Introductions for presentations: 35 ideas to excite your audience.

The first few minutes of a presentation usually make the difference between success and failure. Whenever I plan a presentation, I reach into the drawer under my desk. In it is a list »Introductions for presentations« that I have compiled over many years. It contains ideas for getting a good start to a perfect presentation. In this post, I want to share those ideas with you and help you find some inspiration for getting started with your presentation.

List of Introductions for presentation

1. Tell a story of your own or someone else’s that fits your topic
2. Start with a behind-the-scenes look
3. Make a statement at the very beginning of your presentation
4. Start with a scientific finding
5. Theme the place you are in right now
6. Survey the audience
7. Open your presentation with a quote
8. Give your audience a riddle
9. What is your audience’s biggest problem right now?
10. Introduce your presentation with a guessing question
11. Respond to the previous speaker, if there was one
12. What connects you to the audience
13. Make a joke about yourself
14. Talk about today’s topic
15. Refer to your presentation title
16. A rhetorical question
17. Magic trick
18. Mention a historical event
19. Tell a fairy tale
20. Justify your own presence
21. Ask a joke question
22. Start with a slogan
23. Start with a fancy term
24. Is there a good comparison?
25. Start with a technical effect
26. Start your presentation with a video or a slideshow
27. Ask the audience
28. Could you start your presentation with a numbers game?
29. Change a well-known saying so that it fits your presentation
30. Read something aloud
31. Reveal a secret
32. Start with a foreign language
33. Open your presentation with a personal thought
34. Start with a provocation (for brave speakers)
35. Say the opposite to start your presentation

I have compiled this list over the years. Everyone has their own personal preferences and of course the introductions to the presentation need to be adapted to the audience.

There is a second list of Introductions for presentations

My second list is not a source of inspiration but a warning list of beginnings of a presentation that should be avoided in any case. I will gladly send you this list by e-mail. This list will protect you from starting the first minutes of your presentation wrong and thus endangering your whole presentation.

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