It’s Friday afternoon, 2:00 pm. You just poured yourself another cup of coffee and you’re sitting in a large, overly air-conditioned hotel banquet room waiting for the post-lunch speaker to kick off the second half of an all-day conference. You stayed up a little later than you’d planned to the night before, and you’re feeling extra drowsy from the boxed lunch you just ate. This will be the fourth presentation you’ve sat through today, and there are still two more to go after that before you can go home. You hope that the coffee will get you through the rest of the conference, but you’re not feeling very confident.

Your eyes follow the speaker as he approaches the podium. Good, you think to yourself. Let’s get this going and over with. The hum of talking in the audience quickly hushes to a silence. The presentation is beginning.

“Um, hi, good afternoon everyone, and thank you for being here today. I hope you all had a good lunch. My name is Joe Smith and today I’m going to talk to you about capital investments in the digital age. My company deals with transactions like these every day, and…”

Your mind starts to wander.

Darn! I forgot to check my voice mail during lunch, I bet Caroline called to touch base about our dinner plans tonight. I need to let the sitter know what time to come over. Oh, and I also need to stop at the store on the way home. I need to get paper towels and milk and… what was that other thing I needed? Ugh, it’s so cold in here! And I’m so tired. I sure hope this coffee kicks in soon…

Meanwhile Joe Smith, who is clicking to the second slide of his PowerPoint presentation, looks out into the audience. He sees some people looking at their cell phones, others staring at him blankly, and one guy is yawning. Joe worked really hard on this presentation and feels disappointed. No one seems to be engaged in what he’s saying. I’m about to share some really valuable information, Joe thinks. Why don’t they seem interested? What am I doing wrong?

We’ve all been in this situation, either as the bored conference attendee, as poor Joe Smith, or both. But what about those times when a speaker drew you in immediately and paying attention was effortless? What if you were able to present to any crowd get their undivided attention right away? You can – you just need to start the right way.

The beginning is possibly the most important part of any presentation. It’s in the first 30-60 seconds that your audience forms their opinion of you – and whether or not you and your message are interesting enough to pay attention to. Waste those precious opening seconds on a dull introduction and you risk losing your audience before you’ve even gotten started. You, your message, and your audience don’t deserve that! A strong opening will get and hold audience attention, so if you want to get people listening, you have to hook them fast.

Here are 5 ways to start a presentation and grab your audience’s attention immediately.

1. Tell a Story – Stories are one of the most powerful ways to begin a presentation. That’s because we as humans are hardwired to enjoy and learn from stories. Just think about it: bedtime stories as children, TV, books, movies, theater – so much of our entertainment is stories. People relate to stories, the characters in stories, and the emotions that those characters feel. When crafting your opening story, be specific and sensory so that your audience is able to relive the story with you. The story should be compelling, authentic, endearing, emotional and/or funny, and it should drive home the key point of your message. Try starting your story somewhere in the middle to get your audience curious and wondering. The story can be a personal anecdote about an experience you had (in this case, it’s usually best to make others the heroes of the story). It can be about someone you know whom you feel the audience can learn from. If the story is about someone well-known, keep the person’s identity hidden until the end for extra impact!

2. Ask a Question – Asking an interesting question that’s relevant to your subject matter is a great way to start a presentation because it gets the audience involved, and if the audience is involved, not listening isn’t an option. You can ask a rhetorical, thought-provoking question. You can ask a series of rhetorical questions to stimulate audience members as they contemplate each answer. You can ask a show-of-hands question that gets your audience participating physically. You can take your audience through a what-if scenario that is about them. Asking questions arouses your audience’s curiosity, motivates them to think, and includes them in your presentation.

3. Share a Quote – Sharing an interesting quote that’s related to your topic uses someone else’s experience – and their credibility, likeability, or celebrity status – to reinforce your position on a subject. You could also use a quote from a well-known movie, but if you do, be sure to describe the context of the quote for anyone in the audience who hasn’t seen the movie – you don’t want to alienate anyone! A quote that everyone has heard 100 times won’t stand out, so don’t use a quote that is overused. One fun idea is to quote a foreign proverb. Our minds are drawn to pay attention to things in our environment that are new², and chances are that a foreign proverb will be completely new to everyone in your audience.

4. State an Interesting Statistic or Fact – Stating a surprising, shocking, or little-known statistic or fact that’s directly related to your presentation is a great way to capture your audience’s attention right away. Make sure the statistic is true and be able to verify its source. Use the statistic or fact to persuade your audience to listen and respond positively to your message. It is often helpful to “humanize” the statistic or fact to make it more relatable. For example, a commercial for Brita water filters stated that “the U.S. alone used over 39 billion plastic bottles of water [last year]. That’s enough [plastic water bottles] to stretch around the earth over 190 times.” That’s quite a powerful image! Definitely more powerful than if Brita had just stated the number of water bottles used by the U.S.

5. Use a Visual Aid or Prop – People learn in different ways, and there are three main types of learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. You know you’ll be speaking to your audience, so that takes care of auditory, but don’t forget about visual and kinesthetic! Make your presentation stand out by incorporating more than just one learning style into your opening. For instance, start your presentation by showing your audience a gripping photo (after all, “A picture is worth a thousand words!”) Pictures can act as visual metaphors for the point you’re trying to make, add aesthetic appeal to your presentation, encourage audience imagination and creativity, and make your presentation more memorable. You could also start your presentation by showing a short video. Videos, like stories, can elicit emotional responses in your audience members, and the people, pictures, and sounds in a video can convey the essence of your message quickly. For example, if you’re giving a fundraising presentation, you could start off with a short video showing the actual people who benefit from donations to your charity. This is a lot more powerful than using words alone to convince an audience why they should give to your organization. You could also use a prop to start off your talk. A few years ago, I attended a presentation on world hunger and the speaker began his talk by passing a small handful of dough around the room. He told us that this was all that some poor families in a village in Asia get to eat all day. I don’t remember anything else about the presentation, but I sure do remember holding that ball of dough in my hands and feeling upset and disturbed about those poor families.

My challenge to you this week is to experiment with these opening techniques. Try one out in your next presentation and see how your audience reacts. Did you notice anything different about your audience’s engagement level throughout your presentation after using one of these opening techniques? I’d love to know.

As always, remember that we are here for you if you need help.