covered in a previous post , storytelling is the key ingredient that separates good, engaging presentations from bad ones that lack a clear message and persuasive delivery.
In his popular talk on the secret to being more productive, psychologist Shawn Achor tells a childhood story to lead into the effectiveness of positive psychology. He then goes on to provide concrete evidence backing his claim that pursuing happiness, rather than productivity for its own sake, actually makes you more--not less--productive.
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"I'm going to tell you a little bit about my TEDxHouston Talk. I woke up the morning after I gave that talk with the worst vulnerability hangover of my life. And I actually didn't leave my house for about three days."
Another way to draw your audience into your own world is to tell a revealing personal story. This is certainly not easy but, when done right, can quickly spark interest in your topic and build an emotional connection between you and your audience.
In Brene Brown's talk on confronting shame, she begins by admitting that she felt embarrassed over the revelations she had made in her massively popular TED talk on embracing vulnerability.
One of the easiest ways to start a presentation is to quote an influential person. In these cases, it's best to use a pithy, short and relevant quote to catch your audience's attention.
In the widely viewed video above, for example, writer Andrew Solomon quotes Emily Dickinson to begin his talk on depression, an illness he asserts affects many more people than the official figures suggest.
The quote is particularly powerful and effective because it eloquently describes the state of depression from the point of view of a person who is feeling all the emotions associated with it.
To introduce this fascinating TED talk on how movements really get started, entrepreneur Derek Sivers uses some surprising footage to support his statements. They are especially captivating because they debunk widely held beliefs on the matter, proving that it takes more than just a charismatic leader to start a revolution of any sort.
"Do you think it's possible to control someone's attention? Even more than that, what about predicting human behavior?"
In this attention-grabbing presentation on the flaws in human perception, world-famous pickpocket Apollo Robbins starts off by asking the audience a question that leads right into the meat of his talk, which has been viewed worldwide more than 10.5 million times.
In these cases, it's best to pose a question that will really get your audience thinking and, in the best possible scenario, challenge their prevailing beliefs or preconceptions on a certain topic.
51 Best Presentation Slides for Engaging Presentations (2024)
Another effective technique--which should only be used if you're a seasoned presenter and are able to maintain your composure throughout--is to leverage silence to command a room.
Watch, for example, how musician Amanda Palmer starts off her talk by not saying a word, simply breathing in and out and using props to communicate her message.
Although you may not want to resort to both silence and using a prop in your presentation, this is a very effective dramatic technique that, if done right, quickly draws all eyes to you.
Considering that the audience's gaze is attracted by motion and visual objects, another way to hook them right from the outset is to use a prop.
Take a look at how best-selling author Susan Cain uses a physical object to visually complement her opening story on her first summer camp experience. It not only adds a dramatic effect, it also keeps viewers eyes on her while on stage.
"Okay, now I don't want to alarm anybody in this room, but it's just come to my attention that the person to your right is a liar."
Humor is not only a good way to break the ice and endear the audience to you right from the outset, it can also be very effective in getting your point across if it's relevant to your talk.
Lie detector Pamela Meyer, for example, deftly uses both humor and an element of surprise in her opening statement as she tells the audience that the person to their right is probably a liar. This gets the audience to laugh and then focus on her topic at the same time.
She goes on to give some shocking statistics (such as that on any given day, we're lied to up to 200 times) and delivers an intriguing talk that has been seen close to 13 million times.
"Imagine a big explosion as you climb through 3,000 ft. Imagine a plane full of smoke. Imagine an engine going clack, clack, clack. It sounds scary."
Lastly, there are times when leading your audience to use their imaginations is the best bet. You can prompt them to do this by using the commands "imagine," "think of" or "picture this." These are just a few of the most powerful opening words for presentation.
Plane crash survivor Ric Elias, for example, uses this technique in the video above to quickly thrust his audience into the central scene of his harrowing story.
What about your next presentation? Have you thought about how you're going to set the mood for your talk? We've rounded up some of the best way to start a presentation.
When you're ready to get started creating your presentation, give Visme's presentation software a try! The tool comes with an AI writer that helps you generate killer content for your next presentation in seconds.
Plus, check out our post on how to end a presentation so you both start and end your speech with a bang.
And if you want to learn all our secrets on how to deliver an unforgettable presentation, as well as how to create visual slides with impact, grab our free e-book below.
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Nayomi Chibana is a journalist and writer for Visme’s Visual Learning Center. Besides researching trends in visual communication and next-generation storytelling, she’s passionate about data-driven content.
By Status.net Editorial Team on February 27, 2024 — 11 minutes to read
Starting a presentation effectively means capturing your audience’s attention from the very beginning. It’s important because it sets the tone for the entire presentation and establishes your credibility as a speaker.
Your presentation’s beginning sets the stage for everything that follows. So, it’s important to capture your audience’s attention right from the start. Here are some tried-and-true techniques to do just that.
When you start with a story, you tap into the natural human love for narratives. It can be a personal experience, a historical event, or a fictional tale that ties back to your main point.
“Let me tell you a story about…”
Example : “Let me tell you a story about how a small idea in a garage blossomed into the global brand we know today.”
Using a relevant quote can lend authority and thematic flavor to your presentation. Choose a quote that is provocative, enlightening, or humorous to resonate with your audience.
“As [Famous Person] once said…”
Example : “As Steve Jobs once said, ‘Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.'”
Engage your audience directly by opening with a thoughtful question. This encourages them to think and become active participants.
“Have you ever wondered…”
Example : “Have you ever wondered what it would take to reduce your carbon footprint to zero?”
Kick off with a startling statistic that presents a fresh perspective or underscores the importance of your topic.
“Did you know that…”
Example : “Did you know that 90% of the world’s data was generated in the last two years alone?”
Share a brief, relatable incident that highlights the human aspect of your topic. It paves the way for empathy and connection.
“I want to share a quick anecdote…”
Example : “I want to share a quick anecdote about a time I experienced the customer service that went above and beyond what anyone would expect.”
Starting a PowerPoint presentation effectively can captivate your audience and set the tone for your message. The opening phrases you choose are important in establishing rapport and commanding attention. Whether you’re presenting to colleagues, at a conference, or in an academic setting, these phrases will help you begin with confidence and poise:
Connecting with the audience.
When starting a presentation, making a genuine connection with your audience sets the stage for a successful exchange of ideas. Examples:
You present with credibility when you establish your expertise and experience on the subject matter. Here’s what you can say to accomplish that:
Starting your presentation with a clear organizational preview can effectively guide your audience through the content. This section helps you prepare to communicate the roadmap of your presentation.
You should begin by briefly listing the main points you’ll cover. This lets your audience know what to expect and helps them follow along. For example, if you’re presenting on healthy eating, you might say, “Today, I’ll cover the benefits of healthy eating, essential nutrients in your diet, and simple strategies for making healthier choices.”
Your introduction sets the tone for the entire presentation. A way to do this is through a relevant story or anecdote that engages the audience. Suppose you’re talking about innovation; you might start with, “When I was a child, I was fascinated by how simple Legos could build complex structures, which is much like the innovation process.”
Explain the structure of your presentation so that your audience can anticipate how you’ll transition from one section to the next. For instance, if your presentation includes an interactive portion, you might say, “I’ll begin with a 15-minute overview, followed by a hands-on demonstration, and we’ll wrap up with a Q&A session, where you can ask any questions.”
Before you step onto the stage, it’s important that your preparation includes not just content research, but also rigorous practice and strategy for dealing with nerves. This approach ensures you present with confidence and clarity.
Practicing your introduction aloud gives you the opportunity to refine your opening remarks. You might start by greeting the audience and sharing an interesting quote or a surprising statistic related to your topic. For example, if your presentation is about the importance of renewable energy, you could begin with a recent statistic about the growth in solar energy adoption. Record yourself and listen to the playback, focusing on your tone, pace, and clarity.
While you don’t need to memorize your entire presentation word for word, you should know the key points by heart. This includes main arguments, data, and any conclusions you’ll be drawing. You can use techniques such as mnemonics or the method of loci, which means associating each key point with a specific location in your mind, to help remember these details. Having them at your fingertips will make you feel more prepared and confident.
Feeling nervous before a presentation is natural, but you can manage these jitters with a few techniques. Practice deep breathing exercises or mindful meditation to calm your mind before going on stage. You can also perform a mock presentation to a group of friends or colleagues to simulate the experience and receive feedback. This will not only help you get used to speaking in front of others but also in adjusting your material based on their reactions.
Starting a presentation on the right foot often depends on how engaged your audience is. Using certain strategies, you can grab their attention early and maintain their interest throughout your talk:
Opening your presentation with a question to your audience is a great way to encourage participation. This invites them to think actively about the subject matter. For instance, you might ask, “By a show of hands, how many of you have experienced…?” Additionally, integrating interactive elements like quick polls or requesting volunteers for a demonstration can make the experience more dynamic and memorable.
Using direct questions throughout your presentation ensures the audience stays alert, as they might be called upon to share their views. For example, after covering a key point, you might engage your audience with, “Does anyone have an experience to share related to this?”
Mastering the pace of your speech helps keep your presentation lively. Quickening the pace when discussing exciting developments or slowing down when explaining complex ideas can help maintain interest. For example, when introducing a new concept, slow your pace to allow the audience to absorb the information.
Pauses are equally powerful. A well-timed pause after a key point gives the audience a moment to ponder the significance of what you’ve just said. It might feel like this: “The results of this study were groundbreaking. (pause) They completely shifted our understanding of…”. Pauses also give you a moment to collect your thoughts, adding to your overall composure and control of the room.
You might say something like, “Let me introduce my amazing team: Alex, our researcher, Jamie, our designer, and Sam, the developer. Together, we’ve spent the last few months creating something truly special for you.”
Crafting an effective introduction for presentations is crucial to engage your audience and set the tone for your speech. A well-structured introduction can capture the audience’s attention, introduce the topic, and establish your credibility as a speaker. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to start a presentation, along with more than 30 examples of introductory phrases categorized for various situations.
**1. grab the audience’s attention:.
Use a surprising fact or statistic: “Did you know that over a million plastic bottles are sold every minute worldwide?” Begin with a relevant quote: “As Albert Einstein once said, ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.'” Share a personal anecdote: “A few years ago, I found myself lost in the wilderness, miles away from civilization.”
“Have you ever wondered what it takes to create a successful business from scratch?” “Do you know the impact of climate change on our future generations?” “Have you ever asked yourself what motivates us to achieve our goals?”
“Imagine a world where poverty is eradicated, and every child has access to quality education.” “In a society where technology reigns supreme, human connection remains the key to happiness and success.” “We stand on the verge of a groundbreaking scientific discovery that could revolutionize medicine.”
Share a success story: “Let me tell you about John, who went from living in a homeless shelter to becoming a successful entrepreneur.” Narrate an inspiring journey: “In the early 1900s, a group of pioneers set out to conquer the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest.”
“In our fast-paced world, stress has become an epidemic that affects millions of lives.” “Today, we face an unprecedented challenge in combating climate change and preserving our planet for future generations.”
“Think about the joy you feel when you make a child smile. Now, imagine spreading that joy to those who need it most.” “We all share a common fear – the fear of missed opportunities. Today, we’ll explore how to conquer that fear.”
To introduce the topic:.
“Today, I’ll be discussing…” “The focus of our presentation is…” “Our topic for today is…” “Let’s dive into the subject of…”
“My extensive research in this area has revealed…” “Having worked on countless projects related to this topic…” “I am honored to share my expertise in…”
“We all share a common interest in…” “I believe we can all relate to the idea that…”
“I invite you to join me on a journey of…” “By the end of this presentation, you’ll be equipped to…”
“Understanding this concept is key to addressing…” “The implications of this subject stretch far beyond…” “It is our responsibility to tackle this issue, and here’s how…”
“Our presentation is divided into five sections:…” “I’ve organized our discussion into the following segments:…”
“In the next few minutes, you’ll discover a surprising twist on this idea…” “Stay tuned, as we unveil an unexpected connection between…”
Glossary: Credibility: The quality of being trusted and believed in, often established through expertise and experience. Anecdote: A short and engaging story or narrative that adds a personal touch to your presentation. Rhetorical Question: A question that doesn’t require an answer but is posed to provoke thought and engage the audience. Narrative: A story or account of events, often used to convey information or entertain. Emotions: Feelings or states of mind that can be used to connect with your audience on a personal level. Cliché: Overused phrases or expressions that can make your presentation less engaging. Relevance: The quality of being closely connected or appropriate to the topic at hand. In summary, a well-crafted introduction is a critical component of a successful presentation. It sets the stage for what your audience can expect, captures their interest, and establishes your credibility as a speaker. By using the right introductory phrases and techniques, you can create an engaging and memorable opening that piques your audience’s curiosity and prepares them for the rest of your presentation.
At English Al Fresco we can help you learn how to create an introduction for a presentation and how to start a presentation speech. It’s important to know which introductory phrases to use and how to use them. Find out more about our courses and how we can help you by sending us a quick message: https://speakenglishalfresco.com/contact-us/
Improving your English skills to start writing presentations is a valuable goal, and it’s definitely achievable with consistent effort and practice. Here are some steps to help non-native speakers enhance their English for presentation writing:
Consider enrolling in an English language course, either in person or online. Courses can provide structured lessons and opportunities for speaking, writing, and listening practice.
Language learning apps like Duolingo, Babbel, and Rosetta Stone offer interactive exercises and lessons to help improve your language skills at your own pace. Read Regularly:
Reading English-language books, newspapers, websites, and magazines can help you become more familiar with the language’s structure, vocabulary, and idiomatic expressions. Choose materials related to the topics you plan to present. Watch English Media:
Watching movies, TV shows, and YouTube channels in English can help you become accustomed to spoken English, improve your listening skills, and expose you to different accents. Practice Writing:
Start a journal in English to practice writing regularly. Describe your daily activities, thoughts, and experiences. This will help you gain confidence in expressing yourself in writing.
Learn new words and phrases daily. You can use flashcards or language learning apps to help build your vocabulary. Focus on words and phrases relevant to the topics you intend to present.
Study English grammar and sentence structure. Online resources, textbooks, and grammar checkers can be helpful. Practice constructing sentences and paragraphs correctly.
Speak with native speakers or fellow English learners. Engaging in conversations allows you to practice speaking, improve your pronunciation, and gain confidence. Use Language Learning Websites:
Websites like BBC Learning English, Duolingo, and Cambridge English offer resources, lessons, and exercises to improve your language skills.
Record your spoken English and presentations. Listen to the recordings to identify areas where you can improve your pronunciation and fluency.
Platforms like Coursera and edX offer English language courses specifically designed for non-native speakers.
Connect with native English speakers who want to learn your language. Language exchange partners can help you practice speaking and receive valuable feedback.
Join online writing groups or forums to share your writing and get feedback from native speakers. This can improve your writing skills and confidence.
Utilise presentation templates and tools, like PowerPoint or Google Slides, which can help you structure your content effectively and visually enhance your presentations.
Consistency is key. Set aside time each day to practice your English skills, whether through reading, writing, speaking, or listening.
Consider working with a language tutor or language coach who can provide personalized guidance and feedback on your language skills and presentations.
As you become more comfortable with the language, start preparing speeches and presentations on topics that interest you. Practice delivering them to friends, family, or colleagues to receive feedback and improve your public speaking skills. Improving your English language skills for presentations is a gradual process that requires patience and persistence. With regular practice and a variety of learning methods, you can gain the confidence and proficiency needed to write and deliver effective presentations in English.
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/ Steven Hobson / Business English , English Presentations , Vocabulary
Do you give English presentations at work, but feel that you could communicate your message in a more objective, fluid way?
Maybe you have an English presentation coming up and want to make sure that your speech is clear and structured so that your audience doesn’t lose concentration and stays with you all the way to the end.
A technique that can help you achieve objective, clear, and structured English presentations, is to use linking phrases that join the separate parts of your presentation together.
English presentations normally consist of an introduction, the main body, individual parts of the main body, and the ending or conclusion.
To help maintain your audience’s attention, you need to signal when you are going from one part to another.
In this article, I teach you 52 phrases that do exactly this – linking the different parts together, and therefore, making your presentation flow better. You’ll find that these phrases will act as ‘signposts’ for the audience when you finish one part and start another.
The introduction.
All good presentations start with a strong introduction.
There are a number of different ways you can begin your English presentation. Here’s a simple, but effective introduction structure which works for most types of business presentations:
Introduce – Introduce yourself and greet your audience. Introduce the presentation topic – Explain the reasons for listening. Outline – Describe the main parts of the presentation. Question policy – Make it clear to your audience when they can ask questions: during or at the end?
Here are some phrases which you can use to structure the introduction in this way:
1. Good morning/afternoon (everyone) (ladies and gentlemen). 2. It’s a pleasure to welcome (the President) here. 3. I’m … (the Director of …)
Introduce the presentation topic
4. By the end of the talk/presentation/session, you’ll know how to… / …you will have learned about… / 5. I plan to say a few words about… 6. I’m going to talk about… 7. The subject of my talk is…
8. My talk will be in (three parts). 9. In the first part… 10. Then in the second part… 11. Finally, I’ll go on to talk about…
Question Policy
12. Please interrupt if you have any questions. 13. After my talk, there will be time for a discussion and any questions.
Now that you have finished the introduction, we now need to transition to the main body, and its individual parts in a smooth way.
There are three parts of the main body of a presentation where linking phrases can be used:
Beginning the Main Body Ending Parts within the Main Body Beginning a New Part
Here are some phrases which you can use for these parts:
Beginning the Main Body
14. Now let’s move to / turn to the first part of my talk which is about… 15. So, first… 16. To begin with…
Ending Parts within the Main Body
17. That completes/concludes… 18. That’s all (I want to say for now) on… 19. Ok, I’ve explained how…
Beginning a New Part
20. Let’s move to (the next part which is)… 21. So now we come to the next point, which is… 22. Now I want to describe… 23. Let’s turn to the next issue… 24. I’d now like to change direction and talk about…
If you need to talk about goals, challenges, and strategies in your English presentation, listing phrases can help link these together and improve the flow of your speech. If you have to explain processes, sequencing phrases are helpful:
25. There are three things to consider. First… Second… Third… 26. There are two kinds of… The first is… The second is… 27. We can see four advantages and two disadvantages. First, advantages… 28. One is… Another is… A third advantage is… Finally…
29. There are (four) different stages to the process. 30. First / then / next / after that / then (x) / after x there’s y. 31. There are two steps involved. The first step is… The second step is… 32. There are four stages to the project. 33. At the beginning, later, then, finally… 34. I’ll describe the development of the idea. First the background, then the present situation, and then the prospect for the future.
After you have presented the main body of your English presentation, you will want to end it smoothly.
Here are typical sections transitioning from the main body to the ending of the presentation, and then inviting the audience to ask questions:
Ending the Main Body Beginning the Summary and/or Conclusion Concluding An Ending Phrase Inviting Questions and/or Introducing Discussion Thanking the Audience
Ending the Main Body
35. Okay, that ends (the third part of) my talk. 36. That’s all I want to say for now on (the 2017 results).
Beginning the Summary and/or Conclusion
37. To sum up… 38. Ok, in brief, there are several advantages and disadvantages. 39. To conclude… 40. I’d like to end by emphasizing the main points. 41. I’d like to end with a summary of the main points.
42. I think we have seen that we should… 43. In my opinion, we should… 44. I recommend/suggest that we… 45. There are three reasons why I recommend this. First, … / Second, … / Finally,…
An Ending Phrase
46. Well, I’ve covered the points that I needed to present today. 47. That sums up (my description of the new model). 48. That concludes my talk for today.
Inviting Questions and/or Introducing Discussion
49. Now we have (half an hour) for questions and discussion. 50. So, now I’d be very interested to hear your comments.
Thanking the Audience
51. I’d like to thank you for listening to my presentation. 52. Thank you for listening / your attention. / Many thanks for coming.
Linking phrases are like the skeleton which holds your presentation together.
Not only do they improve the flow and help guide the audience, but by memorizing them they can also help you remember the general structure of your presentation, giving you increased confidence.
To help you memorize, I recommend saying the linking phrases on their own from the beginning to the end of your presentation while you practice.
I also suggest memorizing the introduction word for word. By doing this, you will get off to a great start, which will settle your nerves and transmit a positive first impression.
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August 3, 2018 - Dom Barnard
For many people the thought of delivering a presentation is a daunting task and brings about a great deal of nerves . However, if you take some time to understand how effective presentations are structured and then apply this structure to your own presentation, you’ll appear much more confident and relaxed.
Here is our complete guide for structuring your presentation, with examples at the end of the article to demonstrate these points.
If you’ve ever sat through a great presentation, you’ll have left feeling either inspired or informed on a given topic. This isn’t because the speaker was the most knowledgeable or motivating person in the world. Instead, it’s because they know how to structure presentations – they have crafted their message in a logical and simple way that has allowed the audience can keep up with them and take away key messages.
Research has supported this, with studies showing that audiences retain structured information 40% more accurately than unstructured information.
In fact, not only is structuring a presentation important for the benefit of the audience’s understanding, it’s also important for you as the speaker. A good structure helps you remain calm, stay on topic, and avoid any awkward silences.
Generally speaking, there is a natural flow that any decent presentation will follow which we will go into shortly. However, you should be aware that all presentation structures will be different in their own unique way and this will be due to a number of factors, including:
Before choosing the presentation’s structure answer these questions first:
When reading the points below, think critically about what things may cause your presentation structure to be slightly different. You can add in certain elements and add more focus to certain moments if that works better for your speech.
This is the usual flow of a presentation, which covers all the vital sections and is a good starting point for yours. It allows your audience to easily follow along and sets out a solid structure you can add your content to.
Before you start delivering your talk, introduce yourself to the audience and clarify who you are and your relevant expertise. This does not need to be long or incredibly detailed, but will help build an immediate relationship between you and the audience. It gives you the chance to briefly clarify your expertise and why you are worth listening to. This will help establish your ethos so the audience will trust you more and think you’re credible.
Read our tips on How to Start a Presentation Effectively
In the introduction you need to explain the subject and purpose of your presentation whilst gaining the audience’s interest and confidence. It’s sometimes helpful to think of your introduction as funnel-shaped to help filter down your topic:
In this section also explain:
The way you structure your introduction can depend on the amount of time you have been given to present: a sales pitch may consist of a quick presentation so you may begin with your conclusion and then provide the evidence. Conversely, a speaker presenting their idea for change in the world would be better suited to start with the evidence and then conclude what this means for the audience.
Keep in mind that the main aim of the introduction is to grab the audience’s attention and connect with them.
The main body of your talk needs to meet the promises you made in the introduction. Depending on the nature of your presentation, clearly segment the different topics you will be discussing, and then work your way through them one at a time – it’s important for everything to be organised logically for the audience to fully understand. There are many different ways to organise your main points, such as, by priority, theme, chronologically etc.
When planning your presentation write a list of main points you want to make and ask yourself “What I am telling the audience? What should they understand from this?” refining your answers this way will help you produce clear messages.
In presentations the conclusion is frequently underdeveloped and lacks purpose which is a shame as it’s the best place to reinforce your messages. Typically, your presentation has a specific goal – that could be to convert a number of the audience members into customers, lead to a certain number of enquiries to make people knowledgeable on specific key points, or to motivate them towards a shared goal.
Regardless of what that goal is, be sure to summarise your main points and their implications. This clarifies the overall purpose of your talk and reinforces your reason for being there.
Follow these steps:
Conclude your talk by thanking the audience for their time and invite them to ask any questions they may have. As mentioned earlier, personal circumstances will affect the structure of your presentation.
Many presenters prefer to make the Q&A session the key part of their talk and try to speed through the main body of the presentation. This is totally fine, but it is still best to focus on delivering some sort of initial presentation to set the tone and topics for discussion in the Q&A.
The above was a description of a basic presentation, here are some more specific presentation layouts:
Use the demonstration structure when you have something useful to show. This is usually used when you want to show how a product works. Steve Jobs frequently used this technique in his presentations.
This structure is particularly useful in persuading the audience.
As well as incorporating stories in your presentation , you can organise your whole presentation as a story. There are lots of different type of story structures you can use – a popular choice is the monomyth – the hero’s journey. In a monomyth, a hero goes on a difficult journey or takes on a challenge – they move from the familiar into the unknown. After facing obstacles and ultimately succeeding the hero returns home, transformed and with newfound wisdom.
Storytelling for Business Success webinar , where well-know storyteller Javier Bernad shares strategies for crafting compelling narratives.
Another popular choice for using a story to structure your presentation is in media ras (in the middle of thing). In this type of story you launch right into the action by providing a snippet/teaser of what’s happening and then you start explaining the events that led to that event. This is engaging because you’re starting your story at the most exciting part which will make the audience curious – they’ll want to know how you got there.
The remaining method structure is good for situations where you’re presenting your perspective on a controversial topic which has split people’s opinions.
When delivering presentations it’s important for your words and ideas to flow so your audience can understand how everything links together and why it’s all relevant. This can be done using speech transitions which are words and phrases that allow you to smoothly move from one point to another so that your speech flows and your presentation is unified.
Transitions can be one word, a phrase or a full sentence – there are many different forms, here are some examples:
Signify to the audience that you will now begin discussing the first main point:
Move from one point to a similar one:
Internal summarising consists of summarising before moving on to the next point. You must inform the audience:
You can move your body and your standing location when you transition to another point. The audience find it easier to follow your presentation and movement will increase their interest.
A common technique for incorporating movement into your presentation is to:
Slides are a useful tool for most presentations: they can greatly assist in the delivery of your message and help the audience follow along with what you are saying. Key slides include:
There are some presenters who choose not to use slides at all, though this is more of a rarity. Slides can be a powerful tool if used properly, but the problem is that many fail to do just that. Here are some golden rules to follow when using slides in a presentation:
Guy Kawasaki, an entrepreneur and author, suggests that slideshows should follow a 10-20-30 rule :
Here are some additional resources for slide design:
Group presentations are structured in the same way as presentations with one speaker but usually require more rehearsal and practices. Clean transitioning between speakers is very important in producing a presentation that flows well. One way of doing this consists of:
From this example you can see how the different sections of the presentations link which makes it easier for the audience to follow and remain engaged.
Having examples of great presentations will help inspire your own structures, here are a few such examples, each unique and inspiring in their own way.
This presentation by ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt demonstrates some of the most important lessons he and his team have learnt with regards to working with some of the most talented individuals they hired. The simplistic yet cohesive style of all of the slides is something to be appreciated. They are relatively straightforward, yet add power and clarity to the narrative of the presentation.
Since being released in 2009, this presentation has been viewed almost four million times all around the world. The message itself is very powerful, however, it’s not an idea that hasn’t been heard before. What makes this presentation so powerful is the simple message he is getting across, and the straightforward and understandable manner in which he delivers it. Also note that he doesn’t use any slides, just a whiteboard where he creates a simple diagram of his opinion.
Here’s an example of a presentation given by a relatively unknown individual looking to inspire the next generation of graduates. Rick’s presentation is unique in many ways compared to the two above. Notably, he uses no visual prompts and includes a great deal of humour.
However, what is similar is the structure he uses. He first introduces his message that the wisest man he knew was a third-grade dropout. He then proceeds to deliver his main body of argument, and in the end, concludes with his message. This powerful speech keeps the viewer engaged throughout, through a mixture of heart-warming sentiment, powerful life advice and engaging humour.
As you can see from the examples above, and as it has been expressed throughout, a great presentation structure means analysing the core message of your presentation. Decide on a key message you want to impart the audience with, and then craft an engaging way of delivering it.
By preparing a solid structure, and practising your talk beforehand, you can walk into the presentation with confidence and deliver a meaningful message to an interested audience.
It’s important for a presentation to be well-structured so it can have the most impact on your audience. An unstructured presentation can be difficult to follow and even frustrating to listen to. The heart of your speech are your main points supported by evidence and your transitions should assist the movement between points and clarify how everything is linked.
Research suggests that the audience remember the first and last things you say so your introduction and conclusion are vital for reinforcing your points. Essentially, ensure you spend the time structuring your presentation and addressing all of the sections.
Learn how to create a business presentation introduction that gets attention in the first 15 seconds. See real-life business presentation introduction examples & samples.
Dominika Krukowska
9 minute read
What makes a good presentation introduction.
Data shows that a good presentation introduction is all about grabbing attention in the first 15 seconds.
An effective presentation introduction includes interactive design, a big idea, and a mystery to hook the audience in. A good introduction improves reader engagement and increases reading time.
Imagine a sprinter at the Olympics. They've trained for years, but a false start costs them the race. A weak introduction is the false start for your presentation, costing you your audience's attention and engagement.
But there's a way to get back on track and back in the race.
Our analysis of over 100,000 presentation sessions shows that the first 3 slides and the initial 15 seconds determine the success of your entire presentation.
These first slides and first moments decide whether a reader will give you their full attention or bounce never to look back.
In this post, we'll guide you on how to craft an introduction that ensures a strong start, keeps your audience engaged, and sets you up for a winning presentation.
Ready? Let’s dive in.
The introduction in a business presentation has 4 goals: (1) to provide context by introducing the topic, (2) to build authority and trust by introducing the team (3) to manage expectations by giving a preview of the presentation content, and (4) to ignite interest by introducing a big idea.
8 types of presentation introductions:
The introduction slide is the gateway to your presentation. Here are some tips to ensure your audience can't resist reading on:
Start with a hook: Start with a captivating bit of information - a surprising statistic, a bold statement, or a thought-provoking question.
Show relevance: Highlight why your presentation is important to your audience.
Keep it simple: Make your introduction clear and concise to avoid overwhelming your audience.
Include visuals: Incorporate relevant visuals to enhance your message.
Use interactive elements: Using running numbers to present stats or giving your audience something to play around with, like sliders or tabs to click through, is another proven way to boost engagement.
Add a personal touch: Make your introduction resonate with your specific audience by personalizing it. This can get 68% more people to read your presentation in full and increase the average reading time by 41%.
Manage expectations: Provide an estimated reading time to set clear expectations and lower your bounce rate by 24% .
Designing an engaging presentation introduction is a crucial step in capturing your audience's attention.
Here are some strategies you can use to create an impactful introduction:
A video introduction adds a personal touch to your presentation. It brings in the human element with voice, gestures, and expressions, establishing a connection with your audience. This non-verbal communication is crucial for building relatability and trust.
According to our research, presentations with a video in their cover slide have 32% more people interacting with them .
And this doesn’t just refer to the top part of your deck. By embedding any video into your presentation, you can get people to read it 37% longer and enjoy a 17% increase in the CTA click-through rate.
This can be a short clip that introduces the topic or a brief message from the presenter. Our interactive editor allows you to easily embed videos in your slides by uploading them to the media library or pasting a URL.
Here’s an example of an introduction slide with a video:
Pairing a story with a relevant image can create a memorable connection. Whether it's a personal photo for an individual introduction, a team photo for a group introduction, or a symbolic image for a company introduction, the right image can enhance your narrative.
Our platform offers a variety of design options to help you craft this perfect pairing. You can either choose your own images or let our AI assistant take care of it for you. You can also select the placement and adjust the proportions so that it doesn’t overpower your key message.
Here’s an introduction slide sample using a mix of text and images:
A timeline slide can take your audience on a journey through your company's or your personal history. It allows your audience to appreciate each significant milestone individually, adding depth to your presentation and making it easier to follow.
And, on top of that, giving your readers slides they have to click through makes them 41% more likely to scroll it all the way down to the bottom and read it 21% longer.
Here's an example of a history slide:
Tabs offer a neat way to introduce multiple aspects within the same context. You can dedicate a tab each for the speaker, the team, leadership, partners, and the company.
This feature also allows you to tailor your introduction to different audience personas, ensuring that your content resonates with everyone. An AI text generator can reduce the time spent on these different messages.
Here’s an example of an introduction slide using tabs:
When it comes to creating a compelling presentation introduction, real-life examples can provide invaluable insights. Let's explore how 4 Storydoc clients have leveraged the platform's features to create impactful starts to their presentations.
Yotpo is an e-commerce marketing platform that provides solutions for managing customer reviews and loyalty programs. Their presentation starts with a dynamic variable, allowing them to personalize the experience for each viewer with just a few clicks.
The introduction slide features a video showcasing their product in action, while the third slide uses a timeline to explain how to measure the product’s impact, complete with screenshots for clarity.
This approach not only engages the viewer but also provides a comprehensive overview of the product's capabilities. And, by sharing how to use data-driven insights to make the most of the platform, it helps build trust and credibility with potential customers.
WiseStamp , an email signature manager solution, uses dynamic variables on their first slide to embed the prospect's name and their company's name.
The introduction slide visualizes what the prospect's email signature would look like if they signed up for WiseStamp. All the data, including the name, address, phone number, and website, can be pulled directly from the CRM thanks to robust integration capabilities .
And, once they’ve seen the end result, prospects can also watch a short video showing how the product works.
All this combined makes potential customers feel like the presentation was created specifically for them, when in reality it takes just a few clicks to create unlimited versions of any deck.
The end result? A completion rate of 60% and a CTA conversion rate of 10%!
Octopai , an automated data intelligence platform, also leverages the power of personalization by including a dynamic variable on the cover slide.
The introduction slide grabs the readers’ attention by using a running number to present an agonizing problem statement. The third slide uses shocking statistics to reiterate the main issue plaguing the industry, paired with relevant images.
This approach effectively highlights the problem that Octopai solves. It can easily be personalized to include the prospect’s specific pain points, either found online or mentioned during the discovery call, making them more likely to be interested in the solution.
And, it worked wonders for the Octopai team! Their salespeople could easily create several versions of the same deck using the intuitive editor, leading to more demos booked and improved sales calls.
Orbiit , a virtual networking platform, provides a link to a shorter executive summary on their first slide for prospects who don't have time to read the whole presentation. Using the analytics panel, they can easily see who clicked on it and who didn’t, and follow up accordingly.
The introduction slide uses running numbers to present statistics regarding networking benefits before moving on to the main problem statement.
This engaging approach shows the importance of solving the issue and positions Orbiit as the perfect solution provider right from the start.
If you want to see more presentation introduction samples, check out our examples section .
To ensure your introduction hits the right notes, here are some key do's and don'ts:
✅ Ignite interest with a compelling hook, like a surprising fact or a provocative question.
✅ State the purpose of your presentation clearly. Make sure your audience understands why they should care.
✅ Enhance your introduction with strategic visuals. A picture can speak a thousand words.
✅ Tailor your introduction to your specific audience. Make them feel seen and understood.
✅ Include an estimated reading time. It helps set expectations.
❌ Flood your audience with too much information upfront. Keep it simple and intriguing.
❌ Begin with a lengthy personal introduction that doesn't directly relate to your topic.
❌ Include large blocks of text. They can be overwhelming and off-putting.
❌ Send generic introductions. They can make your audience feel disconnected.
❌ Leave your audience in the dark about how long your presentation will take.
By analyzing how clients interact with your content, you can then tailor the introduction of your following presentation to their preferences and expectations.
Say the first presentation was a sales one pager, you can use the engagement data gained there to tailor the intro for your sales proposal.
You can use engagement data to answer which slides and topics they engaged with and which they skipped, or if they viewed a video, used a calculator, filled out a form, or clicked your CTA.
You can then use this information to deduce what they really care about and use that information in your next intro.
The only problem is that with traditional static presentation makers like PowerPoint or Google Slides the only information you can get is whether the email where you attached them was opened.
You’re completely blind to what happens after you hit ‘Send’, good or bad.
But if you upgrade from static PowerPoints to Storydoc’s AI business presentation maker you get out-of-the-box analytics with multi-layered engagement information down to the slide and button interactions.
You can learn more about presentation analytics here:
According to our research, personalizing your presentation can greatly improve your presentation performance. For example, including a personal note in your presentation can get 68% more people to read it in full and share it internally 2.3x more often.
But personalization takes time. Time which most of us can’t afford to spend on every reader.
However, this can easily be done at scale by integrating Storydoc with your existing tech stack.
Doing this will enable you to pull customer data directly from your CRM and into your presentations with a single click (and send back engagement data to your CRM!).
All you have to do is use dynamic variables in your presentations the same way you’d use them in your email automation.
Address your readers by name, use their company logo and branding, and include a note or a video that addresses their specific pain points.
This is how it works:
When you're tasked with introducing various elements, tabs can be a game-changer. They allow you to neatly organize and present different entities such as the speaker, team, or company, each in their own dedicated space.
This way, you can customize the content to suit different audience personas.
For a more chronological approach, the timeline slide can be a great tool. It enables you to guide your audience through the history of your company or personal journey, highlighting each significant event individually.
It's a simple yet effective way to make your introduction more engaging and informative.
Creating a presentation from scratch can feel like climbing a mountain. You need to figure out the layout, the message, the story, and the visuals—it's a lot to handle!
But what if you could skip the uphill struggle and get a head start? That's where interactive introduction slide templates shine.
They offer you a ready-made design and content structure, guiding you on where to place your key points for maximum impact. It's like having a roadmap to a successful presentation.
So, why not take the shortcut? Pick a template and start building your engaging interactive presentation introduction today!
Hi, I'm Dominika, Content Specialist at Storydoc. As a creative professional with experience in fashion, I'm here to show you how to amplify your brand message through the power of storytelling and eye-catching visuals.
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Home Blog Presentation Ideas How to Start a Presentation: 5 Strong Opening Slides and 12 Tricks To Test
Knowing how to start a presentation is crucial: if you fail to capture the audience’s attention right off the bat, your entire presentation will flop. Few listeners will stick with you to the end and retain what you have told.
That is mildly unpleasant when you are doing an in-house presentation in front of your colleagues. But it can become utterly embarrassing when you present in front of larger audiences (e.g., at a conference) or worse – delivering a sales presentation to prospective customers.
Here is how most of us begin a presentation: give an awkward greeting, thank everyone for coming, clear our throats, tap the mic, and humbly start to mumble about our subject. The problem with such an opening performance? It effectively kills and buries even the best messages.
Table of Contents
Let’s say you have all of your presentation slides polished up (in case you don’t, check our quick & effective PowerPoint presentation design tips first). Your presentation has a clear storyline and agenda. Main ideas are broken into bite-sized statements for your slides and complemented with visuals. All you have left is to figure out how you begin presenting.
The best way is to appeal to and invoke certain emotions in your audience – curiosity, surprise, fear, or good old amusements. Also, it is recommended to present your main idea in the first 30 seconds of the presentation. And here’s how it’s done.
When you don’t feel like reinventing the wheel, use a classic trick from the book – start with a quick personal introduction. Don’t want to sound as boring as everyone else with your humble “Hi, I’m John, the head of the Customer Support Department”? Great, because we are all about promoting effective presentation techniques (hint: using a dull welcome slide isn’t one of them).
Here’s how to introduce yourself in a presentation the right way.
To ace a presentation, you need to connect with your audience. The best way to do so is by throwing in a simple story showing who you are, where you came from, and why your words matter.
The human brain loves a good story, and we are more inclined to listen and retain the information told this way. Besides, when we can relate to the narrator (or story hero), we create an emotional bond with them, and, again – become more receptive, and less skeptical of the information that is about to be delivered.
So here are your presentation introduction lines:
My name is Joanne, and I’m the Head of Marketing at company XYZ. Five years ago I was working as a waitress, earning $10/hour and collecting rejection letters from editors. About ten letters every week landed to my mailbox. You see, I love words, but decent publisher thought mine were good enough. Except for the restaurant owner. I was very good at up-selling and recommending dishes to the customers. My boss even bumped my salary to $15/hour as a token of appreciation for my skill. And this made me realize: I should ditch creative writing and focus on copywriting instead. After loads of trial and error back in the day, I learned how to write persuasive copy. I was no longer getting rejection letters. I was receiving thousands of emails saying that someone just bought another product from our company. My sales copy pages generated over $1,500,000 in revenue over last year. And I want to teach you how to do the same”
This one’s simple and effective as well. Introduce yourself by sharing an obvious stereotype about your profession. This cue will help you connect with your audience better, make them chuckle a bit, and set a lighter mood for the speech to follow.
Here’s how you can frame your intro:
“My name is ___, and I am a lead software engineer at our platform [Your Job Title]. And yes, I’m that nerdy type who never liked presenting in front of large groups of people. I would rather stay in my den and write code all day long. [Stereotype]. But hey, since I have mustered enough courage…let’s talk today about the new product features my team is about to release….”
After sharing a quick, self-deprecating line, you transition back to your topic, reinforcing the audience’s attention . Both of these formulas help you set the “mood” for your further presentation, so try using them interchangeably on different occasions.
Wow your audience straight off the bat by sharing something they would not expect to hear. This may be one of the popular first-time presentation tips but don’t rush to discard it.
Because here’s the thing: psychologically , we are more inclined to pay attention whenever presented with an unexpected cue. When we know what will happen next – someone flips the switch, and lights turn on – we don’t really pay much attention to that action.
But when we don’t know what to expect next – e.g., someone flips the switch and a bell starts ringing – we are likely to pay more attention to what will happen next. The same goes for words: everyone loves stories with unpredictable twists. So begin your presentation with a PowerPoint introduction slide or a line that no one expects to hear.
Here are a few hook examples you can swipe:
It creates an instant jolt and makes the audience intrigued to hear what you are about to say next – pedal back, continue with the provocation, or do something else that they will not expect.
“You will live seven and a half minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just because you watched this talk.”
That’s how Jane McGonigal opens one of her TED talks . Shocking and intriguing, right?
Seasoned presenters know that one good practice is to ask a question at the beginning of a presentation to increase audience engagement. Rhetorical questions have a great persuasive effect – instead of answering aloud, your audience will silently start musing over it during your presentation. They aroused curiosity and motivated the audience to remain attentive, as they did want to learn your answer to this question.
To reinforce your message throughout the presentation, you can further use the Rhetorical Triangle Concept – a rhetorical approach to building a persuasive argument based on Aristotle’s teachings.
A clean slide with some mind-boggling stat makes an undeniably strong impact. Here are a few opening statement examples you can use along with your slide:
Compelling visuals are the ABC of presentation design – use them strategically to make an interesting statement at the beginning and throughout your presentation. Your first presentation slide can be text-free. Communicate your idea with a visual instead – a photo, a chart, an infographic, or another graphics asset.
Visuals are a powerful medium for communication as our brain needs just 13 milliseconds to render what our eyes see, whereas text comprehension requires more cognitive effort.
Relevant images add additional aesthetic appeal to your deck, bolster the audience’s imagination, and make your key message instantly more memorable.
Here’s an intro slide example. You want to make a strong presentation introduction to global pollution. Use the following slide to reinforce the statement you share:
“Seven of nine snow samples taken on land in Antarctica found chemicals known as PFAs, which are used in industrial products and can harm wildlife”
Source: Reuters
The “what if” combo carries massive power. It gives your audience a sense of what will happen if they choose to listen to you and follow your advice. Here are a few presentations with starting sentences + slides to illustrate this option:
Alternatively, you can work your way to this point using different questions:
“Imagine,” “Picture This,” and “Think of” are better word choices for when you plan to begin your presentation with a quick story.
Our brain loves interacting with stories. In fact, a captivating story makes us more collaborative. Scientists have discovered that stories with tension during narrative make us:
That’s why good action movies often feel empowering and make us want to change the world too. By incorporating a good, persuasive story with a relatable hero, you can also create that “bond” with your audience and make them more perceptive to your pitch – donate money to support the cause; explore the solution you are offering, and so on.
The curiosity gap is another psychological trick frequently used by marketers to solicit more clicks, reads, and other interactions from the audience. In essence, it’s the trick you see behind all those clickbait, Buzzfeed-style headlines:
Not everyone is a fan of such titles. But the truth is – they do the trick and instantly capture attention. The curiosity gap sparks our desire to dig deeper into the matter. We are explicitly told that we don’t know something important, and now we crave to change that. Curiosity is an incredibly strong driving force for action – think Eve, think Pandora’s Box.
So consider incorporating these attention grabbers for your presentation speech to shock the audience. You can open with one, or strategically weave them in the middle of your presentation when you feel like your audience is getting tired and may lose their focus.
Here’s how you can use the curiosity gap during your presentation:
What would you do if you attended a presentation in which the speaker remains silent for 30 seconds after the presentation starts? Just the presenter, standing in front of the audience, in absolute silence.
Most likely, your mind starts racing with thoughts, expecting something of vital importance to be disclosed. The surprise factor with this effect is for us to acknowledge things we tend to take for granted.
It is a powerful resource to introduce a product or to start an inspirational presentation if followed by a fact.
In some niches, using statistics as the icebreaker is the best method to retain the audience’s interest.
Say your presentation is about climate change. Why not introduce a not-so-common fact, such as the amount of wool that can be produced out of oceanic plastic waste per month? And since you have to base your introduction on facts, research manufacturers that work with Oceanic fabrics from recycled plastic bottles .
Using facts helps to build a better narrative, and also gives leverage to your presentation as you are speaking not just from emotional elements but from actually recorded data backed up by research.
Related to our previous point, we make quite an interesting speech if we contrast a fact vs. a myth in a non-conventional way: using a myth to question a well-accepted fact, then introducing a new point of view or theory, backed on sufficient research, that proves the fact wrong. This technique, when used in niches related to academia, can significantly increase the audience’s interest, and it will highlight your presentation as innovative.
Another approach is to debunk a myth using a fact. This contrast immediately piques interest because it promises to overturn commonly held beliefs, and people naturally find it compelling when their existing knowledge is put to the test. An example of this is when a nutritionist wishes to speak about how to lose weight via diet, and debunks the myth that all carbohydrates are “bad”.
Think about a presentation that discusses the benefits of using alternative therapies to treat anxiety, reducing the need to rely on benzodiazepines. Rather than going technical and introducing facts, the presenter can play a soothing tune and invite the audience to follow an exercise that teaches how to practice breathing meditation . Perhaps, in less than 2 minutes, the presenter can accomplish the goal of exposing the advantages of this practice with a live case study fueled by the proper ambiance (due to the music played in the beginning).
Let’s picture ourselves in an in-company presentation about workspace wellness. For this company, the sedentary lifestyle their employees engage in is a worrying factor, so they brought a personal trainer to coach the employees on a basic flexibility routine they can practice in 5 minutes after a couple of hours of desk time.
“Before we dive in, let’s all stand up for a moment.” This simple instruction breaks the ice and creates a moment of shared experience among the attendees. You could then lead them through a brief stretching routine, saying something like, “Let’s reach up high, and stretch out those muscles that get so tight sitting at our desks all day.” With this action, you’re not just talking about workplace wellness, you’re giving them a direct, personal experience of it.
This approach has several advantages. Firstly, it infuses energy into the room and increases the oxygen flow to the brain, potentially boosting the audience’s concentration and retention. Secondly, it sets a precedent that your presentation is not going to be a standard lecture, but rather an interactive experience. This can raise the level of anticipation for what’s to come, and make the presentation a topic for future conversation between coworkers.
How many times have you heard the phrase: “Before we begin, I’d like to dedicate a few words to …” . The speaker could be referring to a mentor figure, a prominent person in the local community, or a group of people who performed charity work or obtained a prize for their hard work and dedication. Whichever is the reason behind this, acknowledgment is a powerful force to use as a method of starting a presentation. It builds a connection with the audience, it speaks about your values and who you admire, and it can transmit what the conversation is going to be about based on who the acknowledged person is.
Now you know how to start your presentation – you have the opening lines, you have the slides to use, and you can browse even more attractive PowerPoint presentation slides and templates on our website. Also, we recommend you visit our article on how to make a PowerPoint Presentation to get familiarized with the best tactics for professional presentation design and delivery, or if you need to save time preparing your presentation, we highly recommend you check our AI Presentation Maker to pair these concepts with cutting-edge slide design powered by AI.
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Curiosity Gap, Opening, Public Speaking, Rhetorical Triangle, Speech, What If Filed under Presentation Ideas
Filed under Presentation Ideas • August 22nd, 2024
The script of a speech is a vital aspect for a presentation’s success. Join us here to learn the process of writing a presentation script.
Filed under Presentation Ideas • September 5th, 2023
Business professionals, students, and others can all benefit from learning the principles of persuasive speech. After all, the art of persuasion can be applied to any area of life where getting people to agree with you is important. In this article, we get into the basics of persuasive speaking, persuasive speech writing, and lastly persuasive speech topics.
Filed under Presentation Ideas • August 5th, 2023
Sometimes even the best presenters procrastinate their work until the very last moment. And then, suddenly, they get a flow of ideas to complete their slide deck and present like they have been preparing for it for ages. However, doing so has drawbacks, as even professional presenters cannot always elude the side effects of […]
I love to follow the ideas, it’s good for a freshman
Hrideep barot.
It is weird how now that we all live on our laptops and depend on them for entertainment and livelihood, things that shock us aren’t that many. This is a big itchy spot when it comes to engaging audiences and having a killer opening.
Lets focus on getting that perfect first slide in your presentation to help you kick off on the right foot.
Opening presentations is an extremely daunting task. The worry of putting your best foot forward but at the same time not coming across as arrogant and the whole issue with fanning your armpits just before you step on the stage.
Yeah, I know. I relate, I think most of us do. We have braved those sweat patches and we have conquered.
It is time to up our opening game and while I will be getting to the ways we can do that, you can also check out this video for a quick idea.
Your first slide, needs to be impactful, with minimal content. An extremely difficult balance to maintain, but! Not impossible.
Your first slide, traditionally, is your name, the topic you are going to speak on and maybe on or two other details with MAYBE an image or some other graphics.
Gone are the days when we open speeches or presentations the traditional way, nothing wrong with it, but doing something “not normal” often helps us get people’s attention and that is the easiest way to get your points across and have them received positively.
Let’s check out a few ways you can open slides for a strong opening!
We’ve got our thinking cap on, let’s get cracking!
There are so many ways we can have a strong opening, even when you think presentations limit you.
Think of it this way, because people know you’re going to presenting something, they are going to give you full control of a projector. A big ass screen for all to see. If that isn’t filled with potential, I don’t know what is.
Well, with great power comes great responsibility, so let’s check out a few ways we can have killer opening slides , while of course being responsible… ish.
There is no better way to get the audience to remember you than putting a giant photo of yourself on the screen and going, this is me, – an extremely edited version of me, but still, me. 🙂
Buddy. No. That was an attempt at being the funny – clever person. Clearly it didn’t work.
Don’t get me wrong, talking about yourself is good, important even to some extent, but that is it you see, it isn’t the fact that you’re talking about yourself that is the problem but what are you talking about that is.
The usual go to is to list out your biodata for the audience to read on the screen, while you speak the exact same thing off of the presentation. This is where we go wrong, no one wants to know about all your seven Ph.Ds. Bruce. (get the reference please)
Be proud of your qualifications, you earned them, but know when and where which qualification might be useful.
For example, you are a certified chartered accountant and have written plays that were on Broadway. In a screenwriting workshop / panel / seminar, as great as getting your chartered accountancy is, your experience as a writer holds way more value and is what will help you get the audience’s attention.
Let’s create an opening slide with the above example.
I used these polaroid photo ideas because for a play on Broadway, we’d love to see pictures! You can use tasteful pictures and even stock photos to help your audience get the right idea of your background.
Of course, I used these random paper elements to give it a more “writer” feel and also because this is my aesthetic, but you need to remember that this is your presentation and no cookie cutter mould will work. Even templates are meant to be edited to suit your needs.
Is this to make your audience feel dumb? As much as that chaotic evil side of you may want to. Never do that. Respect their experiences as much as you would want them to respect yours.
Starting off with a quiz is a great way to warm up the crowd and get them involved in your presentation. Give them something to think about and it honestly doesn’t matter if they get it right or wrong, what matters is that they are trying to answer and interact!
Quizzes are a great ice breaker and also a great tool to get the audience going, you can also try to have a one off question or a series of questions.
Lets take the slide as an example, it could be for a presentation on a film industry and the question could be, guess the film from these three pictures, or they could be three different questions.
Remember as an opening slide, it should neither be text nor image heavy, just the right amount.
You could even create a game out of those quizzes and have checked off your list and even use these as a starting off point and come back to the topics (which could be your answers) while using this quiz as a reference point. The possibilities are endless!
It always great to know what your audience is thinking, or in the least get them thinking!
You see, once they start thinking, they begin forming an opinion about the topic, which gets them invested and since you are the person addressing the topic, they will begin comparing their point of view / opinion with what they are saying.
There will always be different perspectives, what matters here is that they are invested enough to pay attention to you.
A really easy way to help them get started with forming an opinion is, asking them to take a minute to think about something.
For example: Think about a dancing monkey.
Can some of you describe the monkey you imagined, in the comment section? Was it wearing tap shoes and a top hat? Was it wearing a marching band uniform? Did it have your best friend’s face on it? Mine did!
Each of you had your own Dancing Monkey, and if thinking about it for a few seconds made it your own, imagine the attachment you can build by just spending a few minutes or even the duration of a presentation on it!
For example, you’re taking a presentation on perspectives or psychology. You can display this image and ask them what they think of it. Some may think about freedom, some loneliness and some people’s thoughts may be so profound that we could’ve never thought of it!
This could work just as marvellous as sharing an image and opening a short discussion on its interpretations. You could even start with a video and use it as a segue into your presentation.
For example this video could be used as a great example for a marketing strategy by the brand and could be a great way to get the audience interested given the emotional quotient and relatable sibling content.
Using an image might not necessarily mean that you can only invite the audience to imagine and think on their own. You can use an image to start your presentation and help get your point across.
You see that how the image is the hero of the slide? There is text, definitely, but much smaller, it looks as a complementary to the image instead of the other way around.
In this slide for example, assume poverty is the topic, a very telling image of poverty could help get the conversation started and make the audience more receptive of the topic.
An image in a way helps them “put a face” to the issue and that makes is easier for you to hold their attention and keep it.
It is well known and understood how impactful the right quote at the right time can be.
Lets focus on some things that people can often get wrong when using quotes.
Firstly, using long quotes, this is a no no when it comes to presentations because, then the audience will be in a rush to read the whole quote and if your point is made before then, well, we won’t get the desired effect will we?
Another thing to keep in mind is to not have a quote just to use it as a quote, pretty cryptic, honestly it is simple, if you are giving a presentation on a person and using their quote or you are using a random quote, make sure to have something to add to it.
It could be something simple. For example when talking about a person’s life:
“When this person said this, they were on their death bed, but they had lead a vivacious life until then to say the least, let’s start at the very beginning…”
Notice how despite there being a background picture, a text box, a bird in the corner, and all that, the text is what is the hero of the slide. You could even add a picture of the person whom you are quoting if it seems relevant.
Remember to always give credit where it is due. It never hurts.
Who doesn’t love a good story? Storytelling is a major part of public speaking where animation, emotion and gestures and tones play a huge role in delivering your point.
With presentations, you need to remember to not just select any story, you need find / write a story that connects well to your topic, for example, if we are speaking about technology, a story about Alice and her looking glass don’t really give you much room to work in a segue.
Storytelling is a whole other conversation, check out this article to learn more about public speaking and how storytelling factors into it: Public Speech Into Story: 3 Steps To Telling A Captivating Story
Here the pictures are the heroes, and while words are important, make them complementary to what you are speaking.
Starting off with a joke is also a very popular trick and I think why should it be this or that, why should it be a joke or a story, why can’t it be a humorous story?
Now don’t go fretting about because it doesn’t have to be fictional, it could even be an anecdote from your experiences or maybe one comic strip you found online.
When it comes to humorous speeches, it can be quite intimidating, but here is an article I think will help you wade through these waters: A Guide To Using Humour In Your Speech
This is a great way to introduce your topic to a crowd that doesn’t know your topic well. Create examples or situations to help your audience gain a smooth entry into your presentation.
It is like math, it is fun when you understand, and that means you care and give attention to it.
You can also use case studies or make your examples into stories to make it more subtle and seamless.
Here is where a traditional topic, sentence and image layout of an opening slide is best suggested. You can build this in any direction and still be able to relate to your slide.
Facing facts instances that are always either pleasantly welcomed or hard to swallow. Hitting the audience with hard facts works really well, especially if what you are going to talk about is a difficult or sensitive issue.
An astonishing fact is bound to catch people’s attention and you can always use it to your advantage!
According to Femme International, over the last 20 years, the sanitary pad sector has bloomed and advanced; they have taken over the industry and 85% of menstruating women in the country use napkins. As society progressed and the taboo on periods were lifted from many regions, a new problem came up. One which is really harmful. We all know that the blood that comes out during our periods is harmful and full of bacteria. Now include this bacteria filled blood with a pad which takes 500-800 years to decompose. That’s right, 500-800 years of a used sanitary napkin breeding bacteria in rivers, drains, soil and the sea. A menstruating woman uses 15-20 pads for one cycle. Which sums up to 7,200-9,600 pads over an average period of 40 years. This is just for one woman. According to UNICEF roughly 26% of the world’s population are menstruating women. This means that 2.28 BILLION women are going to use over 9,000 pads EACH during their menstruating years.
Always try to not keep your introductory slides text heavy, but when starting with facts, try to highlight them, notice how the topic and the image are not very prominent but play their part in bringing together the entire slide while the first thing you read is the fact, underlined and set in the middle.
Try to play around with the layouts, figure out what suits your needs the best.
Who doesn’t love controversies?
Even if we know something is clickbait, it still catches our eye. Even if we know something to not be possible, when someone says it – with conviction, our ears do perk up.
It doesn’t have to be something extraordinary, just not ordinary enough that it catches people’s attention and in the end, you can always use it to connect your conclusion to your introduction.
Here is a great TEDTalk that would help you understand what I am talking about.
If you plan to use this method, it is easier to dive into your slides after you’ve made the statement and start elaborating on it instead of right at the beginning, it could start with your topic or some proof or where ever your presentation takes you!
A presentation carries as much personality as its maker, if you want the right impact you need to use the templates, infographics and tools available to you to the fullest, but remember, there is a thing called “too much” as well.
The easiest way to kill it with your presentations is to keep it neat, in your aesthetic and to the point. Make it engaging, make it colourful, make it black and white. It would work perfectly if it bounces off your personality on stage.
Schedule a call with our expert communication coach to know if this program would be the right fit for you
Copyright © 2023 Frantically Speaking All rights reserved
Last Updated: December 28, 2023 References
This article was co-authored by Lynn Kirkham . Lynn Kirkham is a Professional Public Speaker and Founder of Yes You Can Speak, a San Francisco Bay Area-based public speaking educational business empowering thousands of professionals to take command of whatever stage they've been given - from job interviews, boardroom talks to TEDx and large conference platforms. Lynn was chosen as the official TEDx Berkeley speaker coach for the last four years and has worked with executives at Google, Facebook, Intuit, Genentech, Intel, VMware, and others. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 59,523 times.
A good introduction gets the audience interested in the rest of your presentation. Before you speak, take the time to figure out which introduction style is most likely to appeal to your audience. Perfect it with plenty of editing, rehearsing, and a little memorization. Then, by being an engaging speaker, you can make your presentation a success.
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Blog > English Presentation Structure (Introduction, Closing) & useful Phrases
02.21.20 • #powerpoint #presentation #english.
When giving a presentation in english, there are certain guidelines you should follow. Maybe you haven't got a lot of experience presenting - or you would simply like to refresh your already existing knowledge - we're here to teach you the basics about presenting and provide you with a free list of useful phrases and the basic structure you can in your presentation!
The general structure of a presentation is the following:
It is up to you to design these three parts. Using videos or everyday-examples can be a great way to introduce the audience to the topic. The important thing is that you capture the audience's attention from the beginning by making an interesting introduction. The main part is where you present your topic, ideally divided into sections. You can be creative with it - incorporate images, videos, stories or interactive polls . We generally recommend using different kinds of elements, as that makes the presentation more lively. Make sure your main part is well structured, so your audience can follow. In the conclusion, you should give a short summary of the points you made without adding any new information. You can also make an appeal to your audience in the end.
Here you'll find several phrases that you'll need in every presentation. Of course, you should adapt them and use them in a context that is suitable for your setting. The phrases are divided into subcategories so you can find what you're looking for more easily.
In your introduction, you should:
Welcome your audience
Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!
Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to my presentation about...
Introduce yourself
I am ... (from company ...) and today I would like to introduce you to the topic of ...
My name is ... and I am going to talk about ... today.
Icebreakers (for audience engagement)
Icebreaker polls are an amazing way to engage your audience instantly. They function as a fun and playful element at the beginning, giving you the perfect start you need to give a successful presentation. Click here to read our detailed post about icebreaker polls!
Mention the presentation topic and the reason for giving the presentation
I am grateful to be here today and tell you you about...
I would like to take this opportunity to talk about ...
I am here today to talk to you about ...
The reason why I am here today to talk about ... is ...
The purpose of this presentation is to ...
My goal today is to ...
Hopefully, by the end of the presentation, you will all know more about ...
Give a short overview of the content
To make it as understandable as possible, I divided my presentation into ... parts. In the first part, I will concentrate on ..., the second part will be about ..., ...
First of all, I will give you a short introduction, then we will move on to ...
... and finally, I will give you some insights to ...
Here are a few phrases that you could use during the whole presentation, but especially in the main part.
Engage your audience
In order to raise the audience's attention and improve their engagement, it is extremely important to make contact with them. A great way to do so is by adding interactive elements such as polls. If you would like to know more about this topic, read our article on How To Boost Audience Engagement . You can also use a software like SlideLizard , which allows you to conduct live polls, do Q&A sessions with your audience, share your resources and many more benefits that take your presentation to the next level.
Please raise your hand if you ...
Have you ever thought about ... ?
I would like to do a poll about ...
Please ask any questions as soon as they arrive.
On one hand, … on the other hand…
Comparing … with …, we can see that…
Clearly, … makes more sense than …
Whereas Option A is …, Option B is …
Making new points
Firstly,… Secondly,…
What also has to be mentioned is…
Next, I would like to bring up the topic of…
That being said, now we are going to take a look at…
Let's move on to the next topic.
On the next slide,…
The last thing I would like to mention is…
We made a whole blog post about how to pose questions in your presentation: The Right Way to do a Question Slide .
Talking about images or videos
In this image you can clearly see that ...
We are now going to take a look at a picture/video of ...
I'm going to show you a video by ... about ... now.
I've prepared a video about ...
Talking about statistics and charts
I am now addressing this graph that refers to the results of study XY.
In the graph on this slide, you can see that ...
The average is at ...
This graph clearly shows that the majority ...
According to this graph, the focus should be on ...
What that study tells us for practice is that we should ...
Emphasizing
I would like to emphasize the importance of ...
Moreover, it has to be said that ...
I want to stress the importance of ...
We always have to remember that ...
This is of high significance because ...
That part is especially important because ...
When something goes wrong
I am sorry, but it seems like the projector isn't working.
Could someone please help me with ...?
Is anybody here who knows how to ...?
Could someone give me a hand with ...
I would like to apologize for ...
I apologize for the technical problems, we are going to continue in a minute.
I am sorry for the inconvenience.
In the conclusion, you should...
Sum up the main points
In conclusion I can say that…
To sum up the main points,…
With all mentioned aspects taken into consideration, I can say that…
Make an appeal
So please, in the future, try to be conscious about...
Please take a moment to think about...
I would like to encourage you to...
Thank your audience and say goodbye
It was a pleasure being here today.
Thank you for listening and goodbye.
Thank you for being such a great, engaged audience. Goodbye.
Thank you so much for listening, see you next time.
What is the structure of a presentation?
Your presentations should always have an Introduction, a Main part and a Conclusion.
What is a good way to begin a presentation?
You can start by introducing yourself, giving an overview of your topic, telling a little story or showing the audience an introductory video or image.
What are good phrases to use in English presentations?
There are many phrases that will make your presentation a lot more professional. Our blog post gives you a detailed overview.
About the author.
Pia Lehner-Mittermaier
Pia works in Marketing as a graphic designer and writer at SlideLizard. She uses her vivid imagination and creativity to produce good content.
Do you want to make your presentations more interactive.
With SlideLizard you can engage your audience with live polls, questions and feedback . Directly within your PowerPoint Presentation. Learn more
for your PowerPoint Presentations
Hybrid event.
When an event consist of both virtual and in-person parts, this is called a hybrid event. This type of event is popular as it combines the benefits of both online and live events.
In live online training, it is sometimes useful to divide the students into small groups for certain exercises, as it would be impossible to have conversations at the same time. Break-out-rooms are used so that people can talk to each other without disturbing the others. When the exercise is over, they are sent back to the main room.
Audience Demographics are the characteristics of listeners like age, gender, cultural backgrounds, group affiliations and educational level. The speaker has to consider all these characteristics when adapting to an audience.
An information presentation is created when no solution is currently available. Facts, data and figures or study results are presented and current processes are described.
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Updated: August 15, 2024
Published: August 09, 2023
Cooking is easy. The puzzle is figuring out what to eat. As soon as you know that, you can get started. The same holds for presentations. The sooner you can whip up a good, informative, and catchy topic, the easier the rest of the process becomes.
Pick a good topic that resonates with you and your audience to set a strong foundation. But select the wrong topic, and it becomes difficult to connect with your audience, find mutual interests, or hold their attention.
So, let’s learn how to develop thought-provoking and relevant topics for your presentations. You’ll also find some best practices to make your presentation memorable.
Everything you need to become more comfortable and effective during your next presentation, including:
Table of Contents
120 presentation topic ideas, 5 presentation tips.
There are many ways to present a topic. Your personality, the topic at hand, and your audience’s personas will help you determine which style would best fit you and your audience.
Select a presentation style that will communicate the main idea clearly and have a lasting impact on your audience.
For instance, explore a freeform style presenter by Sir Ken Robinson.
Work on your presentation skills to make a strong connection with your audience, get through to them and leave a mark.
Think of the presenter as the link between the topic and the audience. A strong or a weak presenter can make a difference between a presentation being a thriving success or a boring failure.
Hone your skills by engaging and interacting with your audience. Make them feel like a part of the presentation and not just spectators. 70% of marketers have found presentations with interactive content to be more effective than those without.
Here are a few ways you can make your presentation interactive:
Now you have all the right ingredients for choosing amazing topics and a hundred ideas to drive inspiration from. So, go ahead and start cooking presentations that will blow your audience away.
Don’t forget to choose a super-relevant topic and add meaty information. Do it with excitement to make it enjoyable for you and your audience. Best of luck!
Related articles.
Everything you need to become a strong public speaker, including a guide on crafting compelling presentations.
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Presentations have the advantage that many standard phrases can be used at various points. Perhaps you wish to welcome the audience, introduce the speaker and the topic, outline the structure, offer a summary, or deal with questions. In all these situations, you can apply a number of useful expressions that will make your presentation a linguistic success.
At the beginning of each presentation, you should welcome your audience. Depending on who you are addressing, you should extend a more or less formal welcome.
Good morning/afternoon/evening, ladies and gentlemen/everyone.
On behalf of “Company X”, allow me to extend a warm welcome to you.
Hi, everyone. Welcome to “Name of the event”.
The level of formality of your welcome address will also apply to how you introduce yourself. Customize it to match your audience.
Let me briefly introduce myself. My name is “John Miller” and I am delighted to be here today to talk to you about…
First, let me introduce myself. My name is “John Miller” and I am the “Position” of “Company X”.
I’m “John” from “Company Y” and today I’d like to talk to you about…
After the welcome address and the introduction of the speaker comes the presentation of the topic. Here are some useful introductory phrases.
Today I am here to talk to you about…
What I am going to talk about today is…
I would like to take this opportunity to talk to you about…
I am delighted to be here today to tell you about…
I want to make you a short presentation about…
I’d like to give you a brief breakdown of…
It is always recommended to present the goals of your presentation at the beginning. This will help the audience to understand your objectives.
The purpose of this presentation is…
My objective today is…
After presenting the topic and your objectives, give your listeners an overview of the presentation’s structure. Your audience will then know what to expect in detail.
My talk/presentation is divided into “x” parts.
I’ll start with…/First, I will talk about…/I’ll begin with…
…then I will look at…
and finally…
After all this preparation, you can finally get started with the main part of the presentation. The following phrases will help you with that.
Let me start with some general information on…
Let me begin by explaining why/how…
I’d like to give you some background information about…
Before I start, does anyone know…
As you are all aware…
I think everybody has heard about…, but hardly anyone knows a lot about it.
If you have completed a chapter or section of your presentation, inform your audience, so that they do not lose their train of thought.
That’s all I have to say about…
We’ve looked at…
So much for…
Drawing interim conclusions is of utmost importance in a presentation, particularly at the end of a chapter or section. Without interim conclusions, your audience will quickly forget everything you may have said earlier.
Let’s summarize briefly what we have looked at.
Here is a quick recap of the main points of this section.
I’d like to recap the main points.
Well, that’s about it for this part. We’ve covered…
Use one of the following phrases to move on from one chapter to the next.
I’d now like to move on to the next part…
This leads me to my next point, which is…
Turning our attention now to…
Let’s now turn to…
Frequently, you have to give examples in a presentation. The following phrases are useful in that respect.
For example,…
A good example of this is…
As an illustration,…
To give you an example,…
To illustrate this point…
In a presentation, you may often need to provide more details regarding a certain issue. These expressions will help you to do so.
I’d like to expand on this aspect/problem/point.
Let me elaborate further on…
If you want to link to another point in your presentation, the following phrases may come in handy.
As I said at the beginning,…
This relates to what I was saying earlier…
Let me go back to what I said earlier about…
This ties in with…
In longer presentations, you run the risk that after a while the audience may forget your original topic and objective. Therefore, it makes sense to refer to the starting point from time to time.
I hope that you are a little clearer on how we can…
To return to the original question, we can…
Just to round the talk off, I want to go back to the beginning when I…
I hope that my presentation today will help with what I said at the beginning…
In a presentation, you frequently have to refer to external sources, such as studies and surveys. Here are some useful phrases for marking these references.
Based on our findings,…
According to our study,…
Our data shows/indicates…
Presentations are usually full of graphs and images. Use the following phrases to give your audience an understanding of your visuals.
Let me use a graphic to explain this.
I’d like to illustrate this point by showing you…
Let the pictures speak for themselves.
I think the graph perfectly shows how/that…
If you look at this table/bar chart/flow chart/line chart/graph, you can see that…
To ensure that your presentation does not sound monotonous, from time to time you should emphasize certain points. Here are some suggestions.
It should be emphasized that…
I would like to draw your attention to this point…
Another significant point is that…
The significance of this is…
This is important because…
We have to remember that…
At times it might happen that you expressed yourself unclearly and your audience did not understand your point. In such a case, you should paraphrase your argument using simpler language.
In other words,…
To put it more simply,…
What I mean to say is…
So, what I’m saying is….
To put it in another way….
Questions are an integral part of a presentation. These phrases allow you to respond to questions during a presentation.
Does anyone have any questions or comments?
I am happy to answer your questions now.
Please feel free to interrupt me if you have questions.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Please stop me if you have any questions.
Do you have any questions before I move on?
If there are no further questions at this point, I’d like to…
To ensure that a presentation is not disrupted by questions, it is advisable to answer questions at the very end. Inform your audience about this by using these phrases.
There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.
I’ll gladly answer any of your questions at the end.
I’d be grateful if you could ask your questions after the presentation.
After answering a question from the audience, check that the addressee has understood your answer and is satisfied with it.
Does this answer your question?
Did I make myself clear?
I hope this explains the situation for you.
Occasionally, it may happen that you do not have an answer to a question. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Simply use one of the following phrases to address the fact.
That’s an interesting question. I don’t actually know off the top of my head, but I’ll try to get back to you later with an answer.
I’m afraid I’m unable to answer that at the moment. Perhaps, I can get back to you later.
Good question. I really don’t know! What do you think?
That’s a very good question. However, I don’t have any figures on that, so I can’t give you an accurate answer.
Unfortunately, I’m not the best person to answer that.
At the end of the presentation, you should summarize the important facts once again.
I’d like to conclude by…
In conclusion, let me sum up my main points.
Weighing the pros and cons, I come to the conclusion that…
That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thank you for listening/your attention.
Thank you all for listening. It was a pleasure being here today.
Well, that’s it from me. Thanks very much.
That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thanks for your attention.
If you are not the only speaker, you can hand over to somebody else by using one of these phrases.
Now I will pass you over to my colleague ‘Jerry’.
‘Jerry’, the floor is yours.
We hope that our article will help you in preparing and holding your next presentation. It goes without saying that our list is just a small extract from the huge world of expressions and phrases. As always, the Internet is an inexhaustible source of further information. Here are the links to two websites that we would recommend to you in this context.
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Self introductions are a common occurrence in a variety of settings, such as job interviews, networking events, and social gatherings. It’s important to be able to confidently introduce yourself and share some key information about yourself in a clear and concise manner.
The following list provides a range of topic ideas that you can use to structure your self introduction and make a positive impression. Whether you’re looking to share your personal interests, career goals, or background information, these topics can help you get started.
2. education and career, 3. interests and hobbies, 4. family and relationships, 5. goals and aspirations, 6. personal values, 7. challenges and struggles, 8. travel experiences, 9. personal motto or philosophy, 10. challenges and struggles, 11. cultural background, 12. strengths and weaknesses, 13. accomplishments, 14. personal challenges, 15. future plans, 16. fun or unique experiences, 17. personality traits , final thoughts.
This can include your name, where you’re from, and any relevant personal or professional background information. Keep it brief but include enough context to spark interest from the audience.
You could talk about your education, any degrees or certifications you have, and your current career or profession. If you’re looking for a job, you could also include what you’re looking for and your relevant qualifications.
Share some of your interests and hobbies that you’re passionate about. This could be anything from a sport or hobby to a personal project or volunteer work.
You could mention your family, any significant others or close friends, and any other relationships that are important to you. Having a strong support system is a great way to show your commitment and dedication to your personal and professional life.
By sharing your goals and aspirations, you can demonstrate your ambition and enthusiasm for the future. This could include your ambitions for your current job or any other goals you want to achieve in your life.
Sharing your personal values can give others an understanding of what is important to you and how you approach life. Let people know what drives you and your beliefs about yourself, the world, and the people around you.
Be ready to talk about any challenges and struggles you’ve faced in life. This could be anything from a difficult experience to a moment of personal growth. Sharing how you overcame these obstacles can be a great way to show resilience and strength of character.
If you’ve had the opportunity to travel, you could talk about where you’ve been and any memorable experiences you’ve had. Your audience could relate to similar experiences they’ve had and it could spark interesting conversations.
Do you have a personal motto or philosophy that guides your life? Sharing this can give others a better understanding of your values and beliefs.
Sharing any challenges or struggles you’ve faced can help others see that they’re not alone and can also give you an opportunity to talk about how you’ve overcome those challenges. These experiences can be valuable for connecting with others and building relationships.
You could talk about your cultural background, including your ethnicity, language(s) spoken, and any cultural traditions that are important to you. It can be a great way to show cultural pride and start conversations about diversity and inclusion.
You don’t have to be perfect! Talking about your strengths and weaknesses can be a great way to show humility and self-awareness. It can also give others a better understanding of who you are and how you approach different situations.
Don’t be shy about your accomplishments! Talk about any awards, recognition, or achievements you’ve had in your life. It’s a great way to showcase your hard work and dedication.
You could talk about any personal challenges you’ve faced and the strategies you used to overcome them. This could include anything from a major life transition to a difficult decision you had to make.
Whether they’re related to your personal or professional life, talking about your future plans can be a great way to show your enthusiasm and confidence. It could also spark interesting conversations about what each person’s plans for the future are.
Do you have any fun or unique experiences that you’d like to share? This could be anything from participating in a marathon to skydiving to volunteering for a cause you’re passionate about.
Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Do you tend to be more organized or spontaneous? Sharing your personality traits can help others get to know you better and could also spark conversations about different personalities.
Introducing yourself can be an intimidating task, but with the right topics and preparation, you can make a positive impression and start meaningful conversations. Whatever setting you’re in, remember to stay true to who you are and highlight the unique qualities that make you stand out. By using these topics to structure your self introduction, you can confidently introduce yourself and make a lasting impression.
By Adilene Mendoza | April 05, 2024
Join us for the presentations of the three innovative QEP topics below at 1:00 p.m., Monday, April 8, in the Wilhelmina Cullen Robertson Auditorium, or join via Zoom. There will be a brief break after the first topic presentation so that those interested may observe the solar eclipse, after which the presentations will continue.
This event promises to be an insightful exploration of strategies to enhance the educational experience at UHD. For more information, visit the SACSCOC QEP webpage.
We look forward to your participation!
QEP 1: Better Through Belonging
This topic aims to enhance students' sense of belonging in their academic fields through focused curriculum development. Strategies include enhancing first-year seminars, expanding field experience courses, and implementing collaborative interventions. Aligned with UHD's mission, this plan spans five years to enrich the student experience and promote a dynamic learning environment.
QEP 2: Leaders Are Readers
This topic seeks to foster a culture of passionate reading through various engaging programs, each led by dedicated faculty sponsors. These programs include Book Club Underground, Read To Lead, Newsroom, Quackshack, Watson, Connections, and Readability. By promoting a theme of reading one great book a month, we aim to inspire students to explore diverse topics and develop critical reading skills.
QEP 3: Transferrable Skills for The 21st Century
This topic focuses on equipping students with essential transferable skills needed for success in impactful careers. By integrating career readiness components into degree programs, students will gain proficiency in professional skills such as teamwork, communication, problem-solving, and time management. The program emphasizes the application of academic learning to real-world settings, accelerating talent development and enhancing career prospects.
STAT 3255/5255 @ UConn, Fall 2024
Jun Yan and Students in Fall 2024
August 26, 2024
The notes were developed with Quarto; for details about Quarto, visit https://quarto.org/docs/books .
These lecture notes for STAT 3255/5255 in Fall 2024 represent a collaborative effort between Professor Jun Yan and the students enrolled in the course. This cooperative approach to education was facilitated through the use of GitHub, a platform that encourages collaborative coding and content development. To view these contributions and the lecture notes in their entirety, please visit our Spring 2024 repository at https://github.com/statds/ids-f24 .
Students contributed to the lecture notes by submitting pull requests to our dedicated GitHub repository. This method not only enriched the course material but also provided students with practical experience in collaborative software development and version control.
For those interested in exploring the lecture notes from the previous years, the Spring 2024 , Spring 2023 and Spring 2022 are both publicly accessible. These archives offer valuable insights into the evolution of the course content and the different perspectives brought by successive student cohorts.
Final project.
Students are encouraged to start designing their final projects from the beginning of the semester. There are many open data that can be used. Here is a list of data challenges that you may find useful:
If you work on sports analytics, you are welcome to submit a poster to UConn Sports Analytics Symposium (UCSAS) 2024 .
In this course, students are expected to rapidly acquire new skills, a critical aspect of data science. To emphasize this, consider this insightful quote from VanderPlas ( 2016 ) :
When a technologically-minded person is asked to help a friend, family member, or colleague with a computer problem, most of the time it’s less a matter of knowing the answer as much as knowing how to quickly find an unknown answer. In data science it’s the same: searchable web resources such as online documentation, mailing-list threads, and StackOverflow answers contain a wealth of information, even (especially?) if it is a topic you’ve found yourself searching before. Being an effective practitioner of data science is less about memorizing the tool or command you should use for every possible situation, and more about learning to effectively find the information you don’t know, whether through a web search engine or another means.
This quote captures the essence of what we aim to develop in our students: the ability to swiftly navigate and utilize the vast resources available to solve complex problems in data science.
This is a wish list from all members of the class (alphabetical order, last name first, comma, then first name). Here is an example.
Add yours through a pull request; note the syntax of nested list in Markdown.
The topic presentation order is set up in class.
Switching slots is allowed as long as you find someone who is willing to switch with you. In this case, make a pull request to switch the order and let me know.
You are welcome to choose a topic that you are interested the most, subject to some order restrictions. For example, decision tree should be presented before random forest or extreme gradient boosting. This justifies certain requests for switching slots.
Presentation task board.
Here are some example tasks:
Please use this Google Sheet to sign up.
Date | Presenter | Topic |
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We use the same order as the topic presentation for undergraduate final presentation.
Date | Presenter |
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Contribution to the class notes is through a `pull request’.
I have added a template file mysection.qmd and a new line to _quarto.yml as an example.
For more detailed style guidance, please see my notes on statistical writing .
Plagiarism is to be prevented. Remember that these class notes are publicly available online with your names attached. Here are some resources on []how to avoid plagiarism](https://usingsources.fas.harvard.edu/how-avoid-plagiarism). In particular, in our course, one convenient way to avoid plagiarism is to use our own data (e.g., NYC Open Data). Combined with your own explanation of the code chunks, it would be hard to plagiarize.
Data analysis.
Introduction.
Put an overview here. Use Markdown syntax.
Put materials on topic 1 here
Python examples can be put into python code chunks:
Put materials on topic 2 here.
Put matreials on topic 3 here.
Put sumaries here.
IMAGES
COMMENTS
How to write a presentation introduction. Consider using the tips below to engage your audience before your next presentation: 1. Tell your audience who you are. Introduce yourself, and then once your audience knows your name, tell them why they should listen to you. Example: "Good morning. My name is Miranda Booker, and I'm here today to ...
CREATE THIS PRESENTATION How to start a presentation introduction. Presentations can be scary, I know. But even if stage fright hits, you can always fall back on a simple strategy. Just take a deep breath, introduce yourself and briefly explain the topic of your presentation. To grab attention at the start, try this opening line: Hello everyone.
Introduce your topic. If your topic is relatively simple to grasp or your audience is particularly knowledgeable, introducing your topic can be as easy as "Today, I'm going to be talking to you about how we've built a six-figure software company in 6 months." ... Best for: Presentations that introduce new or disruptive ideas to your ...
Part 1: How to Prepare for Your Presentation in English. Part 2: How to Start with a Great Introduction in Your Presentation. Part 3: How to Organize Your Presentation in English. Part 4: How to End Your Presentation Powerfully. As I mentioned in the video, I have two question for you today:
Start with a polite welcome and state your name. Follow with your job title and/or the reason you're qualified to speak on the topic being discussed. 2. State the Purpose of Your Presentation. Now that your audience knows who you are and your qualifications, you can state the purpose of your presentation.
Part 1: Premise, Objective, and Goal Part 2: Argument and Background InformationPart 3: Expected Result and Resolution (others.) In summary of the whole presentation, the topic leaves a remarkable ending. How to Start Business Presentation and Other Samples. For all entrepreneurs, this portion is for you.
1 Make a provocative statement. "I want to discuss with you this afternoon why you're going to fail to have a great career." One surefire way to get your audience's attention is to make a provocative statement that creates interest and a keen desire to know more about what you have to say. The presentation above, for example, does just that by ...
19. "I'm honored to present to you this comprehensive look into…". 20. "Without further ado, let's get started on a journey through…". 21. "Thank you for carving time out of your day to join me for this presentation on…". 22. "It's wonderful to see such an engaged audience ready to tackle the topic of…". 23.
To Introduce the Topic: "Today, I'll be discussing…". "The focus of our presentation is…". "Our topic for today is…". "Let's dive into the subject of…". 5. "As someone who has spent years in this field…". "My extensive research in this area has revealed…". "Having worked on countless projects related to ...
Here are some phrases which you can use to structure the introduction in this way: Introduce. 1. Good morning/afternoon (everyone) (ladies and gentlemen). 2. It's a pleasure to welcome (the President) here. 3. I'm … (the Director of …) Introduce the presentation topic.
Introduce your general topic; Explain your topic area; State the issues/challenges in this area you will be exploring; State your presentation's purpose - this is the basis of your presentation so ensure that you provide a statement explaining how the topic will be treated, for example, "I will argue that…" or maybe you will ...
The introduction in a business presentation has 4 goals: (1) to provide context by introducing the topic, (2) to build authority and trust by introducing the team (3) to manage expectations by giving a preview of the presentation content, and (4) to ignite interest by introducing a big idea.
It effectively kills and buries even the best messages. Table of Contents. The Classic Trick: Open a Presentation with an Introduction. Open a Presentation with a Hook. Begin with a Captivating Visual. Ask a "What if…". Question. Use the Word "Imagine". Leverage The Curiosity Gap.
Introducing the topic of your presentation Your audience knows why they are there, but it is helpful to re-state it briefly. This is your opportunity to highlight what they can expect to gain from your presentation, whether it's a project update, new techniques, or a potential strategy. Here are some ways to introduce your topic:
Idea 1: Introduction. There is no better way to get the audience to remember you than putting a giant photo of yourself on the screen and going, this is me, - an extremely edited version of me, but still, me. Buddy. No. That was an attempt at being the funny - clever person. Clearly it didn't work.
Personal anecdotes are often great ways to introduce other speakers. 7. Set up an activity to include the audience in your presentation. Come up with an activity such as an exercise to perform or a question for everyone to respond to. This should be short and make a point relevant to your presentation.
1. Tell your audience who you are. Start your presentation by introducing yourself. Along with sharing your name, give your audience some information about your background. Choose details that are relevant to your presentation and help establish you as an expert in your chosen topic. Example: "Good morning.
The general structure of a presentation is the following: It is up to you to design these three parts. Using videos or everyday-examples can be a great way to introduce the audience to the topic. The important thing is that you capture the audience's attention from the beginning by making an interesting introduction.
Step 3: Be novel. Make sure you either select a new topic or bring an entirely new and unique perspective to an already covered issue. For instance, don't make a presentation on the "best lead generation strategies.". Your audience has probably heard those dozens of times already. Corny.
Perhaps you wish to welcome the audience, introduce the speaker and the topic, outline the structure, offer a summary, or deal with questions. In all these situations, you can apply a number of useful expressions that will make your presentation a linguistic success. Welcome. At the beginning of each presentation, you should welcome your audience.
Introducing a group presentation is a critical opportunity to capture the attention of your audience, set the tone, and establish credibility. Whether you're in a business setting, academic environment, or at a conference, the way you introduce your group and your topic can significantly influence the engagement and receptiveness of your ...
Step #2: Tell your audience what problem you can solve for them. This is where all of the pre-work comes into play. In this step, you will use the answers to one of those questions that you answered earlier. For instance, if my topic is how to deliver presentations, I have to determine why the audience would care.
You don't have to be perfect! Talking about your strengths and weaknesses can be a great way to show humility and self-awareness. It can also give others a better understanding of who you are and how you approach different situations. 13. Accomplishments. Don't be shy about your accomplishments!
As part of your presentation skill set, it helps catch and maintain the audience's attention, helping them remain focused while minimising passive response, ensuring the message is delivered correctly, and encouraging a call to action. Stage presence. During a presentation, projecting confidence can help keep your audience engaged.
First, you need a strong prompt. It should clearly state the topic, audience, objective, and slide count to ensure the content is relevant, well-organized, and has the right tone. Use this ChatGPT prompt format: "As an expert in [field/topic], create an outline for a PowerPoint presentation on [list of topics] for [target audience].
Presenting the Finalists for the QEP Topics. Join us for the presentations of the three innovative QEP topics below at 1:00 p.m., Monday, April 8, in the Wilhelmina Cullen Robertson Auditorium, or join via Zoom. There will be a brief break after the first topic presentation so that those interested may observe the solar eclipse, after which the presentations will continue.
Presentation. Don't forget to introduce yourself if there is no moderator. Highlight your research questions and results, not code. Give an outline, carry it out, and summarize. Use your own examples to reduce the risk of plagiarism. My Presentation Topic (Template) Introduction. Put an overview here. Use Markdown syntax. Sub Topic 1
Meetings & Events. Graduate Berkeley, just across from Cal's campus and vibrant Telegraph Avenue, is the ideal spot for your next gathering. Our meeting spaces and dining room, inspired by Berkeley history, add local flair to any event, while our expert events and catering teams ensure every detail is perfect.
Canada introduce policy wey go reduce number of temporary foreign workers. Wia dis foto come from, Getty Images. 26 August 2024, 19:26 WAT. ... Topics Wey Dem Resemble. Relocate; Travel Matter;
Ashley Biden, President Biden's 43-year-old daughter who typically stays out of the spotlight, introduced her father Monday night at the first night at the Democratic National Convention in ...