What are the most effective in presentations to grab the audience attention?

38099B02-FF4A-F8EC-91331834BE145F79

• Describe a scene or a character.
• Tell a story.
• Share a personal experience.
• Relate to a recent event.
• Piggyback on a previous speaker’s remark or theme.
• Point out something important about the audience or the current setting.
• Show a compelling visual image.
• Ask a provocative question.
• State a fact that is troubling, amusing, or remarkable.
• Spell out what's at stake for your listeners.
• Offer a humorous observation or anecdote.
• Explain your own interest in the topic.
• Tell listeners what the topic has to do with them.

1. Define unfamiliar terms.
2. Use concrete, specific examples to illustrate points. Tell stories.
3. Make statistics meaningful: Use graphics to help clarify numerical data. Round off big numbers. Interpret stats, translate them into human terms. Make comparisons.
4. Use analogies to relate the unknown to the known. (“It’s kind of like...”)
5. Build audience involvement by making your subject immediate, personal, and local.
   • Connect to the here-and-now.
   • Refer to your listeners’ experience. Mention your own experience.  Personalize the subject when that’s appropriate.
   • Highlight the local angle—a person, a place, an event. Bring it home.
      

1. Use previews and summaries.
   • Previews tell listeners what's coming next or how you're going to develop a point. For instance, in a discussion of why discrepancies exist between cars’ EPA gas mileage ratings and actual gas mileage, you might say “First I’m going to explain how the EPA arrives at its numbers. Then I’ll explain how the Consumers Union conducts its tests.”
   • Summaries remind listeners of what's important in what was just covered. A summary is especially useful in reframing or refocusing the discussion after a string of supporting details or after any fairly lengthy discussion of a point.
2. Use signposts and transitions.
   • Signposts are words or phrases such as “In the first place...,” “The second issue is...,” “The key argument is...,” etc. They tell the audience where they are in the presentation and flag what’s important to note or remember.
   • Transitions make sure no one gets left behind when you move from one point to the next. They show how pieces of content relate to one another and to your thesis; they tie things together and improve “flow.” Transitions in oral presentations often must be more obvious than those used in writing. They tell listeners not only that you’re moving on but also where you’re going next. Changes in body position, gestures, and voice can help listeners recognize a transition.

1. Avoid vague pronoun references. These are bad in writing but terrible in speech.  Listeners don't have the option of looking back over the text to figure them out.
2. Similarly, avoid words like “respectively” (as in “John, Ashley, and Tamika represented the Departments of Economics, Biology, and English, respectively.”) and “the former...the latter” (as in “You can purchase beef that is either dry-aged or wet-aged. Professional chefs know that, for the best steaks, you want the latter.”)  Like pronouns, both of these constructions require the audience to remember certain details in order to understand a later reference to them. The problem is that listeners may not have paid close enough attention to the earlier details; they didn't realize they'd be “tested” on them later. Whenever you’re tempted to use this type of verbal device, ask yourself, “If I had only my ear to depend on and heard it only once, would I get it?”

1. Summarize and refocus. Recap the main points or arguments you’ve covered.  Reiterate your purpose, thesis, or research question. Reinforce what’s important for the audience to take away from your presentation.
2. Close. Create closure, a sense of finality. Here you can use many of the same kinds of devices suggested for openings. You can even return to exactly the same anecdote, quotation, or remark you used at the beginning—and give it a twist. Other approaches are to lay down a challenge, look to the future, or simply to firmly restate your basic conclusion or recommendation. Avoid introducing new evidence or opening a new line of argument.

“Audiences will forgive almost anything except being boring,” — Patricia Fripp

Did you know that you have only 30 seconds to gain your audience’s attention and motivate them to listen? When it comes to delivering a killer presentation, these precious opening seconds play a critical part. This is the time your audience form an impression of you. If you waste it with a bad joke, rambling, or pointless sentences full of “uhs” and “ums,” your listeners’ focus will probably fade away, and you may not get them back.

Capturing the room immediately is a challenging task for any speaker — and it requires creating and rehearsing an attention-getting opener. But how to start a presentation effectively? Open your speech with a HOOK!

In this article, we’ll walk you through some basic presentation tips on how to really make the beginning of your presentation pop. Even if you learn English as a second language, don’t worry. Regardless of your English level, we’ve created a list of three tried-and-tested grabbers that will help you start a presentation with confidence and hold your audience’s attention with ease.

3 hooks to start a presentation and quickly make an impact

Opening your speech with banality quickly makes you forgettable, especially if you have a cookie-cutter PowerPoint presentation that you simply drone through. Have you ever listened to a presentation where the presenter starts with words:

Get more tips to learn English fast

Learn English online with a full range of videos, articles and live lessons!

“Dear listeners, thank you for coming. So, I prepared a few major points on my topic. We’re going to run through them and be out of here within an hour.”

Boredom! What all people in the room are thinking about at the moment is their coffee break in 15 minutes, or they boldly start checking their Facebook feed or emails. But how to start a presentation introduction in such a way that you could keep your listeners glued to your words?

A creative hook or grabber motivates listeners to pay attention. In fact, people have a lot on their minds. Just imagine that they might be attending several talks that day or a week ago. Hence, you need to show them right away that your presentation is going to be interesting. To make an excellent lasting impact from the very beginning, you should use brief and catchy hook relevant to your topic.

Here are a few ways to start a presentation with a bang and make your speech stand out. The choice of method that works best for you will depend on your topic and speech type. Let’s take a closer look at the most popular presentation hooks.

1. Tell a story

Telling a compelling story is a good way to start a presentation. Research shows that brain is hardwired for storytelling. Have you ever noticed how kids begin attentively listening to their parents after the words: “Once upon a time.” That reaction doesn’t disappear when we become adults. In fact, narrating a story and sharing experience is something people do every day. Thus, adding it to your presentations won’t be a great challenge. Starting with a good story can also help you find creative ways to communicate the purpose of your presentation, besides just making a positive first impression. You can visuals to your presentation or use a video editor to make a quick, yet effective video within your presentation.

Your story should be brief and relevant to the point you’re trying to make. But don’t overload it with details. It can be a personal story showing your listeners why you’re so passionate about the topic. You can also tell a story about a person who can be an example for others to follow. If you can make a bold statement or a bold claim with this story, make eye contact, and communicate it with confidence, it will draw in the listener (even if they don’t agree with you).

Darlene Price, an author of “Well Said! Presentations and Conversations That Get Results!”, emphasizes that as a speaker you can use a wisdom tale, fable, historical event, or even a good joke to start a presentation. The key is to start with a short story relevant to the central point of your topic. Price also suggests considering some questions to help you compose own version of “Once upon a time”:

• What challenges have you (or another person) faced regarding your message?
• How did you (or another person) overcome it?
• Who or what helped you?
• What lessons did you (or another person) learn?
• What do you want your listeners to feel or do after the story?

2. Ask rhetorical questions

If you’re wondering how to start a presentation speech, start it with a question. One of the best ways is to ask a series of rhetorical questions. A great example of such techniques is Simon Sinek’s TED talk. He used the following words to start a presentation:

“How do you explain when things don’t go as we assume? Or better, how do you explain when others can achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions? For example, why is Apple so innovative?”

Such set of questions stimulate the listeners’ minds while they are thinking about the answers. Laura Bergells, an instructor of LinkedIn Learning course Public Speaking Foundations, recommends asking only open-ended questions, not closed-ended ones with a “yes/no” answers. For example, “How has social media changed your daily life?”. A worse example is: “Has social media changed your daily life?”. Using an open-ended questions helps you create a knowledge gap that you’ll later close in your speech. Another great way to get the audience involved is by asking for a show of hands on a particular question.

3. Use quotations

One of the funny ways to start a presentation is to quote movies. Why? Because it’s entertaining! Videos play a critical part in most people’s lives. So a well-placed movie quote at the beginning of your speech can liven up your listeners. Here are some examples:

“The first rule of leadership: everything is your fault” (Bug’s Life)

“The loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room.” (American Gangster)

“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” (Forrest Gump)

It’s also a common but effective practice to start a presentation with an opt quotes. In this case, speakers state the quotation and then add a twist to it. For example:

“We’ve all heard that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. But we need to remember that a journey to nowhere also starts with a single step.”

There is a lot of sources for finding appropriate quotations online such as Brainy Quotes and Goodreads. But don’t pick an obvious quote to open with, like “little strokes fell great oaks.” Try to find more creative ways to start a presentation by using the following Steve Job’s quote: “My favourite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.”

Go and change the world with your speech!

Remember the first seconds of your talk matter. You have only half a minute to win the audience’s attention. So, if you don’t know how to start your next presentation in English, do not hesitate to use one of these proven hooks.

But think carefully which hook to choose and, of course, be honest with yourself. Does the story you want to tell have any relevance? Are listeners going to laugh at your joke? Make sure you don’t overlook how your audience will react.

Don’t forget to check out our ultimate guide on How to learn English!