Tips to open your presentation with impact

A good beginning to a presentation is important to help build an immediate relationship between you and the audience. The best way is to try and get certain emotions from your audience – curiosity, surprise, fear or amusement. It also gives you the chance to briefly clarify your expertise and why you are worth listening to. This will help your audience trust you more and believe what you are saying to them.  It could be

• just a short introduction of who you are and what you do and have done
• a story relating to your topic
• a problem relating to the topic that you experienced

Example:
Good morning, my name is Gwendolyn Goh, HR consultant for ABC Company, and I’m here today to help you with the change in your organisation. I have lived and worked in 5 countries over the last 20 years and worked in many sectors like Engineering, IT, Education and even in the film industry! So I personally know a lot about change and the impacts it can have on you. I know change can be stressful and you might even be worried about your job, but after my presentation you will see that this change will have many benefits for you.

This will be followed by the introduction to explain the subject and purpose of your presentation. This could be like the following structure:

• Introduce your general topic
• Explain your topic area
• State the issues/challenges in the 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…”
  “I will “compare”, “analyse”, “evaluate”, “describe” etc.
• Provide a statement of what you’re hoping the outcome of the presentation will be, for example,
  “I’m hoping this will be provide you with…”
• Show a preview of the organisation of your presentation. This will be your presentation’s agenda.

In this section, make sure

• to inform of the length of the talk.
• to let the audience know if they can ask questions during the presentation or at the end
• to tell the audience to take notes or if you will be providing handouts