How To Open A Good Presentation?

An effective presentation opening consists of what many speech experts call a grabber. The word grabber is meant to imply that you must grab your audience attention before you start in on your main points.

Think about your listeners, sitting out there in the audiences they all are thinking about other things, the phone messages they have to answer back in their offices, the reports they are in the midst of writing, perhaps even their golf game that afternoon. You as a speaker must get their attention. If you simply start into your first point they would not hear it. When most people think of a grabber the first idea that comes to mind if to tell a joke. You do not however have to be humorous or entertaining to gain interest.

Using humor in business communication is tricky. Naturally you should use humor only if it fits your own style and personality. If you can not or do not want to tell jokes, do not tell. Furthermore if humor is not appropriate for your audience your topic or the specific occasion does not use it. When you do choose in certain situations to pep up your communication with humor, keep in mind these four rules.