Prepare a Strong Opening

Opening your message with a strong title, opening questions and an involving activity will grab your audience’s attention right away.

Think of a relevant message you are about to present to a specific target group. Prepare a strong opening using the following format:

Your Title:

Give your message a short and strong title.

To create a strong title:

• Include a verb.

• Include the impact/effect you want to create.

Examples:

Dealing with complex software systems with ease

A smarter way to plan for the new system.

Your Opening Questions:

What would your audience like to have answered about your topic? Create a list of THEIR questions related to your message.

Formulate two strong questions that you would like to answer in your presentation, and that you know THEY would like to have answered.

Examples:

What are the benefits of this system?

Why change something that already works?

What to do concretely to overcome X?

Your Involvement Activity:

Involvement builds suspense, engages and gets your audience invested in the answer. What questions can you ask your audience that will grab their attention and make them relate to the underlying problem of your message ?

1. How many of you have tried to…..x? How many of you have tried to…..y? And how many of you would like to… Z?

2. “How many of you think that [statement] is true?”

3. “Given the choice, would you rather [scenario A] or [scenario B]?

4. “On a scale from one to five – hold up your fingers – how much do you agree that … ?”

5. “Before I tell you this number, Can you guess…….( how much money we spent on [activity] last year/what the percentage of X is")?”

6. 2 false and 1 true: Here are three statements about X. Which one is true?

Inspiration: