INTRODUCING A PRESENTATION

Feeling confident and making the introduction flow

An introduction is important because:

An introduction is important because: You have people’s

attention

An introduction is important because: You have people’s

attention They learn about

you

An introduction is important because: You have people’s

attention They learn about

you They decide

whether they will continue giving you their attention

Use WISE OWL to make your formal presentation GOOD. Welcome the audience Introduce yourself Say what you’ll talk about Explain why it’s useful for

the audience Outline the structure of

your talk What materials did you

bring? Let the audience know

when they can ask questions

Welcome the audienceInformal and formal

Good evening/morning/afternoon everybody…

Hey, how’s it going? Hello guys. Hi everybody.

Introduce yourself

Formal and informal are usually the same in this part. No difference.

Let me introduce myself. I’m ….. For those of you who don’t know me, my

name’s … As you probably know, I’m your new

teacher. I’m the director here at OSELA. I’m here in my function as Sales

Manager.

Say your topic

As you can see on the screen, our topic today is…

Today’s topic is… What I’d like to present to you today is… The subject of my presentation is…

Explain why your topic is useful for the audience

My talk is particularly relevant to those of you/us who…

Today’s topic is of particular interest to those of you/us who…

My/The topic is very important for you because…

By the end of this talk you will be familiar with…

There are several ways you can tell the audience what you will say:

Would like + infinitive Going to + infinitive

Today I’d like to tell you about…

This morning I’d like to bring you up to date on…

I’m going to talk about…

This afternoon I’m going to address severval…

Will + infinitive Will be + verb-ing

I’ll begin by explaining..

I’ll start off by talking…

After that, I’ll move on to…

I’ll be talking about our…

During the next hour we’ll be looking at …

Say what you will talk about…

The purpose of the introduction is not only to tell the audience who you are, what the talk is about, and why it is relevant to them; you also want to tell the audience (briefly) how the talk is structured. Here are some useful phrases to talk about structure.

I’ve divided my presentation into three main parts: x, y, and z.

In my presentation I’ll focus on three major issues.

First, I’ll be looking at…, second…, and third…

I’ll begin / start off by explaining… Then/Next/After that, I’ll go on to… Finally, I’ll offer some solutions

The final part of your presentation deals with the organization of the talk: how long, handouts, questions

TIMING HANDOUTS

My presentation will take about 20 minutes.

It should take about 30 minutes to cover these issues.

Does everybody have a handout? Please take one and pass them on.

Don’t worry about taking notes. I’ve put all the important info on a handout for you.

I’ll email the Powerpoint to you.

There’ll be handouts at the end of my talk

QUESTIONS

There will be time for questions after my presentation.

If you have any questions, feel free to interrupt me at any time.

Feel free to ask questions at any time during my talk.

Getting the audience’s attention

Experts say the first few minutes of a presentation are the most important. If you are able to get the audience’s attention quickly, they will be interested in whay you have to say. Here are a few points you can use.

Ask a rhetorical question Tell them a story or anecdote

Is market research important for brand development?

Do we really need quality assurance?

I remember when I attended a meeting in Italy.

At a conference in Madrid once, I was asked the following question…

Start with an interesting fact

Give them a problem to think about

According an article I read recently, central banks are now buying euros instead of dollars.

Did you know that fast food consumption has increased 600% in Europe since 2002?

Suppose you wanted to set up a new call centre. How would you go about it?

Imagine you had to reorganize the sales department. What would be your first step?

The end.