Grab Their Attention!

They say that you have about 90 seconds when speaking to others for the first time to get their attention, a good impression and give them a good reason to continue listening to you.

Of course that's not written in stone, but still when making a presentation timing is critical.  First of all, you  have just a few minutes to gain your audience's attention -- and then it can not be too long.

What you say in the first few seconds will determine  if people in your audience are going to listen to what you have to say or to more entertaining ideas on their cell phones or daydream about more interesting things.

The first step to making sure that your introduction prevents this from happening  to create an introduction with each specific audience in mind.  What are the interests, the concerns, and the attitude of the persons who will attend your presentation. What do they know about your topic?

Once you understand all of these things you will able to design that introduction that will not only grab their initial attention but also promise them that they will benefit from listening to what you have to say.

This could be anything such as, a quotation, an anecdote, a bold or startling statement, a problem with the hint of a solution, or a question etc.

One lady who was going to to be speaking about the better use of  recreation time to a group of teachers made good use of this last type of introduction with the simple -- teasing -- question: "Who would like to run away  with me this afternoon?"

Where are you going to get such material?  Often just by  reading through you material  (as well as by being an avid reader generally) you'll find something buried  in the body of the presentation that would be perfect if you just reworded it a bit and moved it up to the introduction.

If this doesn't work get out that  big sheet of paper and cluster  (Click on Writing the Natural way on your compute for more information on this technique if you're not familiar with it.) your topic again letting your mind flood with possible ideas as you jot them down  on the paper with the main idea in that circle in the center of the page and related ideas radiating out in those smaller circles until they fill the page -- or you think of something you would like to use.

And of course you can use an appropriate quote or quotation from somebody else ( This is why it is good to be that avid reader of a wide variety of material.)  -- or that story that somebody else told you.

Whatever you decide to use spend enough time to tailor it to fit your topic and audience perfectly and if you are going to use humor tread very carefully -- making sure, especially, that any jokes do not cast anybody else in a bad light. If you want to make fun of yourself in some humorous or embarrassing situation that's fine.


Keep in mind too  when writing your introduction that it can not be too long; remember the example of the young lady who asked her audience if they would like to run away with her.  The introduction was just one sentence and highly effective.


Of course once she had the attention her audience she quickly followed this up with good reasons to continue listening to her with a hint of what she was going to be talking about -- and wove all of this material seamlessly into the body of  her presentation.


You do not want your introduction to drag on.   If your entire presentation was going to be some 3,000 words an introduction of  500 words would be fine, but in one of only 800 words this would have to be cut drastically to about 50 to 75 words at most.


Then go on to live to what you have promised in the introduction in the body of your speech or presentation.