good phrases to start a presentation

How to Start a Presentation: 5 Templates and 90 Example Phrases

By Status.net Editorial Team on February 27, 2024 — 11 minutes to read

Starting a presentation effectively means capturing your audience’s attention from the very beginning. It’s important because it sets the tone for the entire presentation and establishes your credibility as a speaker.

Effective Openers: 5 Templates

Your presentation’s beginning sets the stage for everything that follows. So, it’s important to capture your audience’s attention right from the start. Here are some tried-and-true techniques to do just that.

1. Storytelling Approach

When you start with a story, you tap into the natural human love for narratives. It can be a personal experience, a historical event, or a fictional tale that ties back to your main point.

Example Introduction Template 1:

“Let me tell you a story about…”

Example : “Let me tell you a story about how a small idea in a garage blossomed into the global brand we know today.”

2. Quotation Strategy

Using a relevant quote can lend authority and thematic flavor to your presentation. Choose a quote that is provocative, enlightening, or humorous to resonate with your audience.

Example Introduction Template 2:

“As [Famous Person] once said…”

Example : “As Steve Jobs once said, ‘Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.'”

3. Questioning Technique

Engage your audience directly by opening with a thoughtful question. This encourages them to think and become active participants.

Example Introduction Template 3:

“Have you ever wondered…”

Example : “Have you ever wondered what it would take to reduce your carbon footprint to zero?”

4. Statistical Hook

Kick off with a startling statistic that presents a fresh perspective or underscores the importance of your topic.

Example Introduction Template 4:

“Did you know that…”

Example : “Did you know that 90% of the world’s data was generated in the last two years alone?”

5. Anecdotal Method

Share a brief, relatable incident that highlights the human aspect of your topic. It paves the way for empathy and connection.

Example Introduction Template 5:

“I want to share a quick anecdote…”

Example : “I want to share a quick anecdote about a time I experienced the customer service that went above and beyond what anyone would expect.”

How to Start a Powerpoint Presentation: 45 Example Phrases

Starting a PowerPoint presentation effectively can captivate your audience and set the tone for your message. The opening phrases you choose are important in establishing rapport and commanding attention. Whether you’re presenting to colleagues, at a conference, or in an academic setting, these phrases will help you begin with confidence and poise:

1. “Good morning/afternoon/evening, everyone. Thank you for joining me today.”
2. “Welcome, and thank you for being here. Let’s dive into our topic.”
3. “I’m excited to have the opportunity to present to you all about…”
4. “Thank you all for coming. Today, we’re going to explore…”
5. “Let’s begin by looking at the most important question: Why are we here today?”
6. “I appreciate your time today, and I promise it will be well spent as we discuss…”
7. “Before we get started, I want to express my gratitude for your presence here today.”
8. “It’s a pleasure to see so many familiar faces as we gather to talk about…”
9. “I’m thrilled to kick off today’s presentation on a topic that I am passionate about—…”
10. “Welcome to our session. I’m confident you’ll find the next few minutes informative as we cover…”
11. “Let’s embark on a journey through our discussion on…”
12. “I’m delighted to have the chance to share my insights on…”
13. “Thank you for the opportunity to present to such an esteemed audience on…”
14. “Let’s set the stage for an engaging discussion about…”
15. “As we begin, I’d like you to consider this:…”
16. “Today marks an important discussion on a subject that affects us all:…”
17. “Good day, and welcome to what promises to be an enlightening presentation on…”
18. “Hello and welcome! We’re here to delve into something truly exciting today…”
19. “I’m honored to present to you this comprehensive look into…”
20. “Without further ado, let’s get started on a journey through…”
21. “Thank you for carving time out of your day to join me for this presentation on…”
22. “It’s wonderful to see such an engaged audience ready to tackle the topic of…”
23. “I invite you to join me as we unpack the complexities of…”
24. “Today’s presentation will take us through some groundbreaking ideas about…”
25. “Welcome aboard! Prepare to set sail into the vast sea of knowledge on…”
26. “I’d like to extend a warm welcome to everyone as we focus our attention on…”
27. “Let’s ignite our curiosity as we begin to explore…”
28. “Thank you for your interest and attention as we dive into the heart of…”
29. “As we look ahead to the next hour, we’ll uncover the secrets of…”
30. “I’m eager to share with you some fascinating insights on…”
31. “Welcome to what I believe will be a transformative discussion on…”
32. “This morning/afternoon, we’ll be venturing into the world of…”
33. “Thank you for joining me on this exploration of…”
34. “I’m delighted by the turnout today as we embark on this exploration of…”
35. “Together, let’s navigate the intricacies of…”
36. “I’m looking forward to engaging with you all on the subject of…”
37. “Let’s kick things off with a critical look at…”
38. “Thank you for your presence today as we shine a light on…”
39. “Welcome to a comprehensive overview of…”
40. “It’s a privilege to discuss with you the impact of…”
41. “I’m glad you could join us for what promises to be a thought-provoking presentation on…”
42. “Today, we’re going to break down the concept of…”
43. “As we get started, let’s consider the significance of our topic:…”
44. “I’m thrilled to lead you through today’s discussion, which centers around…”
45. “Let’s launch into our session with an eye-opening look at…”

Starting a Presentation: 45 Examples

Connecting with the audience.

When starting a presentation, making a genuine connection with your audience sets the stage for a successful exchange of ideas. Examples:

“I promise, by the end of this presentation, you’ll be as enthusiastic about this as I am because…”
“The moment I learned about this, I knew it would be a game-changer and I’m thrilled to present it to you…”
“There’s something special about this topic that I find incredibly invigorating, and I hope you will too…”
“I get a rush every time I work on this, and I hope to transmit that energy to you today…”
“I’m thrilled to discuss this breakthrough that could revolutionize…”
“This project has been a labor of love, and I’m eager to walk you through…”
“When I first encountered this challenge, I was captivated by the possibilities it presented…”
“I can’t wait to dive into the details of this innovative approach with you today…”
“It’s genuinely exhilarating to be at the edge of what’s possible in…”
“My fascination with [topic] drove me to explore it further, and I’m excited to share…”
“Nothing excites me more than talking about the future of…”
“Seeing your faces, I know we’re going to have a lively discussion about…”
“The potential here is incredible, and I’m looking forward to discussing it with you…”
“Let’s embark on this journey together and explore why this is such a pivotal moment for…”
“Your engagement in this discussion is going to make this even more exciting because…”

Building Credibility

You present with credibility when you establish your expertise and experience on the subject matter. Here’s what you can say to accomplish that:

“With a decade of experience in this field, I’ve come to understand the intricacies of…”
“Having led multiple successful projects, I’m excited to share my insights on…”
“Over the years, working closely with industry experts, I’ve gleaned…”
“I hold a degree in [your field], which has equipped me with a foundation for…”
“I’m a certified professional in [your certification], which means I bring a certain level of expertise…”
“Having published research on this topic, my perspective is grounded in…”
“I’ve been a keynote speaker at several conferences, discussing…”
“Throughout my career, I’ve contributed to groundbreaking work in…”
“My experience as a [your previous role] has given me a unique outlook on…”
“Endorsed by [an authority in your field], I’m here to share what we’ve achieved…”
“The program I developed was recognized by [award], highlighting its impact in…”
“I’ve trained professionals nationwide on this subject and witnessed…”
“Collaborating with renowned teams, we’ve tackled challenges like…”
“I’ve been at the forefront of this industry, navigating through…”
“As a panelist, I’ve debated this topic with some of the brightest minds in…”

Projecting Confidence

“I stand before you today with a deep understanding of…”
“You can rely on the information I’m about to share, backed by thorough research and analysis…”
“Rest assured, the strategies we’ll discuss have been tested and proven effective in…”
“I’m certain you’ll find the data I’ll present both compelling and relevant because…”
“I’m fully confident in the recommendations I’m providing today due to…”
“The results speak for themselves, and I’m here to outline them clearly for you…”
“I invite you to consider the evidence I’ll present; it’s both robust and persuasive…”
“You’re in good hands today; I’ve navigated these waters many times and have the insights to prove it…”
“I assure you, the journey we’ll take during this presentation will be enlightening because…”
“Your success is important to me, which is why I’ve prepared diligently for our time together…”
“Let’s look at the facts; they’ll show you why this approach is solid and dependable…”
“Today, I present to you a clear path forward, grounded in solid experience and knowledge…”
“I’m confident that what we’ll uncover today will not only inform but also inspire you because…”
“You’ll leave here equipped with practical, proven solutions that you can trust because…”
“The solution I’m proposing has been embraced industry-wide, and for good reason…”

Organizational Preview

Starting your presentation with a clear organizational preview can effectively guide your audience through the content. This section helps you prepare to communicate the roadmap of your presentation.

Outlining the Main Points

You should begin by briefly listing the main points you’ll cover. This lets your audience know what to expect and helps them follow along. For example, if you’re presenting on healthy eating, you might say, “Today, I’ll cover the benefits of healthy eating, essential nutrients in your diet, and simple strategies for making healthier choices.”

Setting the Tone

Your introduction sets the tone for the entire presentation. A way to do this is through a relevant story or anecdote that engages the audience. Suppose you’re talking about innovation; you might start with, “When I was a child, I was fascinated by how simple Legos could build complex structures, which is much like the innovation process.”

Explaining the Structure

Explain the structure of your presentation so that your audience can anticipate how you’ll transition from one section to the next. For instance, if your presentation includes an interactive portion, you might say, “I’ll begin with a 15-minute overview, followed by a hands-on demonstration, and we’ll wrap up with a Q&A session, where you can ask any questions.”

Practice and Preparation

Before you step onto the stage, it’s important that your preparation includes not just content research, but also rigorous practice and strategy for dealing with nerves. This approach ensures you present with confidence and clarity.

Rehearsing the Opening

Practicing your introduction aloud gives you the opportunity to refine your opening remarks. You might start by greeting the audience and sharing an interesting quote or a surprising statistic related to your topic. For example, if your presentation is about the importance of renewable energy, you could begin with a recent statistic about the growth in solar energy adoption. Record yourself and listen to the playback, focusing on your tone, pace, and clarity.

Memorizing Key Points

While you don’t need to memorize your entire presentation word for word, you should know the key points by heart. This includes main arguments, data, and any conclusions you’ll be drawing. You can use techniques such as mnemonics or the method of loci, which means associating each key point with a specific location in your mind, to help remember these details. Having them at your fingertips will make you feel more prepared and confident.

Managing Presentation Jitters

Feeling nervous before a presentation is natural, but you can manage these jitters with a few techniques. Practice deep breathing exercises or mindful meditation to calm your mind before going on stage. You can also perform a mock presentation to a group of friends or colleagues to simulate the experience and receive feedback. This will not only help you get used to speaking in front of others but also in adjusting your material based on their reactions.

Engagement Strategies

Starting a presentation on the right foot often depends on how engaged your audience is. Using certain strategies, you can grab their attention early and maintain their interest throughout your talk:

1. Encouraging Audience Participation

Opening your presentation with a question to your audience is a great way to encourage participation. This invites them to think actively about the subject matter. For instance, you might ask, “By a show of hands, how many of you have experienced…?” Additionally, integrating interactive elements like quick polls or requesting volunteers for a demonstration can make the experience more dynamic and memorable.

Using direct questions throughout your presentation ensures the audience stays alert, as they might be called upon to share their views. For example, after covering a key point, you might engage your audience with, “Does anyone have an experience to share related to this?”

2. Utilizing Pacing and Pauses

Mastering the pace of your speech helps keep your presentation lively. Quickening the pace when discussing exciting developments or slowing down when explaining complex ideas can help maintain interest. For example, when introducing a new concept, slow your pace to allow the audience to absorb the information.

Pauses are equally powerful. A well-timed pause after a key point gives the audience a moment to ponder the significance of what you’ve just said. It might feel like this: “The results of this study were groundbreaking. (pause) They completely shifted our understanding of…”. Pauses also give you a moment to collect your thoughts, adding to your overall composure and control of the room.

How should one introduce their group during a presentation?

You might say something like, “Let me introduce my amazing team: Alex, our researcher, Jamie, our designer, and Sam, the developer. Together, we’ve spent the last few months creating something truly special for you.”

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35 Powerful Presentation Phrases in English for Engaging Your Audience

Your palms are sweating.

For a moment, your mind goes blank.

All eyes are on you.

That moment right before you start presenting – as you take in your audience – is usually the scariest. The nervousness lessens with practice, but even the most frequent public speakers still get butterflies in their stomach sometimes. Whether you’re facing an entire room of people or looking at everyone through your laptop screen, giving a presentation can still be intimidating – or exciting, once you move beyond the fear.

There’s an extra layer of challenge too if you have to speak in your non-native language. For a more professional-sounding and engaging presentation, we’ve compiled some of the most useful English presentation phrases below.

We’ll also explore what else you can do to make even more of an impact on your audience. With the right intonation, body language, and gestures, you’ll really be able to catch their attention and emphasize your points.

If this sounds interesting to you, you should check out the Creativa business meeting mastery course . There’s an entire video episode about giving a stunning presentation. You’ll learn about how to structure your ideas, deliver a report, and conclude a discussion. It covers not only fluent native phrases but also body language demonstrations that you can apply to your work right away.

On top of this, the course has plenty of other engaging, high-quality video episodes that help you present your best self in English. Curious about it? You can access a free video here .

Delivering a Powerful Presentation

To lay the groundwork for your presentation in English, here’s what you’ll have to do first:

Consider the audience

You’re probably always going to need slides, but every presentation will be different – and the audience that you’ll be presenting to won’t always find the same points interesting. Because of this, you’ll have to tailor your message to them. What style of presentation would be a good fit? For example, some audiences would want to see a lot of number-crunching, while others might be looking for more personal storytelling .

Prepare a structure

Structure is key in presentations. People have short attention spans, and they can be forgetful. At the end of the day, your goal is for them to remember at least the main points in your presentation. What message do you want to convey? Since you might be discussing a lot of information, you can make it more digestible by ensuring that there’s a logical progression and then ending with a summary.

Whatever your topic is, it’ll benefit from having a well-defined structure to guide your audience from start to finish. For a cheat sheet on this, scroll down here to download a free PDF worksheet with exercises about structuring your presentation so you can be clear and convincing. This way, you can have a presentation that’s strong in all sections – beginning, middle, and end.

Key Business Phrases

Once you’ve decided on the style and message of your presentation, you can take it up a notch by including certain English presentation phrases all throughout. Let’s break it down from start to finish:

Introduction

This is when you’ll be warming up your audience before you proceed to your main points.

Greeting the audience

If you’re presenting to people who aren’t too familiar with you, you can quickly introduce yourself and mention your role or company.

Good morning, everyone. I’m glad to be able to present to all of you.
Hello, everyone! It’s nice to see all of you today. I’m [name], the [position] from [company].

Describing your topic

After greeting the audience, you’ll be explaining to them what your presentation is all about. To set their expectations, you might show them an outline of the talk and mention if there’ll be any activities such as breakout discussions.

I’ll be talking about…
I’ll be talking about our financial metrics over the past year.
The topic of this presentation will be…
The topic of this presentation will be major trends in the logistics industry.
I’ll be discussing first the [first topic], next [second topic], and finally [third topic].
I’ll be discussing first the project’s ideation process, next our initial trial, and finally, presenting our results.

Addressing questions and technical concerns

People might be wondering if they can ask questions during your presentation, so you can clarify this at the start. If you’re providing handouts or presenting online, it’s useful to ask people to alert you about any technical concerns.

Please feel free to ask any questions during the talk.
For questions, there will be a Q&A section at the end.
Can all of you see and hear me properly? Please let me know if you have any technical difficulties during the presentation.

The body will make up the bulk of your presentation. Ideally, you would go through each of your points logically while letting your audience know when you’re moving on to the next section.

The longer your presentation, the more important it is to use sequencing phrases. These act as cues that let your audience know where you are in the presentation. You can think of these as similar to detour signals that make the audience much more likely to get your meaning.

First, let’s discuss the…
First, let’s discuss the initial spark for this idea.
Moving into [the next item / point] …
Moving into item 4, we can see that this is a major pain point for our target market.
This leads us to the next…
This leads us to the next section, where we’ll be looking at the facts and figures.

Linking is closely related to sequencing. Similar to writing, you can have a smoother presentation by connecting your ideas rather than suddenly jumping from one point to another. You can also refer back to points that you’ve mentioned before to make your presentation more cohesive.

In connection to what I said earlier…
In connection to what I said earlier about growing our online presence, we can now look into potential social media campaigns.
What this means is…
What this means is that most of our growth is coming from a certain sector. Let’s analyze the data for this in the next section.
This ties in with…
This ties in with our survey findings about user reactions. I’ll go into detail about changes we’ve made to the app as a result.

Giving examples

To fully convey your point, you can bring up specific examples and case studies. These are much more memorable as well as engaging because you can tell these in the form of a story.

For example…
For example, costs were reduced significantly when we switched to the following materials.
To demonstrate this point…
To demonstrate this point, I’ll be showing you a video of a business that used this problem-solving method.
Here’s an example of…
Here’s an example of a seasonal product that our customers loved.

Showing visuals

Visuals naturally attract people’s attention. If you’re using slides for your presentation, take the opportunity to include images, diagrams, infographics, or even charts.

As you can see from this…
As you can see from this photo, we’ve redesigned our office space.
Here’s a diagram / picture / chart that shows…
Here’s a diagram that shows a high percentage of people are comfortable with online shopping.
If you look at this…
If you look at this infographic, you can see that the new color palette comes off as fun and casual.

Citing data

Citing data from research makes your presentation more persuasive. When you’re talking about results that you’ve achieved, try to bring up actual numbers – this can go a long way towards impressing your audience.

According to this study…
According to this study from [journal], 65% of eCommerce companies are looking for more efficient payment methods.
Based on our research…
Based on our research, the most enthusiastic buyers of wellness products in this city are in the 20 to 30 age range.
Looking at the data…
Looking at the data, you’ll notice that there’s been an 18% spike in sales since we migrated our platform.

Restating an idea

Sometimes you’ll want to restate an idea so it’s easier to understand. This also serves to emphasize it. Because of the repetition, people are more likely to remember it compared to if you’d only mentioned it once.

In other words…
In other words, partnering up with this client can make our operations more efficient and seamless.
Another way of saying this is…
Another way of saying this is that there might actually be more demand than supply by next year.
What I mean is…
What I mean is we’re already more than halfway to our business objective.

Handling technical issues

When you’re presenting on video call, all kinds of glitches can happen. Someone might have connection issues, you might have to figure out an app feature you’ve never used before, or background noises might keep interrupting your call. The phrases below can be very handy in these kinds of situations.

If you can’t hear me, can you type in the chat, please?
Could everyone mute their mic? There’s a lot of background noise.
Sorry. The call dropped. I’m back through.

Concluding the Presentation

By this time, the hardest part is already over! Still, you’ll have to wrap up your presentation nicely by going over the key takeaways during the conclusion. Your audience might also have questions that they’ll want you to address.

Summarizing the presentation

Out of everything that you’ve discussed, what would you like people to get out of it? A short summary towards the end serves to highlight your main ideas.

To wrap up…
To wrap up, I’d like to point out three major takeaways.
As a summary…
As a summary of this report update, I would say we have seen a positive uptick in our workflow and productivity.
All in all…
All in all, we believe we’ve seen good results for this stage of our progress.

Thanking the audience

Similar to your greeting at the start, it’s common to address your audience again towards the end by thanking them for their time.

Thank you for listening!
Thank you to everyone for being here.
I’d like to thank you all for coming here.

Addressing questions

If you’re open to questions from your audience, you can have a short question-and-answer session after your presentation.

Do you have any questions or clarifications?
Feel free to ask me about any of the points I made during the presentation.
Let me know if you have any questions.

Practice is Crucial

When you’re all set with the content of your presentation, the next step is to practice your delivery. Regardless of how well you know the topic of your presentation, practicing it at least once will help you be more confident. You’ll discover potential issues that you can fix too before you go live.

Do a run-through

The most basic way to practice is to do a run-through of your entire presentation . Set a timer on your phone, open up your slides, then start talking – all while imagining that you’re already presenting to your audience. Since you’re acting as if it’s in real-time, this means avoiding any pauses where you have to look up information.

A run-through can pinpoint any weaknesses in your presentation, and you’ll notice any parts where you might be uncomfortable talking. You’ll also be able to see how much time you’ve spent so you can pace yourself accordingly.

Record yourself

A more intensive version of the run-through basic would be to record yourself presenting. You can either record your voice or take a full video of yourself. People often notice that they use filler words a lot such as “um” or “uh.” You’ll also be able to check your pronunciation and whether you sound confident and natural all throughout.

Since body language can make or break your delivery, watching a video of yourself presenting is an incredibly effective way to improve your performance. Do your facial expressions match what you’re saying? Are you maintaining good posture throughout and making efforts to connect with the audience?

When you combine a confident, approachable body language with the right business vocabulary, your ideas shine through better than ever. You can get a play-by-play of how exactly to do this with the Creativa business meeting mastery course . It features video sections that are all about making powerful transitions and expressing your points clearly during presentations. You’ll learn about specific native English phrases and gestures so you can move fluidly from one idea to the next.

Together with the other episodes, the course dives deep into how you can be a strong communicator during professional meetings. For a preview, check out this free episode .

Presenting on Video Call

Technical issues happen often enough in face-to-face presentations, but they’re even more frequent during video calls. To avoid any awkward delays when you’re presenting, get comfortable with the platform that you’ll be using.

If it’s a face-to-face presentation, double-check your slides and make sure any images or videos are showing properly. For video calls, try doing a test call on the app or even call up a friend to practice. You can also get familiar with the app’s basic features, such as screen-sharing or inviting people to breakout rooms.

But sometimes, even when you’ve practiced your presentation perfectly on video call, the unexpected can still happen. Scroll down here to download a free worksheet that we made precisely for dealing with technical issues in presentations. You’ll get an extensive list of English phrases to use for all sorts of video call glitches, along with practical tips for handling them in the moment. With enough preparation, you’ll be able to roll with surprises and conquer even video call presentations.

Let’s explore some of the most common glitches (and how you can deal with them gracefully!):

Situation 1: You’re having a hard time hearing other people because of their laggy connection.

For a presentation to work, everyone needs to have a decent internet connection. If someone’s connection drops, they won’t be able to see or hear you properly, and you won’t understand what they’re trying to say, either. In this case, let them know right away that you can’t hear them. You can also ask them to talk to you over chat instead.

Example Phrases:

[Name], you’re cutting in and out. Would you mind reconnecting?
Audio problems – can you type it on chat instead?

Situation 2: You get disconnected from the call.

In the case that it’s your connection that’s faulty, you might have to disconnect then reconnect your call. This can be awkward because it interrupts the flow of your presentation. Alerting your audience using certain English phrases can reassure them while getting you back on track with what you were saying.

Sorry, guys, dropped call. But I’m back.
Connection problems, everyone. Gonna log out and back in.

Situation 3: People are having a hard time figuring out how to turn on their audio or video.

Another reason why you’d want to be really familiar with the video platform is you might have to coach people when they experience glitches. It’s almost expected that a few people might accidentally forget to turn on their mic while speaking. Alternatively, they might have issues with turning on their camera.

I can’t see you, [name]. [Give instructions on how to turn on their video.]
I can’t see you, Fatima. Look for the camera icon and make sure there’s no red line through it.
Typing in chat: “Make sure your mic’s unmuted.” [Clarify how they’ll know if they’re unmuted.]
Typing in chat: “ Make sure your mic’s unmuted. There should be no red lines through it.

The best presentations excel in all three areas: content, structure, and delivery.

Including some of the key English phrases above will upgrade your performance. Aside from setting a professional tone, these English presentation phrases set the pace for your audience so they’re aware of where you are in the discussion. Your message will sound clearer, and your audience will be able to follow your ideas better.

The basic rules for presentations are the same, whether you’re on a video call or stepping in front of a stage. With the tips above, you’re all set to prepare an amazing presentation in English.

52 Phrases for Better Flowing English Presentations

/ Steven Hobson / Business English , English Presentations , Vocabulary

English Presentations - Impactful English

Do you give English presentations at work, but feel that you could communicate your message in a more objective, fluid way?

Maybe you have an English presentation coming up and want to make sure that your speech is clear and structured so that your audience doesn’t lose concentration and stays with you all the way to the end.

A technique that can help you achieve objective, clear, and structured English presentations, is to use linking phrases that join the separate parts of your presentation together.

English presentations normally consist of an introduction, the main body, individual parts of the main body, and the ending or conclusion.

To help maintain your audience’s attention, you need to signal when you are going from one part to another.

In this article, I teach you 52 phrases that do exactly this – linking the different parts together, and therefore, making your presentation flow better. You’ll find that these phrases will act as ‘signposts’ for the audience when you finish one part and start another.

52 Phrases to Improve the Flow of Your English Presentations

The introduction.

All good presentations start with a strong introduction.

There are a number of different ways you can begin your English presentation. Here’s a simple, but effective introduction structure which works for most types of business presentations:

Introduce – Introduce yourself and greet your audience. Introduce the presentation topic – Explain the reasons for listening. Outline – Describe the main parts of the presentation. Question policy – Make it clear to your audience when they can ask questions: during or at the end?

Here are some phrases which you can use to structure the introduction in this way:

1. Good morning/afternoon (everyone) (ladies and gentlemen). 2. It’s a pleasure to welcome (the President) here. 3. I’m … (the Director of …)

Introduce the presentation topic

4. By the end of the talk/presentation/session, you’ll know how to… / …you will have learned about… / 5. I plan to say a few words about… 6. I’m going to talk about… 7. The subject of my talk is…

8. My talk will be in (three parts). 9. In the first part… 10. Then in the second part… 11. Finally, I’ll go on to talk about…

Question Policy

12. Please interrupt if you have any questions. 13. After my talk, there will be time for a discussion and any questions.

Main Body

Now that you have finished the introduction, we now need to transition to the main body, and its individual parts in a smooth way.

There are three parts of the main body of a presentation where linking phrases can be used:

Beginning the Main Body Ending Parts within the Main Body Beginning a New Part

Here are some phrases which you can use for these parts:

Beginning the Main Body

14. Now let’s move to / turn to the first part of my talk which is about… 15. So, first… 16. To begin with…

Ending Parts within the Main Body

17. That completes/concludes… 18. That’s all (I want to say for now) on… 19. Ok, I’ve explained how…

Beginning a New Part

20. Let’s move to (the next part which is)… 21. So now we come to the next point, which is… 22. Now I want to describe… 23. Let’s turn to the next issue… 24. I’d now like to change direction and talk about…

Listing and Sequencing

If you need to talk about goals, challenges, and strategies in your English presentation, listing phrases can help link these together and improve the flow of your speech. If you have to explain processes, sequencing phrases are helpful:

25. There are three things to consider. First… Second… Third… 26. There are two kinds of… The first is… The second is… 27. We can see four advantages and two disadvantages. First, advantages… 28. One is… Another is… A third advantage is… Finally…

29. There are (four) different stages to the process. 30. First / then / next / after that / then (x) / after x there’s y. 31. There are two steps involved. The first step is… The second step is… 32. There are four stages to the project. 33. At the beginning, later, then, finally… 34. I’ll describe the development of the idea. First the background, then the present situation, and then the prospect for the future.

After you have presented the main body of your English presentation, you will want to end it smoothly.

Here are typical sections transitioning from the main body to the ending of the presentation, and then inviting the audience to ask questions:

Ending the Main Body Beginning the Summary and/or Conclusion Concluding An Ending Phrase Inviting Questions and/or Introducing Discussion Thanking the Audience

Ending the Main Body

35. Okay, that ends (the third part of) my talk. 36. That’s all I want to say for now on (the 2017 results).

Beginning the Summary and/or Conclusion

37. To sum up… 38. Ok, in brief, there are several advantages and disadvantages. 39. To conclude… 40. I’d like to end by emphasizing the main points. 41. I’d like to end with a summary of the main points.

42. I think we have seen that we should… 43. In my opinion, we should… 44. I recommend/suggest that we… 45. There are three reasons why I recommend this. First, … / Second, … / Finally,…

An Ending Phrase

46. Well, I’ve covered the points that I needed to present today. 47. That sums up (my description of the new model). 48. That concludes my talk for today.

Inviting Questions and/or Introducing Discussion

49. Now we have (half an hour) for questions and discussion. 50. So, now I’d be very interested to hear your comments.

Thanking the Audience

51. I’d like to thank you for listening to my presentation. 52. Thank you for listening / your attention. / Many thanks for coming.

Linking phrases are like the skeleton which holds your presentation together.

Not only do they improve the flow and help guide the audience, but by memorizing them they can also help you remember the general structure of your presentation, giving you increased confidence.

To help you memorize, I recommend saying the linking phrases on their own from the beginning to the end of your presentation while you practice.

I also suggest memorizing the introduction word for word. By doing this, you will get off to a great start, which will settle your nerves and transmit a positive first impression.

Author: Steven Hobson

Steven is a business English coach, a certified life coach, writer, and entrepreneur. He helps international professionals build confidence and improve fluency speaking English in a business environment.

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Online Presentations Useful Phrases - Talaera Business English Blog

101 Must-Know Transition Phrases for Engaging Presentations Online

By Paola Pascual on Jan 17, 2024 1:43:00 PM

Giving presentations is often feared by many professionals, but if the presentation is online and you're not a native speaker, things get even trickier. One tip to make things easier? Learn useful phrases to help you navigate your presentation. In this article, you will find lots of helpful resources to give remarkable presentations . Listen to the episode above, download the checklist below, and learn some of the phrases we present. If we missed any, tell us in the comments below.

General vocabulary for presentations

Sometimes, the smallest changes in your presentations can make the biggest differences. One of them is to learn a few phrases that give you confidence during your speech. Here are some important verbs to get you started:

To highlight
To emphasize
To walk you through (*very common in business presentations!)
To send around
To carry on (similar to continue)
To get carried away
To sum up (similar to summarize )
To focus on

Vocabulary to start your presentation

Learn how to powerfully start your presentation with these 4 simple steps. Here's some vocabulary you can use:

Welcome your audience

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone. Thank you for joining us today, and welcome to today's webinar.
Hello everyone, I’m very happy to be speaking with you today.

Introduce yourself

My name is Susan, and I’m part of the design team here at Globex Corporation.
First of all, a little bit about my background - I am the Team Lead at [Company], and I've been in charge of [your main responsibility] for [X] years.
I'd like to tell you a bit about myself - my name is Eve I'm the Operations Manager here at [Company].

Introduce the topic and goal of the presentation

Today, I'd like to talk about…
This presentation will take about [X] minutes, and we will discuss...
We've allocated [X] minutes to this presentation. and I'll talk about...
I'd like to give you a brief breakdown of...
I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about...
The main goal of this presentation is…
The purpose of this presentation is...
My objective today is...

Read these 5 tricks the best public speakers use to captivate their audience .

Addressing questions from the audience

If you have any questions about anything, feel free to interrupt.
If anything isn't clear, please click on the 'raise hand' button and I'll do my best to answer your question.
I'd be happy to answer your questions at the end of the presentation.
If you have any questions, please kindly wait until the end to ask them. We will have [X] minutes for a Q&A session at the end.
Since today's audience is considerably large, we will not have time for questions, but please email me at [email protected]

Learning new English words is not easy, but you can achieve effective communication through practice and repetition. If you are a Talaera student, visit the Library to practice your vocabulary for presentations. If are not part of the Talaera community yet, learn how we can help you here .

Clear out technical issues

Can everyone hear me well? Let me know if you encounter any technical difficulties throughout the presentation.
If you are not speaking, please put yourselves on mute.
If you feel that the sound quality is poor throughout the presentation, please let me know.

Transition to the main topic of the presentation

Hi everyone, I think we might still be missing a few people but I’m going to kick things off now so we have time to get through everything.
All right, let’s dive right in!
All right, let’s jump right in!
Let’s get started.
Let’s kick things off.
I’m going to talk about
The purpose/subject of this presentation is
I’ve divided the presentation into 3 parts: In the first part, ... / Then in the second part, ... / Finally, I’ll go on to talk about...
Let me begin by looking at...
Let me start with some general information on...

Vocabulary for the main body of your presentation

Introduce a topic or section.

Now let’s move to the first part of the presentation,
We can see 4 advantages and two disadvantages. First,
On the one hand… On the other hand…
There are two steps involved. The first step is… The second step is…
There are four stages to the project.

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Transition to a new section

All right, let’s turn to...
Now we come to the next point, which is
Okay so that’s [topic 1], but what about [topic 2]?
There’s a lot more to talk about, but since we’re pushed for time , let’s move on to [topic 2].
This leads me to my next point, which is...

Give examples and details

For example...
A good example of this is...
To illustrate this point...
This reminds me of...
To give you an example...
Let me elaborate further on...

Describe visual aids

As you can see [from this infographic]
This chart shows
If you look at this graph, you will see
From this chart, we can understand how
Let me show you this [image, graph, diagram]
On the right/left
In the middle of
At the top/bottom of the picture

Emphasize an idea

This is important because
I’d like to emphasize that
We have to remember that

Repeat the same message with different words

In other words
To put it more simply
So, what I’m saying is that
Let me say that again.

It's easy to get stuck in the middle of a presentation, especially if English is not your mother tongue. Here are +20 Top Tips You Need To Know if you're learning business English .

Finish your presentation and summarize

The end of a presentation, together with the opening, is one of the most important parts of your speech. Read these 5 effective strategies to close your presentation and use the vocabulary below.

That’s all I want to say for now about [topic].
To sum up, ...
This sums up [topic].
So in a nutshell, ...
So to recap, ...
In brief, ...
To conclude, ...
I’d like to conclude by emphasizing the main points...
That's it on [topic] for today. In short, we've covered...
So, now I’d be very interested to hear your comments.
And this brings us to the end of this presentation. I hope [topic] is a little clear after today.
So to draw all that together, ...

Start and navigate the Q&A session

Thank you for your attention. I hope you found this presentation useful, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Thank you for listening. We now have [X] minutes left. Do you have any questions?
Thank you for your question, [Name].
I'm glad you asked.
That's an interesting question.
That's a great question, I must say. I'm not 100% sure, but off the top of my head, I can tell you that...
Are you asking about [topic 1] or [topic 2]?
Can you please clarify what exactly you mean by [question]? I'm not sure I fully understand.
I'm afraid I don't have the exact figures at hand, but if you give me your email address at the end, I can follow up with you later.
Does that answer your question?
I hope that makes sense. Is that the kind of answer you were looking for?

Take your presentation skills to the next level.

Keep reading about presentation skills:

21 Helpful Tips For Remarkable and Outstanding Presentation Skills
How To Start a Presentation: Follow These 4 Easy Steps
How To Bring Across Your Main Idea In A Presentation Effectively
5 Effective Strategies To End A Presentation
6 Public Speaking Tricks To Captivate Your Audience
How To Do Effective Business Storytelling According To Former Prosecutor
8 Little Changes That'll Make A Big Difference With Your Presentations
3 Quick Public Speaking Tips For Your Next Presentation
Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are [TED Talk Lesson]

Talaera Talks - Transcript Episode 5

Topic : Deliver impactful presentations
Listen : Spotify , Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts
Duration : 22 min.

Intro Welcome to Talaera Talks , the business English communication podcast for non-native professionals. My name is Paola and I am co-hosting this show with Simon. In this podcast, we're going to be covering communication advice and tips to help express yourself with confidence in English in professional settings. So we hope you enjoy the show!

Okay, welcome back for our third episode of Talaera Talks. This is Simon, and I'm joined with Paola. Paola, how are you doing? 0:37 Hi, Simon. I'm great. Happy to do another episode. 0:41 Yeah, absolutely. And Happy Friday. 0:44 Happy Friday! 0:49 So today, our topic: Presenting in English. I'd like to start this episode with a quote I found on Harvard Business Review that I thought was really interesting. It says, "Even native English speakers often anticipate disaster when making presentations. By but for non-native speakers, the anticipatory and situational anxiety associated with their unique challenges (these challenges - being understandable, choosing the right words, speaking spontaneously), can be overwhelming. Moreover, if these concerns interfere with your willingness or ability to make business presentations, the impact can be career-limiting." So yeah, that's a pretty kind of heavy quote to start. But it is something that we see from a lot of our clients, right? 1:52 Yeah, it's super interesting. It was super interesting to read. It's something we know, but it's important to remind it that it is presentations, the topic we have today is something that is not pleasurable for anyone, not for non-native speakers, but also for native speakers. So that's something to point out. And today, we talked about that... We said that we wanted to start with those challenges or fears that we see from our clients, our learners. 2:25 Yeah, and it's usually around the same things, you know, we, at least for me, I come into contact with so many of these, so many of our students who are so competent in their, in their daily lives, what they're doing in their professional lives. And they come to me with these with these fears, like this just general lack of confidence, or imposter syndrome, right? This I don't know if I really deserve to be speaking and, you know, kind of explaining this concept to all these people. 3:05 Mm-hmm. Yes. And also the fear of not being understood, well, they know what I'm saying, well, they understand my accent. There's a lot of worries and concern around accent and our pronunciation expert, Lisa hosted a webinar, actually last week, where she explained that accent matters. But as long as people understand you, it's fine. You don't need to be perfect. Everyone has an accent. So that's also totally fine. 3:37 And this being Yeah, this being one of I think, at least for me, in my experience, one of the most frequently asked for aspects from students. So you know, and just to like, again, just say that this is a challenge for everyone, not just, you know, non-native English speakers. You know, I think all of us have a tough experience or somebody that we think of when we think about public speaking, it's, it's like this, yeah, really anxiety-riddled thing. I mean, I don't have any, you know, funny personal stories, but uh, do you, Paola? 4:20 You want me to tell my embarrassing story, don't you? 4:22 Please, you must. 4:25 So I used to teach at a university in Vietnam when I lived there, and the classes where it rains, you know, from perhaps 50 students to up to what 300 there's was a class with, you know, 2-300 students and there was a little stage it wasn't too high, but there was a little stage and I fell off. 4:46 You fell off the stage. This was during or after the presentation, or...? 4:56 It was around the beginning of the presentation. So... 5:01 During! Oh, I thought it was it was like after like you were walking off? 5:06 No, I move a lot. I use my body language quite a lot. And that was one of the moments where I overdid it, probably, and fell off. 5:17 Wow. Well, I'm glad that you're still here with us. 5:21 Yeah, you know, but that's the story that I sometimes not always tell it. But I sometimes tell it when my students say, Oh, I'm nervous, and I assume that it can happen, you know, I thought it was going to be a disaster. And then I actually ended up making friends with the students that turned out okay. 5:39 Right. Well, yeah, I mean, today, we're not necessarily going to go into the physical dimensions of how to avoid falling off the stage. But we do have some, some good tips, right? 5:54 Yes. And to provide some advice on how to deliver presentations, and lose that fear, we've divided it into three main blocks. And those are what to do before the presentation, tips for during the presentation. And then even after there's things you can do to, to get better. 6:18 Right, let's start with the first, right, what can we do before the presentation in terms of getting ready, preparing? 6:30 So preparing, it's a very general term, but one of the tips that we like to give is, think of the WHAT, WHY and NEXT. So WHAT is your presentation about? WHY should they listen to you and not look it up online (or listen to a podcast, like ours)? And in what NEXT means - what is supposed to happen next? Do they need to do anything, go on a website, send you feedback? Are you going to send them the materials? So what why our next is so straightforward and simple. But when I asked this question to our clients that are so thrown off, and they don't know what to answer sometimes, 7:10 Yeah, I think that's one of those things. And I struggle with this all the time is, when I get an idea or something like that. It's so easy to just jump over those most basic things of, you know, what, why and index, those are so, so basic, but it's such it's, they're so foundational, right? And in terms of creating something that people will understand and be able to, to really attach to. 7:41 Yep. And do you have any tips around how much you should learn? Should you write the whole thing? Or should you memorize? 7:52 Yeah, that, you know, this is a good question as well, that a lot of our learners ask in terms of, yeah, you know, I'm just going to go and write it all out. And then I'll have an idea. And I'll feel better because I can write it and change it so that it sounds more professional. It sounds like I know what I'm talking about. And I always tell people, please don't try to prepare a presentation where you're reading a script, it is just the most unnatural thing ever. And, and it, you won't end up sounding more professional, if anything, your audience is going to detach, because they're going to sense that something's not really right here, it doesn't seem genuine, right doesn't seem real, it just seems like this person is doing what he's doing, which is reading off of a script. And even still a lot of times with a lot of our learners where they know that, okay, I know this material. But I'm going to put all of my effort into making this perfect slide this perfect presentation. So I would say, focus on actually knowing the material itself really well. More than focusing on how the presentation looks, you know, these kinds of things. Because once you're in that situation where you're on the stage, and people are looking at you, at least you'll be able to Windows like kind of red Sirens of you know, panic and anxiety show up. You'll have learned the material itself so well that you can roll with that. 9:29 Yes. And you also have room for improvisation because your brain is so used to the content and you know, so well what you want to say that that's when your brain starts to come up with anecdotes and that's the fun thing that gets you hooked. And that's the main Why should people listen to you instead of reading an article online? 9:49 Exactly. Because for most of our students, you know what you're talking about. That's why you're up there. That's why you have the opportunities to speak there is because someone thinks you're qualified enough to speak to all these people. So trust in that and go with that. So yeah, so we have right not, not over learning. Don't script it right? What else can we do? 10:14 Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice in your mind, but more importantly verbalize it, say it out loud. And recording yourself is uncomfortable for everyone. But it works. I have never tried it. I always told my students should record yourself, you should record yourself and they were like, Huh. And just a few of them did it. And when we started with the webinars, I haven't done something like it before. And I said, Okay, I'll use my own tip. And it was one I'm comfortable. And two, super helpful. So if you get to go over the sound of your own voice, I would say do it. 10:54 Yeah. You know, this is one thing that I have to be totally honest here. Doing these podcasts is the first time I've actually recorded myself for a long time. And I've learned a lot about, you know, not saying the word Absolutely. 500 times, yeah, within the span of 20 minutes. So those are good learning lessons. Definitely. Okay, and then so we have that. And then the last little tip is, I would say get an English mindset before 30 minutes to an hour before the presentation. And that could be listening to a podcast, you know, like Talaera Talks, or, you know, watching a show on Netflix that's, that's in English, whatever you can do to get your kind of English mind, you know, in the zone before you go up and actually speak English. So So those are all of our kind of pre presentation tips, what you can do before, so what about during, 11:58 so for during, there's a lot of things that you can you can do to improve your presentations. But the first tip is to learn how to start to have a mind map of what am I going to do at the beginning. So you start confident already. So welcome, everyone, introduce the people introduce the topic and go to the main point, those four parts will help you have a nice start. Welcome, everyone. For example. Hi, everyone. Welcome to today's presentation. Today, we'll be talking about business events, introduce the people, you can introduce yourself , like, Hi, my name is Paula and I'm a business English instructor at Telstra, and perhaps even the audience. Today we have with us students from all different nationalities and levels, or, you know, whatever the audiences, that's also helpful for everyone to understand, introduce the topic, or give you some best practices for business emails , and a few templates, and then go to the main point. So a simple sentence like Alright, let's get down to business. So having those welcome introducing people introducing the topic and going to the main point will help you have a nice start. 13:16 Yeah, and I like that concept of that the mind map is so good. Because it's it's not the scripting, like we were talking about before, it's having a kind of a little mental checklist. So that when those first few minutes, were you're up there on the on stage, and you're like, oh god, oh, god, here we go. Here we go. You have that little checklist that I created. Okay, so I welcomed introduced the people the topic, and now to the main point, and that can get you in the zone and going I really liked that. Yeah, so so having that, that starting template. And then another thing would be, I would say slowing down, slowing it down. And this is really I think it touches on a lot of aspects. The first would be just the general anxiety, we tend to speak a lot faster when we're really anxious, you know, but by slowing down, it really helps with non native English speakers because it helps with the accent. And it helps with giving you some time to really think through your next thoughts. Now, I'm not saying that you should, while you're speaking, try to think steps three, four or five ahead of you. But giving yourself a little bit of time to Okay, I'm going through this pattern now. Now I can go to the next one, right. And doing that, you know, another with the slowing down a tip if you're really nervous to go in is prefacing your speech. So before you really get into everything, maybe after the welcome part is just to say, Hey, you know, I'm going to try to speak as clearly as possible, as English as myself. first language and really smile and maybe make a little joke about that. And I think that's a good way to open it out for the audience to show some vulnerability and and help. I mean, what do you think about that? 15:13 Yeah, I mean, we see that with, sometimes with celebrities, when they're not native speakers, and they admitted, and they, they kind of put yourself put themselves, as you said, in that vulnerable position, and that makes them even cuter. 15:28 Mm hmm. 15:29 So it's making yourself human, I think it's always a good tip. And you were saying that slowing down helps with your accent and also for yourself to gain time to really know what you're going to say. But also for the for the audience. We don't mind people making some little pulses, so that they also have time to collect their thoughts. 15:50 Right, right. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Those are, those are two really good aspects, starting, you know, the template and then slowing down, right. Yeah, kind of diffusing the anxiety by saying, Hey, you know, this isn't my first language. And that really gets the audience on your side, right. And then another would be not reading off of your slides. I mean, this is kind of the basic, you know, what you learn in school, but it's also something that a lot of people get, yeah, get, get hooked on, just because it's like a safety net. And I would say that's where the overlearning the material that we talked about beforehand comes into play. Anything else in this? 16:42 Oh, recap for sure. After every section, do a little recap, and at the end to recap where you summarize the main points of the whole presentation? 16:54 Yeah, yeah. Good. Good. So So summarize. Yeah, yeah. And that's a that's a good, you know, I would say three aspects, four aspects that during the presentation, if you keep these in, in your mind, it's, it's, I would say, it's going to help a lot. And so now we're going to move to what can we do after the presentation? We've done it, we've walked off the stage. Whoo, I'm so glad that's over. Now, is all of our work done? No. 17:27 No, not really. That's now it's your chance to actually learn from, from everything you did. So one of the tips we suggest is try to ask for feedback. But that's not so easy, right, Simon? 17:42 Yeah, it's, I think, a big question. And that is, who do you get the feedback from? Right?

17:50 So we, we would always suggest to try and find someone you can trust someone who is honest, and who can give you objective feedback. So in some cases, that can be your manager, but sometimes it's a colleague that understands the topic, and can really provide some feedback on how you did. 18:13 Yeah. And that's, I think, in terms of learning, this is one of the most crucial thing is reflecting back on what you did, and seeing what worked, what didn't work, and how can I take that and move forward? Because especially with presenting, it's a skill, and it takes practice, practice, practice. And, and I think, for a lot of people, you should jump at the chance to do this. So that you can continue to learn and continue to grow. But be sure to reflect by Yeah, by asking for feedback and seeing what worked, 18:47 for sure. And ideally, that would be someone, perhaps from work that can see how you did and like the actual show, if not Talaera teachers also do that. So you can present your own presentation, pretending it's the actual one. And that's how we can provide feedback on the structure, the vocabulary, the language in general. 19:08 Yeah, absolutely. I do that. Oh, there you go. Absolutely. Definitely. See, I'm reflecting back and learning as we go. I'm working. I'm learning that. Yeah. But I've done that recently with a couple of students where we've gone through their deck and looked at what are their plans in terms of presenting and we've kind of gone through in detail that together. So So yeah, so that was kind of I would say the biggest thing in terms of afterward. 19:40 So we have the pre-presentation, just as a quick recap for the pre-presentation and before your presentation, always remember the what why next, what is your presentation about? Why should people listen to you and what should happen next overnight Learn the content. be super confident about what you want to talk about. But don't script it. Don't write everything down. Otherwise, it would sound like you're just reading. 20:11 Write and practice through verbalization. record yourself, even though it may be awkward, but it's a great learning technique. And then get in that English mindset beforehand by Yeah, listening to a podcast or what have you. And then during the presentation, right, starting with the template, Paolo was discussing the welcome introducing the people the topic, and then going to the main point, 20:37 slowing down a little bit. It's not necessary to go super fast. It's not only not necessary, but people will understand you better if you take your time and make some pauses. Of course, don't read off their slides. Tell them the story. 20:54 Right, right. And remember 20:56 to recap, just like we're doing now. Send them or tell them a quick summary and the main points, 21:03 right, and don't fall off the stage as well. That's ideally we forgot. Ideally, it's final for then, as the final point, right, asking for feedback, finding that person that can get you that feedback that's so important to you. Finding what worked and moving forward. 21:21 That's right. All right. Do we have it for today? 21:25 I think that is it for today. Yeah. I had a lot of Thanks. Yeah, I had a blast. And thanks for meeting up. And we have a lot of good stuff coming up with Talaera. Right. 21:38 We have webinars, our blog is busier than ever. So go on the http://blog.talaera.com/ , check out the resources. And what else? 21:51 Find us on LinkedIn. And yeah, please ask any questions, we'd be glad to get back to you. So that is it for today. And thank you to all of our listeners. So far, we're excited to keep growing this. And as always, keep learning! 22:11 And that's all we have for you today. We hope you enjoyed it, and remember to subscribe to Talaera Talks . We'll be back soon with more! And visit our website at https://talaera.com for more valuable content on business English. You can also request a free consultation on the best ways for you and your team to improve your communication skills. So have a great day and keep learning!

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25 English Presentation Phrases

Does giving a presentation make you feel a little nervous?

Well, you’re not alone.

According to Forbes , giving a presentation makes 80% of us feel nervous !

The good news is that feeling nervous might be a good thing. This feeling pushes us to prepare ourselves better, and as long as you’re well prepared, you’ll do just fine.

So then, let’s take a look at how we can prepare ourselves to give amazing presentations in English. Today, we’re going to focus on the business English phrases you can count on (depend on) to make your presentation go more smoothly from start to finish.

But first, here are some tips to use when preparing for your presentation.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Greeting Your Audience

You’re now standing in front of your audience. Before you begin your presentation, start by greeting your audience, welcoming them to the event and introducing yourself.

1. Good morning/afternoon/evening, everyone.

2. welcome to [name of event]..

Sample sentence: Welcome to our 3rd Annual Sales Leadership Conference.

3. First, let me introduce myself. I am [name] from [company].

Beginning your presentation.

After you have given an introduction, you are ready to begin speaking about your topic. Use these phrases to get started.

4. Let me start by giving you some background information.

Use this phrase to give your audience a brief overview of the topic you’ll be discussing. This is a good way to give them an idea of what’s going on and to bring them up to date.

5. As you’re aware, …

If you’re bringing up a topic that your audience already knows about or is aware of, then you can use this phrase to introduce this known topic.

Sample sentence: As you’re aware , the CEO of DHL Express has often said that globalization is here to stay.

Transitioning to the Next Topic

Before you move on to your next point, be sure to make it clear to your audience that you’re now starting a new topic. Let them know exactly what that new topic will be. The two phrases below are very similar in meaning, and they can both be used for transitions.

6. Let’s move on to…

Sample sentence: Let’s move on to our second sales strategy.

7. Turning our attention now to…

Sample sentence: Turning our attention now to the results of our 2016 customer survey.

Providing More Details

Use these phrases to tell your audience that you’ll be giving them a more detailed explanation of the topic. Both the words ‘expand’ and ‘elaborate’ mean to explain more fully.

8. I’d like to expand on…

Sample sentence: Now I’d like to expand on my point about increasing our market share.

9. Let me elaborate further.

Linking to another topic.

When making reference to a point you made earlier, or to remind your audience about something you said before, use these phrases to that link.

10. As I said at the beginning, …

This phrase lets you remind your audience about a point you made earlier. It can also be used to emphasize a point or theme.

Sample sentence: As I said in the beginning , we’ll see an increase in profit if we follow these five steps.

11. This relates to what I was saying earlier…

This phrase will help you make connections between ideas in your presentation. It shows that two different ideas are connected.

Sample sentence: This relates to what I was saying earlier about increasing production to meet the year-end demand.

12. This ties in with…

Sample sentence: This ties in with the way we’ve been doing business for the past 20 years.

Emphasizing a Point

Use these phrases to draw attention to an important point that you want your audience to note.

13. The significance of this is…

The word “significance'” is similar in meaning to “importance.”

Sample sentence: The significance of this is , if we complete this project on schedule, we’ll have more people available to work on the next project.

14. This is important because…

Sample sentence: This is important because any marketing effort we put in now will help to boost demand for our products in the long run.

15. We have to remember that …

Sample sentence: We have to remember that people are our most important resource.

Making Reference to Information

Very often, you may need to support your discussion points by drawing attention and making reference to information and data from studies, reports and other sources.

16. Based on our findings, …

Sample sentence: Based on our findings, 74% of our market is made up of teenagers who find our clothing line stylish and upbeat.

17. According to our study, …

Sample sentence: According to our study, 63% of working people in this city go directly to the gym after work.

18. Our data shows …

Sample sentence: Our data shows that more than 23% of men in this town who used to drive to work now prefer to save money and the environment by cycling instead.

Explaining Visuals

To present a clearer picture of your point, you may show your data, information or examples in the form of visuals such as charts, tables and graphs.

19. I’d like to illustrate this point by showing you…

The word “illustrate” means “show,” usually with examples, data or visuals.

Sample sentence: I’d like to illustrate this point by showing you a chart of the number of people in each age group who prefer to shop online.

20. This chart shows a breakdown of …

A “breakdown” refers to the detailed parts or figures that make up the total picture. A breakdown is often used in a presentation to show all the smaller parts behind something bigger.

Sample sentence: This chart shows a breakdown of the ingredients we use in our gluten-free products.

Restating Your Point

Sometimes in order to emphasize your point, you have to state it in a way that’s easier for your audience to understand and remember. This often involves rephrasing, simplifying or clarifying your point.

21. In other words, …

Use this phrase to rephrase or reword your point in another way.

Sample sentence: In other words , we need to change our current design to make it more attractive to older children.

22. To put it simply, …

Use this phrase to simplify points that are complex or difficult to understand.

Sample sentence: To put it simply , we’ll need you to work harder at making this launch a success.

23. What I mean to say is …

Use this phrase to explain your point in a way that’s easier for your audience to understand.

Sample sentence: What I mean to say is that we need to change the way we market our products.

Concluding Your Presentation

This is the very end of the presentation. You have said everything you need to say, and now you need to finish it nicely. You may also have some time for questions. If there is time for questions, invite your audience to ask any questions they have.

24. In conclusion, let me sum up my main points.

As part of your closing statement, “sum up” (summarize, state briefly) your speech by mentioning the main points of your speech.

25. Thank you for your attention. Now I am happy to answer any questions you might have.

End your presentation by thanking your audience and offering to answer their questions.

The Top 3 Tips for Preparing Your Business Presentation in English

1. have a plan.

Always have a plan. Spend some time thinking about not only what you’re going to say but how you’re going to say it.

If English isn’t your native language, it’s very important that you think about what language you’re going to be using. Think about all the vocabulary, phrases and grammar that will make your message clear and easy to understand.

What are the big ideas you want to explain for your presentation? Which words will express these ideas best? I recommend:

Have a clear goal in mind to help you stay on track and be logical. Whenever you feel lost during the presentation, just remember this clear, main goal. An example of a goal could be to convince potential clients to work with you. Whenever you don’t know what to say next, remember to focus on the advantages you want to present and on examples of what you did in the past to deserve their trust. Encourage them to ask you questions related to this goal.
Research content. If you know your facts, you already have the core of your presentation prepared. Write these facts down on topic cards, give out handouts (papers) with important information or include them on your PowerPoint slides.
Prepare the delivery. Rehearse giving the presentation several times. Some people like recording themselves, others prefer practicing in front of a mirror or having friends listen to them while presenting. Choose the method that works best for you.
Decide whether you are going to read or speak freely. Reading can sound unnatural, but you can use certain tricks to avoid this. You can underline important sentences which you can memorize, so that from time to time you can stop reading, say your memorized lines and look at the audience. In this way, reading can be made more natural. Make sure you slow down so that the audience can follow you.

Speaking freely is much better if you can remember everything you want to say, because you will seem more knowledgeable, prepared and confident. However, this can be more stressful.

2. Use Visuals

Using some visuals can make your presentation more entertaining, easier to understand and can get your points across more convincingly. My advice:

Decide whether you need a PowerPoint presentation or not. Do you have graphs, results or other things like this to show? Then yes, you need one. Are you just telling a story? Then you probably do not.
Do not fill your slides with too much information. Use a maximum of seven short lines of text—even seven can be too many. Highlight key words so the audience can see the main ideas right away. Use bullet points rather than full sentences.
If you are presenting graphs or charts , give the audience time to read them. Do not show a huge table of data if they audience will not have time to read and understand it. Make sure you try reading each slide while timing yourself to see how long it takes, so you do not jump to the next slide too early during your presentation.

3. Structure Your Presentation Well

It is a common mistake to give an unclear and unorganized presentation. This happens when the presenter just starts speaking without a clear goal in mind. They might suddenly realize their allotted speaking time has ended, or that the audience is bored because they are not following what is being said. Here’s what you should do instead:

Decide on three main points (or less) that you want to make. Audiences can’t usually focus on more than three points.
Tell them from the beginning what points you will be making. Audiences like to know what to expect. Tell them the main goals of your presentation directly in the introduction.
Presenting main points: firstly, secondly, last but not least
Making additions: moreover, furthermore, in addition, besides, what’s more
Making purposes clear: in order to, so as to
Presenting reasons and causes: on account of, due to, since, seeing that
Presenting consequences: consequently, as a result, therefore
Expressing contrast: in spite of, despite, although, even though, however, nevertheless, in contrast, on the contrary

So with this, you’ve mastered the 25 most commonly used phrases used in presentations and my three favorite tips.

Once you learn them, I think you’ll find them very useful to you in any presentation.

Become familiar with them and I promise you’ll feel much less nervous in your next presentation.

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How to Start a Presentation [+ Examples]

Published: September 13, 2023

The first step in mastering the art of delivering powerful presentations is understanding how to start a presentation properly.

how to start a presentation where a person holds mic

In this post, you'll discover strategies for crafting a solid presentation opening, designing an impactful opening slide, and delivering a memorable presentation.

Table of Contents

Why Your Presentation Opening Matters

How to start a presentation, opening slide examples, best practices for starting a presentation.

The opening of your presentation sets the tone for your entire session.

Within the first few minutes, most of your audience will decide whether they find your expertise, experience, and topic compelling enough to warrant their attention.

Think of it this way: Your opening is a preview of your presentation like a trailer is a preview of a movie. If the five-minute trailer isn’t engaging or impactful, why should the audience bother sitting through the half-hour movie?

Your opening shapes the expectations of your audience and entices them to stay engaged throughout the session.

And although you’ll still need to work to maintain their attention, getting it right from the start will spare you the challenge of re-engaging a disinterested audience right from the beginning of your presentation.

This opening statement is powerful because rather than lead with his “credentials” or “accolades,” as the audience most likely expects, he defies that expectation.

He creates a sense of intrigue that instantly piques the audience's curiosity and compels them to pay closer attention.

Infuse humor.

In Tom Thum's TedTalk titled Beatbox Brilliance , he sets a lighthearted tone by stepping on stage wearing oversized sunglasses and declaring, “My name is Tom, and I've come here today to come clean about what I do for money.”

As you might expect, this humorous approach not only elicits laughter but also surprises the audience, who are intrigued and pleasantly surprised at the tone he sets for the presentation.

Ask a question.

Graham Shaw's presentation titled “ Why people believe they can’t draw - and how to prove they can ” begins with, “Hi, I've got a question for you - how many people here would say they can draw?”

Seeing as this is a relatively lighthearted question that’s simple to answer, the audience responds immediately.

Now, what makes this a powerful opening technique is that Graham then goes on to say:

“When people say they can’t draw, I think it's more to do with beliefs rather than talent and ability. When you say you can’t draw, that’s just an illusion, and today I’d like to prove that to you.”

By immediately challenging a widely held belief among the audience and promising to debunk it during the presentation, he employs a powerful technique that keeps the audience fully engaged.

This approach makes the audience feel “invested” in the outcome of the presentation and curious as to whether he can back up his claim.

2. Tell your audience why they should be listening to you.

Getting your audience’s attention is just one part of the equation. Once you have it, you must also explain why they should “keep” listening to you. Here are some ways to do this:

Highlight relevant personal experience.

In Phil Waknell’s opening section, he talks about how he’s spent the last ten years helping conference speakers, business leaders, and entrepreneurs prepare and deliver powerful presentations .

This immediately signals to the audience that he’s someone worth listening to and positions him as a credible source of insights based on the wealth of experience he has gathered.

Highlight your expertise.

During the opening section of Dr. Lara Boyd’s presentation titled “ After watching this, your brain will not be the same ,” she says, “I’m Dr. Lara Boyd, and I’m a brain researcher here at the University of British Columbia.”

Sharing her credentials as a brain researcher is crucial to gaining her audience's trust — especially considering the technicality of her topic.

But even while creating presentations outside fields like brain research, sharing qualifications and credentials in your opening section can be a powerful technique.

This helps you position yourself as a credible authority and reinforcing your audience's confidence in your ability to deliver valuable information.

Tell your audience what’s in it for them.

In Mel Robbins’ opening section for her presentation titled “ How to stop screwing yourself over ,” she ends her introduction by saying:

“I’m here for you. I’m going to tell you everything I know in less than 18 minutes about how to get what you want.”

Although she started the section by highlighting her experiences and expertise, she went further by explicitly stating the benefits her audience can expect from her presentation.

Doing this is a great way to create a compelling reason for your audience to invest their time and attention and emphasize the value of the presentation you’re about to deliver.

3. Introduce your topic.

If your topic is relatively simple to grasp or your audience is particularly knowledgeable, introducing your topic can be as easy as “Today, I’m going to be talking to you about how we’ve built a six-figure software company in 6 months.”

However, if your topic is more complex or unfamiliar to the audience, you must do a bit more heavy lifting in your opening section.

For example, Sam Bern’s “ My philosophy for a happy life ” presentation discusses how he lives a happy life despite having Progeria disease.

However, because this condition might be unfamiliar to some audience members, he takes some time in his opening section to talk about the illness before delving into the meat of his presentation.

Similarly, if you’re presenting on a complex topic or to an audience that isn’t knowledgeable, it’s essential to consider this when crafting your opening section.

4. Leverage storytelling.

Stories can create immersive experiences that captivate the audience and convey a core message.

For example, in the opening section of Sam Bern's presentation, he tells a story about his struggles while trying to achieve his goal of becoming a drummer in his school marching band, despite living with Progeria disease.

This sets the tone for his entire presentation by conveying an inspiring message of fighting against and succeeding despite the odds.

Another great example is the opening section of Josh Kaufman’s presentation, titled “ The First 20 Hours — how to learn anything ,” where he tells a story about his experience as a time-strapped first-time parent.

This story enhances the presentation as Josh eventually shares that this experience triggered his interest in studying how to become an efficient learner.

Finally, Amy Morins’s presentation “ The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong ” is another excellent example of leveraging storytelling.

Amy starts her presentation with a thought-provoking story about observing a Facebook friend's seemingly perfect life.

She then highlights how such comparisons can lead to negative thought patterns and emphasizes the importance of cultivating mental resilience.

This relatable story not only resonates with her audience but also sets the stage for her message on building inner strength.

All these presentations are great examples that highlight how incorporating story-telling in your openings can be a powerful tool for creating memorable and impactful presentations.

Your presentation slides play a crucial role in determining the impact and effectiveness of your presentation.

In this section, you’ll find examples of 8 powerful opening slides across various use cases that not just support but enhance the presentation openings:

1. “ Blackboard is Getting an Upgrade ”

Although these are very different methods of injecting humor at the start of a presentation, they show how infusing humor can be a powerful tool for adding a touch of personality and creating a more enjoyable presentation for the audience.

4. Keep it short and sweet.

While it's important not to rush through the start of your presentation, keeping your opening concise is equally important. But remember, concise does not mean sacrificing substance; it simply means delivering information efficiently.

Essentially, you want an opening section that allows you to create a solid initial impression without losing the audience's interest.

So, how long should this opening secretion be?

Most successful presentation openings are under three minutes, and many are shorter, often clocking in at under one minute.

5. Embrace authenticity.

Contrary to popular belief, there isn't a specific personality that makes someone a better presenter. In fact, the most impactful presentations have been delivered by individuals with diverse characters.

Take, for instance, the contrasting styles of Tom Thum’s irreverent humor and animated mannerisms and Sam Bern, who adopts a relaxed and conversational approach. Despite their differences, both speakers have garnered millions of views for their talks.

So, rather than emulating or mimicking their presentations, the key takeaway is to embrace authenticity.

Allow your personality to shine through, lean on your strengths, and be human in your delivery.

Mastering the Art of Captivating Presentations

Starting a presentation is a skill that is as much an art as it is a science. Thankfully, it is also a skill that can be learned and honed.

By implementing the strategies in this guide and refining them through experience, you’ll become a master at delivering impactful presentations that command attention and leave a lasting impression.

All from the moment you step onto the stage.

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Blog > English Presentation Structure (Introduction, Closing) & useful Phrases

English Presentation Structure (Introduction, Closing) & useful Phrases

02.21.20 • #powerpoint #presentation #english.

When giving a presentation in english, there are certain guidelines you should follow. Maybe you haven't got a lot of experience presenting - or you would simply like to refresh your already existing knowledge - we're here to teach you the basics about presenting and provide you with a free list of useful phrases and the basic structure you can in your presentation!

1. Structure

The general structure of a presentation is the following:

Introduction

It is up to you to design these three parts. Using videos or everyday-examples can be a great way to introduce the audience to the topic. The important thing is that you capture the audience's attention from the beginning by making an interesting introduction. The main part is where you present your topic, ideally divided into sections. You can be creative with it - incorporate images, videos, stories or interactive polls . We generally recommend using different kinds of elements, as that makes the presentation more lively. Make sure your main part is well structured, so your audience can follow. In the conclusion, you should give a short summary of the points you made without adding any new information. You can also make an appeal to your audience in the end.

2. Useful Phrases

Here you'll find several phrases that you'll need in every presentation. Of course, you should adapt them and use them in a context that is suitable for your setting. The phrases are divided into subcategories so you can find what you're looking for more easily.

Starting your Presentation

In your introduction, you should:

Welcome your audience

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!

Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to my presentation about...

Introduce yourself

I am ... (from company ...) and today I would like to introduce you to the topic of ...

My name is ... and I am going to talk about ... today.

Icebreakers (for audience engagement)

Icebreaker polls are an amazing way to engage your audience instantly. They function as a fun and playful element at the beginning, giving you the perfect start you need to give a successful presentation. Click here to read our detailed post about icebreaker polls!

Mention the presentation topic and the reason for giving the presentation

I am grateful to be here today and tell you you about...

I would like to take this opportunity to talk about ...

I am here today to talk to you about ...

The reason why I am here today to talk about ... is ...

The purpose of this presentation is to ...

My goal today is to ...

Hopefully, by the end of the presentation, you will all know more about ...

Give a short overview of the content

To make it as understandable as possible, I divided my presentation into ... parts. In the first part, I will concentrate on ..., the second part will be about ..., ...

First of all, I will give you a short introduction, then we will move on to ...

... and finally, I will give you some insights to ...

Here are a few phrases that you could use during the whole presentation, but especially in the main part.

Engage your audience

In order to raise the audience's attention and improve their engagement, it is extremely important to make contact with them. A great way to do so is by adding interactive elements such as polls. If you would like to know more about this topic, read our article on How To Boost Audience Engagement . You can also use a software like SlideLizard , which allows you to conduct live polls, do Q&A sessions with your audience, share your resources and many more benefits that take your presentation to the next level.

Please raise your hand if you ...

Have you ever thought about ... ?

I would like to do a poll about ...

Please ask any questions as soon as they arrive.

On one hand, … on the other hand…

Comparing … with …, we can see that…

Clearly, … makes more sense than …

Whereas Option A is …, Option B is …

Making new points

Firstly,… Secondly,…

What also has to be mentioned is…

Next, I would like to bring up the topic of…

That being said, now we are going to take a look at…

Let's move on to the next topic.

On the next slide,…

The last thing I would like to mention is…

We made a whole blog post about how to pose questions in your presentation: The Right Way to do a Question Slide .

Talking about images or videos

In this image you can clearly see that ...

We are now going to take a look at a picture/video of ...

I'm going to show you a video by ... about ... now.

I've prepared a video about ...

Talking about statistics and charts

I am now addressing this graph that refers to the results of study XY.

In the graph on this slide, you can see that ...

The average is at ...

This graph clearly shows that the majority ...

According to this graph, the focus should be on ...

What that study tells us for practice is that we should ...

Emphasizing

I would like to emphasize the importance of ...

Moreover, it has to be said that ...

I want to stress the importance of ...

We always have to remember that ...

This is of high significance because ...

That part is especially important because ...

When something goes wrong

I am sorry, but it seems like the projector isn't working.

Could someone please help me with ...?

Is anybody here who knows how to ...?

Could someone give me a hand with ...

I would like to apologize for ...

I apologize for the technical problems, we are going to continue in a minute.

I am sorry for the inconvenience.

End of Presentation

In the conclusion, you should...

Sum up the main points

In conclusion I can say that…

To sum up the main points,…

With all mentioned aspects taken into consideration, I can say that…

Make an appeal

So please, in the future, try to be conscious about...

Please take a moment to think about...

I would like to encourage you to...

Thank your audience and say goodbye

It was a pleasure being here today.

Thank you for listening and goodbye.

Thank you for being such a great, engaged audience. Goodbye.

Thank you so much for listening, see you next time.

What is the structure of a presentation?

Your presentations should always have an Introduction, a Main part and a Conclusion.

What is a good way to begin a presentation?

You can start by introducing yourself, giving an overview of your topic, telling a little story or showing the audience an introductory video or image.

What are good phrases to use in English presentations?

There are many phrases that will make your presentation a lot more professional. Our blog post gives you a detailed overview.

About the author.

Pia Lehner-Mittermaier

Pia works in Marketing as a graphic designer and writer at SlideLizard. She uses her vivid imagination and creativity to produce good content.

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The big SlideLizard presentation glossary

Internal preview.

An Internal Preview is a statement, which is made in the body of the speech, so that the audience knows what the speaker is going to discuss next.

Informal Communication

informal communication can be used when talking to your friends or your family

Master view

In the master view in PowerPoint you can edit the Slide Master.

Multimedia Presentation

A multmedia presentation is a speech in which several types of visual and audio aids are combined in the same speech with the help of computer software. .

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How to Start a Presentation (+ Useful Phrases)

Table of Contents

Knowing how to start a presentation is a crucial skill in today’s professional landscape.

After all, many office workers are called on to prepare a presentation at some point during their careers.

And, of course, many people are looking to share their expertise through workshops and lectures.

With that in mind, we wanted to dedicate an article to learning about the best ways to deliver an impactful presentation opening.

So, whether you’re currently struggling to come up with introductory lines for a presentation, or you have a more passive interest in this subject — you’ve come to the right place.

In this article, we’ll:

Share expert tips for preparing the best opening lines for any type of professional presentation ,
Offer some valuable examples and specific phrases you can use, and even
Analyze the way professional speakers approach their presentations.

But first, let’s talk about why having a good introduction is such a crucial part of any presentation.

Why does having a good introduction to a presentation matter?

If you’ve ever had to prepare an address, you probably understand the importance of having an impactful introduction to a presentation.

If the body of a speech contains most of the information you want to share with the audience and the conclusion allows you to invite the audience to take action — the introduction is how you get them to listen to you in the first place.

In other words, a presentation is a motivated sequence — a method of persuasion with 5 distinct steps:

Attention — wherein the speaker introduces the problem the listeners are having in an interesting manner. In the format of a presentation, this step is the introduction .
Need — the speaker explains how the problem affects the listeners and backs up their claims. This step corresponds with the body of a presentation , along with the following two.
Satisfaction — the speaker offers a solution and shows how it will alleviate the concern they have previously identified.
Visualization — the speaker describes precisely what will happen if the listeners choose to implement their solution. Sometimes, they also describe what will happen if their solution is not implemented. This concludes the body of the presentation.
Action — the speaker directs the listeners with a call to action, explaining what they can do in response to their presentation. This step represents the conclusion of a presentation.

Even though this framework was developed in the 1930s, it’s still a useful tool for people who want to improve their presenting skills.

A visual representation of a motivated sequence, a 5-step method of persuasion developed by psychologist Alan Monroe

What do professional speakers have to say about the importance of opening a presentation effectively?

For more insight into the importance of starting a presentation with a bang, we turned to professional speakers and communication experts.

We put the question to Mark Beal , Assistant Professor of Professional Practice, Communication, at Rutgers University School of Communication and Information. Here’s what he had to say:

“It is critically important to engage your audience immediately at the start of a presentation in a high-energy manner, or you could lose them to their mobile phone or laptop and you may never get them back.”

Speaker, author, communication skills trainer, and editorial producer at CNN, Nadia Bilchik , added:

“The beginning of your presentation is your prime real estate. It’s when your audience decides if you are worth paying attention to or not.”

So, in addition to capturing the audience’s attention , your introduction also needs to establish your authority .

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Having said that, let’s talk about the specific steps you need to take before you begin presenting to make your presentation opening as memorable as it can be.

How to prepare the best opening for a presentation

Before we tell you how to start a presentation speech, let’s take a moment to consider the best preparation practices .

Naturally, preparing the introductory lines for your presentation should take place well before the speech itself.

Even so, many novice speakers are still unaware of the different factors that should influence and inform their decisions in this regard.

Luckily, we have managed to boil the results of our extensive research down to the following 3 tips:

Take note of the way other people start their presentations ,
Understand the goals of an introduction , and
Know your audience .

Having said that, let’s see what each of those tips entails.

Tip #1: Watch other speakers’ openers

As Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich , puts it:

“Experience has taught me that the next best thing to being truly great is to emulate the great, by feeling and action, as nearly as possible.”

With that in mind, the best thing you can do before drafting your speech is observe the way others have made theirs.

In this case, you’ll want to focus on the way professional speakers introduce themselves and the subjects of their presentations .

The goal of this exercise is to determine:

What makes a good opening statement ,
Which openers are generally effective with audiences, and
What kinds of introductions you resonate with .

Somewhere in the middle of those categories is where you’ll find the opening lines of your presentation.

For their part, the experts we have contacted seem to agree with this tip.

Nadia Bilchik said:

“I have been speaking and training speaking skills for three decades and I still do a tremendous amount of research and customize each and every presentation. If I am speaking […] about the hybrid workplace, I will Google [the] latest statistics. I will also go onto YouTube to see what other speakers and thought leaders are saying about the subject.”

And Mark Beal mirrored her thoughts:

“I am consistently studying presentations in a quest to be a student who is always learning, evolving, transforming, and innovating my approach to presenting. I closely watch all types of presentations, from TEDx Talks to my former students who return to guest lecture in my university courses.”

Tip #2: Understand the goals of an introduction

According to the other authors of Communicating at Work , an introduction has 5 distinct objectives . It should:

Capture the listener’s attention (or, as professional speakers might say, “hook” them),
Give them a reason to listen (offer a solution to a personal or professional problem they have),
Set the proper tone for the topic and setting (let the audience know whether they’re in for an informative, emotional, or humorous speech),
Establish your qualifications (explain why the audience should listen to you , specifically), and
Introduce your thesis and preview your presentation (so that the audience knows what to expect in advance).

With those goals in mind, Nadia Bilchik would even say that:

“It’s always best to have someone else introduce you and confirm your credibility.”

That puts the onus of explaining why you deserve to be there on the host of the meeting and allows you to skip that part of the introduction.

However, these 5 objectives are not a checklist you have to follow at all costs.

Depending on the circumstances surrounding your presentation, some of them will matter more than others.

Speaking of, there’s one last thing to keep in mind when crafting your presentation opening.

Tip #3: Know your audience

The audience you end up presenting to will affect everything from the way you organize your presentation to your style of delivery — and even the supporting materials you use.

Your presentation’s opening lines are no exception.

In other words, the content and style of your introduction will depend on the size of the group you’re speaking to and its demographic breakdown .

However, perhaps the most important audience attribute you’ll have to keep in mind is its willingness to listen and engage with your message .

In Business Communication: Process & Product , authors Mary Guffey and Dana Loewy have identified 4 types of audiences based on that factor:

Friendly — an audience that likes you and cares about your topic,
Neutral — an audience that is calm and considers itself objective,
Uninterested — an audience full of people with short attention spans (who may or may not be there against their will), and
Hostile — an emotional or defensive audience whose goal is to take charge or ridicule the speaker.

Luckily, Guffey and Loewy have also provided some guidance for dealing with each of those kinds of audiences.

How to start a presentation effectively (tips + examples)

It’s the day of your big presentation — time to go big or go home.

Which of the following tips would you incorporate in your presentation opening lines?

Exude confidence.
Drop the pleasantries.
Prove your expertise.
Begin with a realistic promise (explain what the audience stands to gain from your presentation).
Go for the drama.
Fall back on an insightful quote or a pop culture reference.
Share an interesting statistic.
Ask questions.
Relieve tension with a joke or a humorous statement.
Use visual tools (like images, videos, or props).

If you haven’t thought about which one of these would help you get your point across effectively — don’t worry.

We’re about to explain each of those tips and provide some illuminating examples and specific phrases you can use when starting a presentation.

Tip #1: Exude confidence

One thing you need to know about starting a presentation is that your work begins the moment you set foot on that stage .

Alternatively, it begins the moment someone passes you the (literal or figurative) mic — if we’re taking into account the presentations that take place on video conferencing platforms.

In any case, you’ll want the audience to see you as someone who knows what they’re talking about . That includes:

Making eye contact ,
Moving with intention (not fidgeting),
Wearing professional attire (or at least appropriate attire for the occasion),
Projecting your words , and
Showing your confidence through nonverbal cues .

One of the experts we spoke to, Reesa Woolf , PhD, keynote speaker, bestselling author, and executive speaking coach, would even advise you to rehearse your opener and closer to the point of being able to “deliver them with 100% eye contact.”

For what it’s worth, overpreparing also allows you to appear more confident when presenting , as you’ll be less worried about forgetting parts of your speech.

Then again, a moment of forgetfulness can also be turned into a tool for establishing a commanding presence.

Namely, staying still or being quiet for a moment can make the audience pay closer attention to you.

But, if that’s something you’d like to try, make sure the technique doesn’t clash with the type of audience you’re presenting to .

Tip #2: Drop the pleasantries

Have you ever heard a professional public speaker use one of these phrases?

“It’s a pleasure to be here.”
“I’m honored to be asked to speak about…”
“Today, I’m going to talk about…”

The chances of a professional using these phrases are pretty slim — so why would you?

Well, there’s nothing wrong with following a traditional format to introduce yourself .

However, you’ll have to admit that the sentences we have listed above don’t pack the same punch as some of the other presentation opening lines we have included in this article.

Keynote speaker, Forbes contributor, career change consultant, and host of the Career Relaunch® podcast, Joseph Liu , recommends avoiding greetings altogether .

“While I do say hello, rather than starting with drawn-out greetings, I recommend diving right into the presentation with a hook so your audience immediately switches on to the content you’re about to present.”

Speaker, bestselling author, and award-winning accountant, Tatiana Tsoir , notes:

“People’s attention span is 20 minutes max, which is why TEDx is capped at 18 min. Also, people generally remember the beginning and the end, so make sure those are strong [and] get to the point fast.”

So, instead of wasting time on small talk, use an opener that will get your audience’s attention as quickly as possible.

💡 Pumble pro tip

Even though the examples we have listed would be considered a weak way to start a speech, some of them are ideal for starting a business meeting. If you want to know some other expressions that might come in handy in that kind of setting, check out this article:

120 Useful English phrases for business meetings

Tip #3: Prove your expertise

As we have established, starting a presentation with a traditional introduction may not be the best way to get the audience’s attention.

Still, you’ll have to establish your credibility at some point — so we might as well illustrate how to do so properly.

Of course, if you’re a teacher or an educator in broader terms, you probably won’t have to prove your expertise to your audience.

However, if you’re tasked with presenting in front of neutral or hostile audiences, you’ll want to establish your qualifications as soon as possible.

If you can’t get someone else to introduce you and establish your credibility before you start your presentation, we suggest hooking the audience first and then introducing yourself right before you head into the main part of the speech.

Phrases you can use to establish your credibility

We have come up with 3 imaginary presentation scenarios to help illustrate our points throughout this guide.

Here’s how our speakers might introduce themselves:

“Hello, everyone. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Nick Mulder, the head of the security department. I’m here to talk to you about phishing.”

“My name is Joan Miller. As someone with over four decades of experience in marketing, I’m uniquely qualified to talk to you about how artificial intelligence is changing the future of the industry.”

“I’m Milo Green — you probably know me as being the founder of Green & Co. As someone who’s had a hand in running a successful business for over two decades, I’m here to explain how my company’s employee retention rate has never fallen below 85% in a single year.”

If these speakers started with a hook rather than an introduction, the sentences introducing the subject of their presentations would be excessive.

Tip #4: Begin with a realistic promise

So far, there’s been a lot of discussion about “hooks” in this article and not many specific examples of phrases that might hook an audience — let’s change that.

The first type of hook you might want to master, especially for professional presentations, is the “promise.”

One of the experts we have spoken to, Reesa Wolf, uses that very method:

“Begin with a brief statement about the benefits of listening to [your] message. You can give an example of a company or person like them that had the issue they have and how these ideas solved it, but it still must be brief.”

In other words, start by giving them a preview of the knowledge they’ll have by the time you finish your presentation.

This method of starting a presentation is a great way to:

Show that you’re in tune with the listeners’ needs, concerns, and interests ,
Offer a solution to a problem the audience might have , or
Keep the audience interested throughout your presentation .

Ultimately, audiences are self-interested — they will listen to you if you explain what’s in it for them.

Usually, that will require you to point out a problem they are having or an opportunity they’re not taking advantage of.

Phrases you can use to offer a realistic promise

To put this tip in perspective, let’s hear from our imaginary presenters:

“By the end of my talk, you’ll be able to spot phishing emails and understand the steps you need to take when you do.”

“My presentation will alleviate any worries you might have about the ways the marketing sector will need to adapt to the AI revolution.”

“During this talk, you’ll learn how your company can improve its relationship with its employees and boost its retention rate.”

Tip #5: Go for the drama

One thing you should note as you are writing your presentation opening is that the first words you say will set the tone for the rest of your speech .

If offering a realistic promise to your audience suits your presentation subject — by all means, do so.

However, if you’d like to induce excitement and keep your audience’s mood elevated throughout your presentation, you might want to go for a more dramatic entrance instead.

Namely, you could start with:

A fun fact,
A startling statement, or
An emotionally moving story.

Many speakers rely on these kinds of openers to establish the central theme of their presentation naturally .

After all, this method can make the speaker look more approachable and relatable , particularly if their opening line references other people (e.g. “the other day, I met someone/a coworker told me…” ).

One example of this technique comes from author, entrepreneur, and certified fraud examiner, Pamela Meyer, who famously started her TED Talk by pointing to an audience member and saying:

“Okay, now, I don’t want to alarm anybody in this room, but it’s just come to my attention that the person to your right is a liar. Also, the person to your left is a liar! Also, the person sitting in your very seat is a liar.”

The combination of starting her speech with such a shocking statement and pointing out a specific audience member makes Meyer’s TED Talk an iconic one in our books!

Phrases you can use for a dramatic opening

Now, let’s see how our imaginary speakers would apply this tip:

“1,270,883! What do you think that number signifies? If you guessed ‘the number of phishing attacks recorded in the third quarter of 2022’ — you’d be right! We have the Anti-Phishing Working Group to thank for that disturbing piece of trivia.”

“Artificial intelligence is coming for our jobs! At least, according to Chat GPT and Business Insider , people working in tech, media, law, and many other industries might want to look elsewhere for employment in the coming years.”

“When I first started my company, I did it with about 20 of my most trusted friends and advisers. I’m happy to report that all but two are still working for Green & Co. — and those two are only absent because they’ve started their own successful ventures! In any case, my wish to surround myself with high-quality people has manifested itself in the company’s high employee retention rates. Today, I’m going to tell you about how I created an environment that makes employees want to stick around.”

Tip #6: Fall back on a quote or a pop culture reference

When in doubt, you could always start the introduction to your presentation with a quote.

As long as you don’t overuse other peoples’ words in your speeches, quotations are a completely legitimate and convenient tool for introducing the topic you’ll be discussing.

Aside from being a tried and true method of getting people’s attention without having to string together a perfect sentence on your own, quoting a particularly impressive individual is a good way to “borrow” their authority .

However, that can also be a double-edged sword , since it can also give you the individual’s notoriety. So, make sure you know whose words you’re echoing.

Of course, some people would advise you to avoid quotes altogether.

Assistant Professor of Rhetorical Communication at the State University of New York, Dr. Lee M. Pierce , cautions against starting your presentation “with quotes or long personal stories.”

Doing so might bore the audience.

Then again, Dr. Pierce also enjoys using pop culture references as openers, saying:

“By choosing a pop culture reference that most of your audience gets, you build instant rapport and have something you can use to ease them into your presentation material.”

So, perhaps there’s still a way to work a quote into your presentation, as long as it fits the mood you’re trying to establish.

If your presentation happens to be about team communication or collaboration, you may find the perfect quote to use in your introduction in one of these articles:

45+ Best team communication quotes
80+ Best teamwork quotes that will inspire team collaboration

Phrases you can use when you’re opening with a quote

So, how would our three fictional speakers incorporate quotations in their opening lines? Let’s find out.

“According to Harper Reed, entrepreneur and Chief Technology Officer for Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, ‘Very smart people are often tricked by hackers, by phishing.’ So it’s not about being smart. It’s about being smarter than a hacker.’ And I’m here to help you get there.”

“Stephen Hawking once said that ‘Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately,’ he said, ‘it might also be the last, unless we know how to avoid the risks.’ I’m here to alleviate your concerns about those risks.”

“When I was developing my management style, I often referred back to one particular quote by Max DePree, founder of Herman Miller. He said, ‘The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.’ That sentiment clarified my function for me — even though I was the CEO of my company, I was primarily there to help my employees.”

If you want to make sure your audience understands what you’re talking about, you could also show the quote on the first slide of your presentation.

Tip #7: Share an interesting statistic

Using relevant, interesting statistics is another great way to introduce the topic of your presentation.

This tip could also be an excellent tool for establishing your qualifications, if you decide to share a statistic that proves the efficacy of the solution you’re presenting.

Just keep in mind that people tend to trust third-party sources more than a potentially unverifiable statistic coming from your organization’s internal research.

Phrases you can use to introduce your presentation with a statistic

Let’s see how our three presenters might incorporate this tip.

“According to APWG, the number of wire transfer Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks increased by 59% in the third quarter of 2022.”

“Netflix took 3.5 years to reach a million users. Facebook took 10 months. ChatGPT, which has been dubbed the best AI chatbot ever released by New York Times, reached its first million users in only 5 days. By January 2023, over 100 million people had used the service.”

“According to the 2022 Workplace Learning Report from LinkedIn Learning, companies that enable their employees to advance internally retain employees for an average of 5.4 years. That’s nearly twice as long as companies that struggle to provide opportunities for internal mobility, where the average retention span is 2.9 years.”

And, if you wanted to go the extra mile, you could also represent the statistics you’re talking about with a visual element.

A presentation slide with a visual breakdown of the second example

Tip #8: Ask questions

Once you start researching public speakers, you’ll find that many of them engage their audience by asking questions .

It goes back to the concept of “hooking” your audience. According to Joseph Liu:

“The best way to start a presentation is with a hook. For example, ask a question. Invite people to do something. Have your audience imagine a situation. Or, surprise them with an interesting fact.”

Indeed, most of the experts we have spoken to would confirm that questions are the best tool for increasing audience participation . As Nadia Bilchik would say:

“ I like to ask my audience a question. […] the key is to invite participation from the start. ”

With that in mind, there are 2 types of questions you can use, depending on the situation:

Direct questions require answers from the audience. Speakers might ask for a show of hands or use a polling tool that allows people to stay anonymous while also showing the results for everyone to see.
Rhetorical questions are about asking the audience to envision a scenario that allows you to introduce the topic of the presentation. These sometimes have a “What if” construction.

Either way, the questions should prompt the audience to start thinking about the subject of your lecture.

Questions you might use to open a presentation

Our resident phishing expert might ask his audience one of the following questions:

“How do you protect your company from phishing attacks?”

“Let’s see a show of hands — how many of you know what phishing is?”

“Has anyone here fallen prey to a phishing attack?”

Joan Miller, the digital marketer we have envisioned, might ask:

“Who here is already using AI to conduct their business?”

“Will your company survive the AI revolution?”

“Would you rather incorporate AI into your marketing strategy or continue doing business as usual? Think carefully about this question — and use the link I’m about to send you to tell me your answers. By the end of my presentation, I’ll run this question by you again, and we’ll see how the results of the poll have changed.”

Joan Miller sent an anonymous poll link on Pumble, the business messaging app

Lastly, our imaginary CEO might ask his audience:

“Does your company’s employee retention rate matter?”

“How are you making your company a desirable place to work?”

”Can anyone here tell me their company’s employee retention rate?”

Tip #9: Relieve tension with a humorous statement

If you sense that your audience isn’t in the mood to take in the kind of presentation you have prepared, you can prime them for it with humor.

Cracking a joke at the top of your presentation sets the scene for a lighthearted conversation and makes you appear confident (even if you’re not). Additionally, a well-placed joke can:

Get the audience interested ,
Make a point about the topic of your presentation , and
Increase your likeability .

But, humor is an art form — and not everyone has the talent and skill to execute this tip effectively. If it doesn’t come naturally, there’s no need to force it.

When in doubt, take a page out of the comedian’s playbook and run your opening joke by a friend or, better yet, a more neutral acquaintance.

Of course, even if your joke works on them, you can’t always account for cultural or even professional differences that might prevent some people in the audience from getting it.

Jokes for opening a presentation

The 3 speakers we have imagined might use the following jokes to kick off their presentations:

“Can anyone tell me a hacker’s favorite season? Phishing season, of course! Unfortunately, in real life, phishing season is more of a year-round kind of thing.”

“Why are people so nice to AI? Because it’s self-conscious! Just kidding. For now… Actually, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that AI does seem to be gaining traction, particularly in the marketing industry. But, the good news is that I’m here to tell you how to navigate that situation.”

“Did you know that staff retention is more likely to be improved by offering better working conditions than by chaining employees to their desks? Much to think about!”

A presentation slide using a stock photo to illustrate the speaker’s joke

Most of these examples would pair wonderfully with a visual element — which brings us to our final tip!

Tip #10: Use visual tools

Different speakers have different approaches when it comes to the visual aspects of their presentations.

Some rely on their speech to get most of the information across. Yet, others prefer to make their presentation slides a more integral part of their presentation.

We imagine Joseph Liu would sort himself into the latter group:

“I tend to keep my presentations as visual as possible, relying less on quotes and more on imagery.”

If you decide to let visuals do some of the heavy lifting for your presentation, there are several ways to incorporate them. Namely, you could:

Use images in your presentation slides,
Invite the audience to watch a video before the presentation,
Hand out printed materials ,
Show data charts , and
Bring out a physical prop .

The type of visuals you end up using will depend on the type of presentation you’re giving.

Either way, you’ll want to become familiar with different elements of visual communication (such as colors, shapes, fonts, and layouts) if you want to make your presentation truly memorable.

Visual communication is one of 4 types of communication. If you’re curious about what the other 3 types of communication are and how we use them in our everyday lives, check out the following article:

Types of communication

Examples of visual tools opening a presentation

Going back to our 3 speakers, let’s see how they might incorporate visual elements into their presentation introductions.

“According to APWG, these are the most targeted industries for phishing scams in the third quarter of 2022.”

A presentation slide showcasing phishing statistics in the form of a pie chart

“The following demonstration of AI’s capabilities might change some of your outlooks on the future of marketing. I have shared my computer screen with you all, so let’s take a moment to see where this tech is at right now through a demonstration of the existing software.”

“Before I start my presentation, let’s look at a video showcasing the importance of having a high employee retention rate.”

You could also combine this tip with the others on our list , by saying something like:

“Can anyone tell me what’s wrong with this picture?” thus, combining a visual opener with a question, or
“What do you think the number on the screen behind me signifies? If you guessed ‘the number of phishing attacks recorded in the third quarter of 2022’ — you must be psychic!” as a spin on an example we used to illustrate tip #5.

Putting the tips into practice

Having concluded our list of tips, we wanted to see how the experts we have spoken to have put them into practice.

So, let’s start with the way they conceptualize and write their presentation starting lines.

Step #1: Draft your speech

Every memorable presentation starts with a written copy of everything you want to say.

According to Tatiana Tsoir:

“Developing a speech is a craft. I generally work first on who the audience is , then my core message I want them to walk away with, then the outline of the speech : how and when I introduce the main idea, and how I make a case for it and reiterate it throughout.”

Ultimately, the best time to write your presentation introduction would be once you have a clear idea of everything you want to say in the body and conclusion of your speech.

Even so, sticking to this advice won’t make you a better speaker immediately.

Instead, our experts have stressed that the only way to get better at presenting is through practice and repetition .

Take it from Tatiana:

“With public impactful speaking you don’t rise to the occasion, you fall back on training and practice.”

Step #2: Get right to the point

As you are drafting your presentation introduction, keep in mind that the audience is already waiting for you to get to the point.

When in doubt, follow Reesa Woolf’s formula for starting a presentation:

“Open with the attention-catching statement/story/quotation. Once they look at you, say your name and the parts of your experience and credentials that THEY would be most impressed by, at most 3 things about you.”

After delivering your opener and introducing yourself, you’ll want to quickly transition into the main part of your presentation.

Step #3: Invite audience participation

As we have previously mentioned, many of the experts we have contacted stressed the importance of increasing audience engagement.

Knowing your audience is a big part of that equation, as Dr. Lee M. Pierce would testify:

“Presentations should take advantage of what makes them unique — having an audience. Engage them, [and] introduce yourself. Just don’t start with a question right away — that’s asking too much too soon.”

Then again, many of the experts we have spoken to have said that asking questions is a good way to invite audience participation.

For example, Nadia Bilchik would even engage her audiences on a more physical level:

“I like to ask my audience a thought-provoking question. This gets them from passive to active mode. I also always get my audience to stand up and do a breathing exercise.”

Nadia also provided us with an example of an audience interaction she might use in the introduction of her speaking engagements. For example, she might ask the audience:

“ How do you rate your ability to present information in a concise, clear, and confident manner? High, medium, or low?”

After receiving her answers by a show of hands or even an online poll, she connects the response to the topic of her presentation by stating:

“Wherever you are on the spectrum, in the next X minutes, I will share tips and techniques to ensure you have a greater impact every time you communicate to an audience of one or 100!”

That’s a textbook opener you can use to introduce the topics of your own presentation, too!

Step #4: Put it all together

Remember, nothing is stopping you from combining the tips we have mentioned throughout this guide to create a presentation introduction that is wholly unique to you.

If you’re unsure how to do that, let’s analyze a professional speaker’s technique.

Mark Beal told us about a presentation opening he’s created for his lectures:

“I start each of my Gen Z keynote presentations by physically walking off the stage and into the audience and asking a series of Gen Z trivia questions.

For those who answer the questions directly, I reward them with a copy of my latest Gen Z book. By taking this proactive approach, I physically engage the audience immediately not from the podium but in their seats.

My presentation instantly transforms from a one-way monologue into a two-way conversation and the audience begins to learn about my topic, Gen Z, in a fun and informative way.”

Can you connect the strategies Mark has used with the tips we have discussed? Let’s list them:

Walking off the stage adds an element of drama and establishes a commanding presence,
Asking questions engages the audience right off the bat,
Rewarding the audience with a book promotes engagement throughout the presentation, and
The books themselves are both an interesting prop and proof of Beal’s qualifications.

When you start researching famous speakers to prepare for your presentation, try dissecting the strategies they’re using.

Start your presentations right — With Pumble!

As you have seen above, it is crucial to conceptualize and think of your presentation’s starting lines.

To check if everything is fine, you can reach out to your colleagues via direct messages or dedicated channels and ask them for their opinions.

Direct messages on Pumble are great for sharing positive feedback with employees

Your colleagues might provide some useful tips that will help you further improve your presentation in threads , just below your message or post.

As Dr Lee M. Pearce pinpoints, having the right audience for the presentation is important. Hence, we recommend scheduling a video call so your closest colleagues and invited guests can see your new presentation and its opening lines, and provide suggestions, if necessary.

Of course, Pumble also comes in handy when it comes to holding presentations — thanks to its screen sharing feature that allows you to present to the entire meeting.

Finally, Pumble has an unlimited message history , so every message or file you have sent will forever stay in your message history. That might come in handy if you ever have to work on a similar presentation in the future.

Secure, real-time communication for professionals.

Olga Milicevic is a communication researcher and author dedicated to making your professional life a bit easier. She believes that everyone should have the tools necessary to respond to their coworkers’ requests and communicate their own professional needs clearly and kindly.

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Blog Beginner Guides How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

Written by: Krystle Wong Jul 20, 2023

A top-notch presentation possesses the power to drive action. From winning stakeholders over and conveying a powerful message to securing funding — your secret weapon lies within the realm of creating an effective presentation .

Being an excellent presenter isn’t confined to the boardroom. Whether you’re delivering a presentation at work, pursuing an academic career, involved in a non-profit organization or even a student, nailing the presentation game is a game-changer.

In this article, I’ll cover the top qualities of compelling presentations and walk you through a step-by-step guide on how to give a good presentation. Here’s a little tip to kick things off: for a headstart, check out Venngage’s collection of free presentation templates . They are fully customizable, and the best part is you don’t need professional design skills to make them shine!

These valuable presentation tips cater to individuals from diverse professional backgrounds, encompassing business professionals, sales and marketing teams, educators, trainers, students, researchers, non-profit organizations, public speakers and presenters.

No matter your field or role, these tips for presenting will equip you with the skills to deliver effective presentations that leave a lasting impression on any audience.

Click to jump ahead:

What are the 10 qualities of a good presentation?

Step-by-step guide on how to prepare an effective presentation, 9 effective techniques to deliver a memorable presentation, faqs on making a good presentation, how to create a presentation with venngage in 5 steps.

When it comes to giving an engaging presentation that leaves a lasting impression, it’s not just about the content — it’s also about how you deliver it. Wondering what makes a good presentation? Well, the best presentations I’ve seen consistently exhibit these 10 qualities:

1. Clear structure

No one likes to get lost in a maze of information. Organize your thoughts into a logical flow, complete with an introduction, main points and a solid conclusion. A structured presentation helps your audience follow along effortlessly, leaving them with a sense of satisfaction at the end.

Regardless of your presentation style , a quality presentation starts with a clear roadmap. Browse through Venngage’s template library and select a presentation template that aligns with your content and presentation goals. Here’s a good presentation example template with a logical layout that includes sections for the introduction, main points, supporting information and a conclusion:

2. Engaging opening

Hook your audience right from the start with an attention-grabbing statement, a fascinating question or maybe even a captivating anecdote. Set the stage for a killer presentation!

The opening moments of your presentation hold immense power – check out these 15 ways to start a presentation to set the stage and captivate your audience.

3. Relevant content

Make sure your content aligns with their interests and needs. Your audience is there for a reason, and that’s to get valuable insights. Avoid fluff and get straight to the point, your audience will be genuinely excited.

4. Effective visual aids

Picture this: a slide with walls of text and tiny charts, yawn! Visual aids should be just that—aiding your presentation. Opt for clear and visually appealing slides, engaging images and informative charts that add value and help reinforce your message.

With Venngage, visualizing data takes no effort at all. You can import data from CSV or Google Sheets seamlessly and create stunning charts, graphs and icon stories effortlessly to showcase your data in a captivating and impactful way.

5. Clear and concise communication

Keep your language simple, and avoid jargon or complicated terms. Communicate your ideas clearly, so your audience can easily grasp and retain the information being conveyed. This can prevent confusion and enhance the overall effectiveness of the message.

6. Engaging delivery

Spice up your presentation with a sprinkle of enthusiasm! Maintain eye contact, use expressive gestures and vary your tone of voice to keep your audience glued to the edge of their seats. A touch of charisma goes a long way!

7. Interaction and audience engagement

Turn your presentation into an interactive experience — encourage questions, foster discussions and maybe even throw in a fun activity. Engaged audiences are more likely to remember and embrace your message.

Transform your slides into an interactive presentation with Venngage’s dynamic features like pop-ups, clickable icons and animated elements. Engage your audience with interactive content that lets them explore and interact with your presentation for a truly immersive experience.

8. Effective storytelling

Who doesn’t love a good story? Weaving relevant anecdotes, case studies or even a personal story into your presentation can captivate your audience and create a lasting impact. Stories build connections and make your message memorable.

A great presentation background is also essential as it sets the tone, creates visual interest and reinforces your message. Enhance the overall aesthetics of your presentation with these 15 presentation background examples and captivate your audience’s attention.

9. Well-timed pacing

Pace your presentation thoughtfully with well-designed presentation slides, neither rushing through nor dragging it out. Respect your audience’s time and ensure you cover all the essential points without losing their interest.

10. Strong conclusion

Last impressions linger! Summarize your main points and leave your audience with a clear takeaway. End your presentation with a bang , a call to action or an inspiring thought that resonates long after the conclusion.

In-person presentations aside, acing a virtual presentation is of paramount importance in today’s digital world. Check out this guide to learn how you can adapt your in-person presentations into virtual presentations .

Preparing an effective presentation starts with laying a strong foundation that goes beyond just creating slides and notes. One of the quickest and best ways to make a presentation would be with the help of a good presentation software .

Otherwise, let me walk you to how to prepare for a presentation step by step and unlock the secrets of crafting a professional presentation that sets you apart.

1. Understand the audience and their needs

Before you dive into preparing your masterpiece, take a moment to get to know your target audience. Tailor your presentation to meet their needs and expectations , and you’ll have them hooked from the start!

2. Conduct thorough research on the topic

Time to hit the books (or the internet)! Don’t skimp on the research with your presentation materials — dive deep into the subject matter and gather valuable insights . The more you know, the more confident you’ll feel in delivering your presentation.

3. Organize the content with a clear structure

No one wants to stumble through a chaotic mess of information. Outline your presentation with a clear and logical flow. Start with a captivating introduction, follow up with main points that build on each other and wrap it up with a powerful conclusion that leaves a lasting impression.

Delivering an effective business presentation hinges on captivating your audience, and Venngage’s professionally designed business presentation templates are tailor-made for this purpose. With thoughtfully structured layouts, these templates enhance your message’s clarity and coherence, ensuring a memorable and engaging experience for your audience members.

Don’t want to build your presentation layout from scratch? pick from these 5 foolproof presentation layout ideas that won’t go wrong.

4. Develop visually appealing and supportive visual aids

Spice up your presentation with eye-catching visuals! Create slides that complement your message, not overshadow it. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words, but that doesn’t mean you need to overload your slides with text.

Well-chosen designs create a cohesive and professional look, capturing your audience’s attention and enhancing the overall effectiveness of your message. Here’s a list of carefully curated PowerPoint presentation templates and great background graphics that will significantly influence the visual appeal and engagement of your presentation.

5. Practice, practice and practice

Practice makes perfect — rehearse your presentation and arrive early to your presentation to help overcome stage fright. Familiarity with your material will boost your presentation skills and help you handle curveballs with ease.

6. Seek feedback and make necessary adjustments

Don’t be afraid to ask for help and seek feedback from friends and colleagues. Constructive criticism can help you identify blind spots and fine-tune your presentation to perfection.

With Venngage’s real-time collaboration feature , receiving feedback and editing your presentation is a seamless process. Group members can access and work on the presentation simultaneously and edit content side by side in real-time. Changes will be reflected immediately to the entire team, promoting seamless teamwork.

7. Prepare for potential technical or logistical issues

Prepare for the unexpected by checking your equipment, internet connection and any other potential hiccups. If you’re worried that you’ll miss out on any important points, you could always have note cards prepared. Remember to remain focused and rehearse potential answers to anticipated questions.

8. Fine-tune and polish your presentation

As the big day approaches, give your presentation one last shine. Review your talking points, practice how to present a presentation and make any final tweaks. Deep breaths — you’re on the brink of delivering a successful presentation!

In competitive environments, persuasive presentations set individuals and organizations apart. To brush up on your presentation skills, read these guides on how to make a persuasive presentation and tips to presenting effectively .

Whether you’re an experienced presenter or a novice, the right techniques will let your presentation skills soar to new heights!

From public speaking hacks to interactive elements and storytelling prowess, these 9 effective presentation techniques will empower you to leave a lasting impression on your audience and make your presentations unforgettable.

1. Confidence and positive body language

Positive body language instantly captivates your audience, making them believe in your message as much as you do. Strengthen your stage presence and own that stage like it’s your second home! Stand tall, shoulders back and exude confidence.

2. Eye contact with the audience

Break down that invisible barrier and connect with your audience through their eyes. Maintaining eye contact when giving a presentation builds trust and shows that you’re present and engaged with them.

3. Effective use of hand gestures and movement

A little movement goes a long way! Emphasize key points with purposeful gestures and don’t be afraid to walk around the stage. Your energy will be contagious!

4. Utilize storytelling techniques

Weave the magic of storytelling into your presentation. Share relatable anecdotes, inspiring success stories or even personal experiences that tug at the heartstrings of your audience. Adjust your pitch, pace and volume to match the emotions and intensity of the story. Varying your speaking voice adds depth and enhances your stage presence.

5. Incorporate multimedia elements

Spice up your presentation with a dash of visual pizzazz! Use slides, images and video clips to add depth and clarity to your message. Just remember, less is more—don’t overwhelm them with information overload.

Turn your presentations into an interactive party! Involve your audience with questions, polls or group activities. When they actively participate, they become invested in your presentation’s success. Bring your design to life with animated elements. Venngage allows you to apply animations to icons, images and text to create dynamic and engaging visual content.

6. Utilize humor strategically

Laughter is the best medicine—and a fantastic presentation enhancer! A well-placed joke or lighthearted moment can break the ice and create a warm atmosphere , making your audience more receptive to your message.

7. Practice active listening and respond to feedback

Be attentive to your audience’s reactions and feedback. If they have questions or concerns, address them with genuine interest and respect. Your responsiveness builds rapport and shows that you genuinely care about their experience.

8. Apply the 10-20-30 rule

Apply the 10-20-30 presentation rule and keep it short, sweet and impactful! Stick to ten slides, deliver your presentation within 20 minutes and use a 30-point font to ensure clarity and focus. Less is more, and your audience will thank you for it!

9. Implement the 5-5-5 rule

Simplicity is key. Limit each slide to five bullet points, with only five words per bullet point and allow each slide to remain visible for about five seconds. This rule keeps your presentation concise and prevents information overload.

Simple presentations are more engaging because they are easier to follow. Summarize your presentations and keep them simple with Venngage’s gallery of simple presentation templates and ensure that your message is delivered effectively across your audience.

1. How to start a presentation?

To kick off your presentation effectively, begin with an attention-grabbing statement or a powerful quote. Introduce yourself, establish credibility and clearly state the purpose and relevance of your presentation.

2. How to end a presentation?

For a strong conclusion, summarize your talking points and key takeaways. End with a compelling call to action or a thought-provoking question and remember to thank your audience and invite any final questions or interactions.

3. How to make a presentation interactive?

To make your presentation interactive, encourage questions and discussion throughout your talk. Utilize multimedia elements like videos or images and consider including polls, quizzes or group activities to actively involve your audience.

In need of inspiration for your next presentation? I’ve got your back! Pick from these 120+ presentation ideas, topics and examples to get started.

Creating a stunning presentation with Venngage is a breeze with our user-friendly drag-and-drop editor and professionally designed templates for all your communication needs.

Here’s how to make a presentation in just 5 simple steps with the help of Venngage:

Step 1: Sign up for Venngage for free using your email, Gmail or Facebook account or simply log in to access your account.

Step 2: Pick a design from our selection of free presentation templates (they’re all created by our expert in-house designers).

Step 3: Make the template your own by customizing it to fit your content and branding. With Venngage’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can easily modify text, change colors and adjust the layout to create a unique and eye-catching design.

Step 4: Elevate your presentation by incorporating captivating visuals. You can upload your images or choose from Venngage’s vast library of high-quality photos, icons and illustrations.

Step 5: Upgrade to a premium or business account to export your presentation in PDF and print it for in-person presentations or share it digitally for free!

By following these five simple steps, you’ll have a professionally designed and visually engaging presentation ready in no time. With Venngage’s user-friendly platform, your presentation is sure to make a lasting impression. So, let your creativity flow and get ready to shine in your next presentation!

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7 Creative Ways to Start Any Presentation (With Examples!)

I like building and growing simple yet powerful products for the world and the worldwide web.

Published Date : December 4, 2020

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Creating an effective presentation is challenging and needs a lot of effort to become engaging with your audience. Many questions are indeed rounding up your head.

Like how to start a PowerPoint presentation and a class set-up presentation, it helps people, such as entrepreneurs, organize and disseminate their ideas flawlessly.

It clarifies intentions, concepts, and other feasible topics specifically. They may differ from execution, events, and for whom the presentation.

With that, the bottom line and the question is how to do it. How do you start a Board Meeting A formal gathering of a company's board of directors, where they discuss strategic matters, review financial performance, make key decisions, and oversee the organization's governance. <h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:21">Key Participants:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-11:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:102">Board members: Elected or appointed individuals responsible for guiding the company's direction.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:94">Executives: Company leaders like the CEO, CFO, and COO, who provide updates and reports.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:88">Secretary: Oversees logistics, records minutes, and ensures compliance with rules.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-11:0">Legal counsel: Offers guidance on legal matters and ensures adherence to regulations.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="12:1-12:12">Purpose:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="14:1-19:0"> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:78">Strategic planning: Setting the company's long-term direction and goals.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:81">Financial oversight: Reviewing financial reports, budgets, and investments.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-16:86">Risk management: Identifying and mitigating potential risks to the organization.</li> <li data-sourcepos="17:1-17:76">Executive evaluation: Assessing the performance of company leadership.</li> <li data-sourcepos="18:1-19:0">Decision-making: Approving key initiatives, investments, and policies.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="20:1-20:11">Format:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="22:1-25:0"> <li data-sourcepos="22:1-22:43">Varies based on company size and culture.</li> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:91">Typically includes presentations, discussions, voting on proposals, and Q&A sessions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-25:0">It may be formal with strict agendas or more informal with brainstorming sessions.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="26:1-26:26">Public Speaking Roles:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="28:1-30:0"> <li data-sourcepos="28:1-28:125">CEO and other executives: Act as a public speaker, presenting reports, answering questions, and defending proposals.</li> <li data-sourcepos="29:1-30:0">Board members: May participate in discussions, ask questions, and occasionally propose or speak in favor of motions.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="31:1-31:39">Addressing Public Speaking Anxiety:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="33:1-36:0"> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:87">Many executives and board members face public speaking anxiety in these meetings.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-34:93">Preparation, practicing presentations, and visualization techniques can help manage nerves.</li> <li data-sourcepos="35:1-36:0">Some companies hire public speaking coaches to offer personalized guidance and improve communication skills.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="37:1-37:248">Remember:</h2> Effective board meetings require clear communication, active participation, and informed decision-making. By understanding the format, roles, and potential challenges, participants can contribute to a productive and impactful session. " href="https://orai.com/glossary/board-meeting/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">board meeting presentation, or how do you start a presentation introduction in class?

Many students are also struggling with how to start a case study presentation, and young entrepreneurs or start-ups are struggling with how to start a business presentation.

To ease the tension and upgrade your Confidence In the context of public speaking, confidence refers to the belief in one's ability to communicate effectively and deliver one's message with clarity and impact. It encompasses various elements, including self-belief, composure, and the ability to manage one's fear of public speaking. <h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:16">Key Aspects:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-12:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:108">Self-belief: A strong conviction in your knowledge, skills, and ability to connect with your audience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:95">Composure: Maintaining calmness and poise under pressure, even in challenging situations.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:100">Assertiveness: Expressing your ideas clearly and concisely, avoiding hesitation or self-doubt.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-10:104">Positive self-talk: Countering negative thoughts with affirmations and focusing on your strengths.</li> <li data-sourcepos="11:1-12:0">Strong body language: Using gestures, posture, and eye contact that project confidence and professionalism.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="13:1-13:27">Benefits of Confidence:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="15:1-19:0"> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:99">Reduced anxiety: Feeling confident helps manage fear of public speaking and stage fright.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-16:133">Engaging delivery: Confident speakers project their voices, hold eye contact, and connect with their audience more effectively.</li> <li data-sourcepos="17:1-17:137">Increased persuasiveness: A confident presentation inspires belief and motivates your audience to listen and remember your message.</li> <li data-sourcepos="18:1-19:0">Greater impact: Confidently delivered speeches leave a lasting impression and achieve desired outcomes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="20:1-20:15">Challenges:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="22:1-26:0"> <li data-sourcepos="22:1-22:112">Overcoming fear of public speaking: Many people experience some level of anxiety when speaking publicly.</li> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:101">Imposter syndrome: Doubting your abilities and qualifications, even when objectively qualified.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:92">Negative self-talk: Internalized criticism and limiting beliefs can hamper confidence.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-26:0">Past negative experiences: Unsuccessful presentations or negative feedback can erode confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="27:1-27:24">Building Confidence:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="29:1-36:0"> <li data-sourcepos="29:1-29:102">Practice and preparation: Thoroughly rehearse your speech to feel comfortable with the material.</li> <li data-sourcepos="30:1-30:101">Visualization: Imagine yourself delivering a successful presentation with confidence and poise.</li> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:100">Positive self-talk: Actively replace negative thoughts with affirmations about your abilities.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:106">Seek feedback: Ask trusted individuals for constructive criticism and use it to improve your skills.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:157">Consider a speaking coach: Working with a coach can provide personalized guidance and support to address specific challenges and confidence barriers.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-34:114">Start small: Gradually increase the size and complexity of your speaking engagements as you gain experience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="35:1-36:0">Focus on progress: Celebrate small successes and acknowledge your improvement over time.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="37:1-37:282">Remember:</h2> Confidence in public speaking is a journey, not a destination. By actively practicing, embracing feedback, and focusing on your strengths, you can overcome fear of public speaking and develop the confidence to deliver impactful and memorable presentations. " href="https://orai.com/glossary/confidence/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">confidence , furthermore those people above, I will share some tips, steps, and how to start a presentation example.

Why Presentation is Important in Persuading

Presentations break communication barriers. Across this, it brings mutual understanding to the audience.

In winning your stances and goals, having and knowing how to start a presentation is a must. It helps you more to give an idea of what your topic could be through moving pictures and graphics in reality.

The role of presentation in persuading can be categorized into many factors. First, it helps your audience to feel more comfortable with your spiels.

Second, you have the chance to tell your options, choices, summary, and the result of your case study, etc., within your presentation. Especially can be stoop on how to start a business presentation.

Lastly, knowing how to deliver and how to start a presentation in persuading your listener includes support for your audience’s decision. Through it, the concept of persuasion becomes more reliable with tangible materials.

It is evident in thesis defenses and academic proposals. To start a case study presentation, you must present facts, stats, related studies, and other materials.

And to achieve that in a well-presented way, you need to think and come up with a composition associated with your topic to make it reliable and credible.

Different Ways to Start a Presentation

Difficulties on how to start a case study presentation and the things you need to behold within your PowerPoint presentation would be easy after sharing with you this advice.

As for direction and advice, take a look at this list to start a presentation generally.

1. Start With a Strong Claim

The beginning is always the hard part of a presentation. But like a bottle of water, after it gets opened, the water inside can flow smoothly to your gulp.

Meaning after spitting out your first words, everything should follow accordingly to your presentation. That’s why it is the most crucial when you are learning how to start a presentation.

Try to use the iconic lines of a famous philosopher —striking advice of a hotshot entrepreneur for your business proposal presentation.

Through this, you can have a good impression on your listener. Shook them and contradict their ideas; indeed, you can have an intense or beneficial presentation.

2. Know Your Prospect

Besides technicalities and visuals, knowing first the current state, perspective, wants, and needs of your prospect or audience is vital.

Before the presentation, you can send them a pre-assessment or survey consisting of what they want to see and learn and things to keep them interested, or you need to get their attention and interest.

3. Assist the Flow With Visuals

Showing your audience a good spiel in presenting your developing ideas and concepts through pictures that can’t be put quickly in language can break communication drawbacks.

Apart from describing your idea in a presentation, you are also giving quick ways to dice abstract ideas.

4. Moving Pictures

Pictures and videos are great instruments for nurturing your ideas and your audience counterparts.

The power of moving pictures is evident as the film business and the movie industry is booming and depicting fictional stories into reality.

5. Break People’s Expectation

To break the set expectations of your audience for you, always stick to your premise. Whether on business, academics, proposals, and other topical presentations.

Call an action to smash misconceptions about your particular presentation.

6. Spill Surprising Stories

Bring stories and the characters in life. Create conflict and suspense to highlight your goal’s presentation.

It also helps you to organize your presentation’s information to be catchy and relatable. Touching stories can affect audience decision-making.

7. Know When to Pause

Don’t present vague ideas, premises, and concepts. Stop bombarding your audience.

After a round of applause or before speaking, take a three-second pause. Observe your audience’s facial expressions.

With that, you can focus on your tone. It is also an indication that you want to give your audience a short rest.

Orai helps you perfect your Speech A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations. <h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27">Components of a Speech:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73">Content: The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106">Delivery: The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0">Structure: The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21">Speech in Action:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88">Informing: Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119">Persuading: Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93">Motivating: Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0">Entertaining: Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32">Public Speaking and Anxiety:</h2> Many people experience public speaking anxiety, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery. <h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32">Different Types of Speeches:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81">Informative speech: Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102">Persuasive speech: Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99">Motivational speech: Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0">Entertaining speech: Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33">Crafting a Compelling Speech:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106">Know your audience: Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107">Have a clear message: Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111">Engage your audience: Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0">Practice, practice, practice: Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13">Remember:</h2> Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience. " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech with feedback on your tone, tempo, Confidence In the context of public speaking, confidence refers to the belief in one's ability to communicate effectively and deliver one's message with clarity and impact. It encompasses various elements, including self-belief, composure, and the ability to manage one's fear of public speaking. <h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:16">Key Aspects:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-12:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:108">Self-belief: A strong conviction in your knowledge, skills, and ability to connect with your audience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:95">Composure: Maintaining calmness and poise under pressure, even in challenging situations.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:100">Assertiveness: Expressing your ideas clearly and concisely, avoiding hesitation or self-doubt.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-10:104">Positive self-talk: Countering negative thoughts with affirmations and focusing on your strengths.</li> <li data-sourcepos="11:1-12:0">Strong body language: Using gestures, posture, and eye contact that project confidence and professionalism.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="13:1-13:27">Benefits of Confidence:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="15:1-19:0"> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:99">Reduced anxiety: Feeling confident helps manage fear of public speaking and stage fright.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-16:133">Engaging delivery: Confident speakers project their voices, hold eye contact, and connect with their audience more effectively.</li> <li data-sourcepos="17:1-17:137">Increased persuasiveness: A confident presentation inspires belief and motivates your audience to listen and remember your message.</li> <li data-sourcepos="18:1-19:0">Greater impact: Confidently delivered speeches leave a lasting impression and achieve desired outcomes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="20:1-20:15">Challenges:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="22:1-26:0"> <li data-sourcepos="22:1-22:112">Overcoming fear of public speaking: Many people experience some level of anxiety when speaking publicly.</li> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:101">Imposter syndrome: Doubting your abilities and qualifications, even when objectively qualified.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:92">Negative self-talk: Internalized criticism and limiting beliefs can hamper confidence.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-26:0">Past negative experiences: Unsuccessful presentations or negative feedback can erode confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="27:1-27:24">Building Confidence:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="29:1-36:0"> <li data-sourcepos="29:1-29:102">Practice and preparation: Thoroughly rehearse your speech to feel comfortable with the material.</li> <li data-sourcepos="30:1-30:101">Visualization: Imagine yourself delivering a successful presentation with confidence and poise.</li> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:100">Positive self-talk: Actively replace negative thoughts with affirmations about your abilities.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:106">Seek feedback: Ask trusted individuals for constructive criticism and use it to improve your skills.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:157">Consider a speaking coach: Working with a coach can provide personalized guidance and support to address specific challenges and confidence barriers.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-34:114">Start small: Gradually increase the size and complexity of your speaking engagements as you gain experience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="35:1-36:0">Focus on progress: Celebrate small successes and acknowledge your improvement over time.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="37:1-37:282">Remember:</h2> Confidence in public speaking is a journey, not a destination. By actively practicing, embracing feedback, and focusing on your strengths, you can overcome fear of public speaking and develop the confidence to deliver impactful and memorable presentations. " href="https://orai.com/glossary/confidence/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">confidence , and Conciseness In the realm of public speaking, conciseness refers to the ability to express your message clearly and effectively using the fewest possible words. It's about conveying your ideas precisely, avoiding unnecessary details and rambling while maintaining your message's essence and impact. <h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:33">Benefits for Public Speakers:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-11:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:137">Engaged audience: A concise speech keeps your audience focused and prevents them from losing interest due to excessive information.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:117">Increased clarity: By removing unnecessary clutter, your core message becomes clearer and easier to understand.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:137">Enhanced credibility: Concise communication projects professionalism and efficiency, making you appear more confident and prepared.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-11:0">Reduced anxiety: Knowing you have a clear and concise message can help manage public speaking anxiety by minimizing the pressure to fill time.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="12:1-12:35">Challenges for Public Speakers:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="14:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:126">Striking a balance: Knowing where to draw the line between conciseness and omitting important information can be tricky.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:115">Avoiding oversimplification: Complex topics may require elaboration to ensure clarity and understanding.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0">Overcoming natural tendencies: Some speakers naturally use more words than others, requiring a conscious effort to be concise.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:41">Strategies for Achieving Conciseness:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="20:1-25:0"> <li data-sourcepos="20:1-20:92">Identify your core message: What is your audience's main point to remember?</li> <li data-sourcepos="21:1-21:128">Prioritize and eliminate: Analyze your content and remove any information not directly supporting your core message.</li> <li data-sourcepos="22:1-22:133">Use strong verbs and active voice: This makes your sentences more impactful and avoids passive constructions that can be wordy.</li> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:109">Simplify your language: Avoid jargon and technical terms unless they are essential and clearly defined.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-25:0">Practice and refine: Rehearse your speech aloud and identify areas where you can tighten your wording or eliminate redundancies.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="26:1-26:20">Additional Tips:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="28:1-31:0"> <li data-sourcepos="28:1-28:93">Use storytelling: Engaging narratives can convey complex ideas concisely and memorably.</li> <li data-sourcepos="29:1-29:110">Focus on the visuals: Powerful visuals can support your message without extensive explanation.</li> <li data-sourcepos="30:1-31:0">Embrace silence: Pausing deliberately can emphasize key points and give your audience time to absorb your message.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="32:1-32:404">Remember:</h2> Conciseness is a powerful tool for public speakers. By eliminating unnecessary words and focusing on your core message, you can create a more engaging, impactful, and memorable presentation for your audience. This can also help manage public speaking anxiety by reducing the pressure to fill time and enabling you to focus on delivering your message with clarity and confidence. " href="https://orai.com/glossary/conciseness/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">conciseness .

Things to Avoid on Presentation

Introducing your name along with your topic is not acceptable and is not a killer intro. To nail a presentation, be careful and prevent unnecessary elements.

Here is the list of recommended things you should avoid on how to start a presentation.

1. Cliché Sentences

Do you believe that the flow and relevancy of your presentation depend on your introduction?

If you do believe, avoid cruddy beginnings, initials, and phrases. Instead of stating, “What will your presentation be about,” give them an idea of why they need it and why it is worth sharing.

2. Plain Visuals

Stop using standard PowerPoint templates, discarded pictures, and non-HD videos. For engaging your audience, mastering your spiels is not enough to convince your listeners.

The balanced presentation consists of a good Speech A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations. <h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27">Components of a Speech:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73">Content: The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106">Delivery: The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0">Structure: The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21">Speech in Action:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88">Informing: Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119">Persuading: Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93">Motivating: Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0">Entertaining: Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32">Public Speaking and Anxiety:</h2> Many people experience public speaking anxiety, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery. <h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32">Different Types of Speeches:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81">Informative speech: Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102">Persuasive speech: Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99">Motivational speech: Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0">Entertaining speech: Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33">Crafting a Compelling Speech:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106">Know your audience: Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107">Have a clear message: Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111">Engage your audience: Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0">Practice, practice, practice: Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13">Remember:</h2> Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience. " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech , spiels, and an enticing display. Instead of using plain visuals, use simple but complex graphics.

3. Lame Transitions

It is not all about effects or glitching transition effects but about how you transmit your spiels. Always open your arguments with a bang and end them using striking remarks.

4. Unstable Stats and Facts

Don’t use outdated data, studies, and facts. Don’t go to less up-to-date data websites.

Treat the facts and stats as vitamins for your presentation, as it helps your exhibition look reliable and robust.

5. Colorless Templates

Pick templates that fit your topic and theme—download innovative templates and slides. Analyze your presentation structure.

Make sure to go for a font that suits perfectly to the presentation. Go for roadmaps, unique mats, and decks.

Check out this video for more tips on how to avoid presentation pitfalls:

Steps to Enhance Your Visual Presentation

To sort things specifically on how to start a presentation. Here are the steps and tips on how to start a PowerPoint presentation.

Step 1: Get a Color Palette

“Colors speak louder than texts.”

Aside from shapes, figures, and moving objects, picking the right color palette for your presentation can beautify the board’s ambiance if that’s the case.

Logos and company icons have their color combination to mark and emphasize their brand to all consumers. It may also apply to presentations.

If you want to be considered or remembered, start by choosing the right color palette.

Step 2: Create a Theme

The theme supports the flow of your topic; it is the backbone of your presentation. Not considering this element can’t make your topic vague and not intact.

Step 3: Add Hyperlinks

Going back to how to start a presentation, comparing specific ideas is a waste of time. Using hyperlinks, you can offer your audience a “video game” theme.

Step 4: Play Short Video or Create GIFS

Before or after spiels about a particular slide, play a short video as an icebreaker. It helps you to feed your audience with a large amount of information in a shorter period.

Step 5: Practice the Presentation with Spiels in Every Portion

Practice helps you to attain presentation skills. You can interact with your audience, disseminate the messages clearly, and analyze your listeners’ mindset.

You can also improve the flow of run-throughs. These will support you to polish and enhance persuasive skills.

Practice your perfect Speech A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations. <h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27">Components of a Speech:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73">Content: The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106">Delivery: The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0">Structure: The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21">Speech in Action:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88">Informing: Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119">Persuading: Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93">Motivating: Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0">Entertaining: Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32">Public Speaking and Anxiety:</h2> Many people experience public speaking anxiety, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery. <h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32">Different Types of Speeches:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81">Informative speech: Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102">Persuasive speech: Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99">Motivational speech: Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0">Entertaining speech: Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33">Crafting a Compelling Speech:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106">Know your audience: Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107">Have a clear message: Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111">Engage your audience: Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0">Practice, practice, practice: Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13">Remember:</h2> Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience. " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech with Orai

Presentation Checklist

Besides sharing the tips and steps on how to start a presentation, let me give you a sample presentation checklist to support and organize your presentation.

This checklist may vary in every presentation. You can create and set your reminders.

Vital Points of a Presentation

To use your time wisely , try this outline on creating a presentation, such as how to start a Board Meeting A formal gathering of a company's board of directors, where they discuss strategic matters, review financial performance, make key decisions, and oversee the organization's governance. <h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:21">Key Participants:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-11:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:102">Board members: Elected or appointed individuals responsible for guiding the company's direction.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:94">Executives: Company leaders like the CEO, CFO, and COO, who provide updates and reports.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:88">Secretary: Oversees logistics, records minutes, and ensures compliance with rules.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-11:0">Legal counsel: Offers guidance on legal matters and ensures adherence to regulations.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="12:1-12:12">Purpose:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="14:1-19:0"> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:78">Strategic planning: Setting the company's long-term direction and goals.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:81">Financial oversight: Reviewing financial reports, budgets, and investments.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-16:86">Risk management: Identifying and mitigating potential risks to the organization.</li> <li data-sourcepos="17:1-17:76">Executive evaluation: Assessing the performance of company leadership.</li> <li data-sourcepos="18:1-19:0">Decision-making: Approving key initiatives, investments, and policies.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="20:1-20:11">Format:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="22:1-25:0"> <li data-sourcepos="22:1-22:43">Varies based on company size and culture.</li> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:91">Typically includes presentations, discussions, voting on proposals, and Q&A sessions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-25:0">It may be formal with strict agendas or more informal with brainstorming sessions.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="26:1-26:26">Public Speaking Roles:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="28:1-30:0"> <li data-sourcepos="28:1-28:125">CEO and other executives: Act as a public speaker, presenting reports, answering questions, and defending proposals.</li> <li data-sourcepos="29:1-30:0">Board members: May participate in discussions, ask questions, and occasionally propose or speak in favor of motions.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="31:1-31:39">Addressing Public Speaking Anxiety:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="33:1-36:0"> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:87">Many executives and board members face public speaking anxiety in these meetings.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-34:93">Preparation, practicing presentations, and visualization techniques can help manage nerves.</li> <li data-sourcepos="35:1-36:0">Some companies hire public speaking coaches to offer personalized guidance and improve communication skills.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="37:1-37:248">Remember:</h2> Effective board meetings require clear communication, active participation, and informed decision-making. By understanding the format, roles, and potential challenges, participants can contribute to a productive and impactful session. " href="https://orai.com/glossary/board-meeting/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">board meeting presentation and more.

This table only serves as a sample outline. It may also vary depending on your topic and forte.

How to Start Business Presentation and Other Samples

For all entrepreneurs, this portion is for you. To gratify your needs and to enlighten you on how to start a business presentation. Here are the basics.

Create a Plan

Always start with a concrete plan to strengthen the body of your presentation. With that, your listeners can’t easily stab your presentation.

Pick The Right Deck

If you are discussing in a formal setting, pick a deck with gray colors, choose dominant colors, and then combine.

Tell Stories and Laugh

To balance the whole presentation, put some icebreakers and funny idioms about your topic. Make sure it is sensible.

Add Verbal Cues and Signpost

It helps your audience to get intact through the presentation. Try to use signal transitions, such as words or phrases that would give interconnections.

Collect Images and Charts

Of course, images and charts are vital. Make sure to use HD photos and reliable maps from data websites.

Initiate Audience Interaction

After the presentation, evaluate it by asking your listeners if they have any questions.

Questions like these must be considered and answered in your presentation.

How would you design your material?
How factual is it?
What is the target deadline? Show your timeline.

Watch this live Speech A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations. <h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27">Components of a Speech:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73">Content: The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106">Delivery: The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0">Structure: The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21">Speech in Action:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88">Informing: Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119">Persuading: Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93">Motivating: Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0">Entertaining: Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32">Public Speaking and Anxiety:</h2> Many people experience public speaking anxiety, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery. <h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32">Different Types of Speeches:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81">Informative speech: Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102">Persuasive speech: Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99">Motivational speech: Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0">Entertaining speech: Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33">Crafting a Compelling Speech:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106">Know your audience: Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107">Have a clear message: Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111">Engage your audience: Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0">Practice, practice, practice: Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13">Remember:</h2> Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience. " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech or business seminar to get different hooks and other strategies to impress your listeners with your business presentation:

3 Essential Parts on How to Start a Board Meeting Presentation

As your supervisor and other executives watch you presenting, stand tall and present like a boss through these points.

Create the Structure of Your Presentation

It organizes the presentation and connects the main points to sub-points. With that, you can have minimal effort but impactful results.

Build Big Introduction

Try to begin asking the “why’s,” furthermore, enlighten them of “hows.” How to conduct, how to execute, and how to surpass their limits.

Stop introducing your presentation with your name. Always start to implore your audience with no cliché intro.

Develop Your Data and Tell Crucial Parts

You can be ideological, symbolic, and rhetorical, and these things are not yet easy to comprehend without visuals. That’s why it is essential to develop and expand your data to make it understandable.

Suppose you want to have a good impression when presenting a business proposal to your bosses and other hotshots. Watch this video on striking tips and techniques for a presentation:

Vital Aspects of How to Start a Case Study Presentation

Case study presentations are more technical, unlike the other displays. It should be specific, tangible, credible, and substantial.

Also, here are the vital points to follow.

Show the Possible Results. Collect the possible outcomes or predicted results. With that, you can jump to “how” you will carry the topic into different methods and production.
Prepare Back-Up Studies. Always have a backup; there are some unexpected circumstances, emergencies, and other possible matters that may ruin your original presentation. It is wise to prepare around three to six backup studies you can easily refer to.
Connect to Your Prospect’s Situation. Research on their state, status, and other related ideas. It will help your case study to get a thumbs up.
Focus on Deals. Keep in mind that you have a target deal. Always connect your study to the current agreement and profitable offers.

How to Start a Presentation Introduction in Class

Facing new students is challenging, right? If you want to get a good impression from your class in different situations, take a look at these tips.

Present Yourself With Manners

Tell them briefly who you are and why you are there in front of them while showing the right conduct and manners.

Cite Your Objectives and Its Relevance

The material or your material must be the center of any presentation. Discuss its factuality and how tangible it is. Along with these, tell stories that may catch their interest and attention throughout the presentation.

Leave Interesting Statement

End it with a bang! Make them think and stare at you. You can also give them riddles and some metaphorical set of words as an ending remark .

Indeed, you will gain their participation, plus you are helping your listeners to think critically.

Become a pro presenter. Download Orai and start practicing

How to Make an Unforgettable Start-Up Presentation

To give more emphasis on how to start a business presentation and to help young entrepreneurs. I’ll share with you this detailed outline. I hope you tuck this with you.

1. Set Goals For Your Business Presentation

Always set the stage with objectives. Since you are presenting to get clients and investment, it would help if you cleared how long it takes your business proposal.

2. Start With Provoking Questions or Stories

Never underestimate the power of storytelling. Initiate your presentation with real-life stories.

Stating provoking questions can grab attention, positive or negative, is a good result. It helps you to get your listener’s ears and eyes.

3. Show Alarming Statistics, Graphics as a Clue

This recommendation is similar to a word game, the “4-pics, One Word,” demonstrating the idea or topic with photos will be more immersing.

Visuals are one of the key points to expand a presentation. They are depicting patterns, diagrams, and trends. Lend quick analysis and predictions.

By using graphics, you can easily sustain the interest of your listeners and attract more viewers.

4. Know Your Material

Master your presentation and fill loops. And on your topic. Study the weak points and establish more of the strengths of the presentation.

With that, you can derive the information smoothly. Take note of this. It is also vital on how to start a Board Meeting A formal gathering of a company's board of directors, where they discuss strategic matters, review financial performance, make key decisions, and oversee the organization's governance. <h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:21">Key Participants:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-11:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:102">Board members: Elected or appointed individuals responsible for guiding the company's direction.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:94">Executives: Company leaders like the CEO, CFO, and COO, who provide updates and reports.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:88">Secretary: Oversees logistics, records minutes, and ensures compliance with rules.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-11:0">Legal counsel: Offers guidance on legal matters and ensures adherence to regulations.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="12:1-12:12">Purpose:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="14:1-19:0"> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:78">Strategic planning: Setting the company's long-term direction and goals.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:81">Financial oversight: Reviewing financial reports, budgets, and investments.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-16:86">Risk management: Identifying and mitigating potential risks to the organization.</li> <li data-sourcepos="17:1-17:76">Executive evaluation: Assessing the performance of company leadership.</li> <li data-sourcepos="18:1-19:0">Decision-making: Approving key initiatives, investments, and policies.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="20:1-20:11">Format:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="22:1-25:0"> <li data-sourcepos="22:1-22:43">Varies based on company size and culture.</li> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:91">Typically includes presentations, discussions, voting on proposals, and Q&A sessions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-25:0">It may be formal with strict agendas or more informal with brainstorming sessions.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="26:1-26:26">Public Speaking Roles:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="28:1-30:0"> <li data-sourcepos="28:1-28:125">CEO and other executives: Act as a public speaker, presenting reports, answering questions, and defending proposals.</li> <li data-sourcepos="29:1-30:0">Board members: May participate in discussions, ask questions, and occasionally propose or speak in favor of motions.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="31:1-31:39">Addressing Public Speaking Anxiety:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="33:1-36:0"> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:87">Many executives and board members face public speaking anxiety in these meetings.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-34:93">Preparation, practicing presentations, and visualization techniques can help manage nerves.</li> <li data-sourcepos="35:1-36:0">Some companies hire public speaking coaches to offer personalized guidance and improve communication skills.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="37:1-37:248">Remember:</h2> Effective board meetings require clear communication, active participation, and informed decision-making. By understanding the format, roles, and potential challenges, participants can contribute to a productive and impactful session. " href="https://orai.com/glossary/board-meeting/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">board meeting presentation.

5. Add Business-Related Stories and Humor

Put the top 10 successful corporations, traders, companies, and other information that may help you present your goal. Flash the motto of some famous entrepreneurs. Analyze or contradict it to gain more attention.

Try to spiel some business jokes as an icebreaker. Any possible facts about business that you can use — catch it!

6. Hold Your Audience With Visuals

Play videos like a Public Service Announcement (PSA), but make sure it is connected to your topic.

Learn how to start a business presentation that has movement and action for society. With that, your listeners may think your presentation is worth investing in.

7. Relax and Have an Early Set-Up

Stay calm and don’t even think about drawbacks or shortcomings, especially the night before the presentation.

Make sure to pamper your body. Create also a plan B for unexpected circumstances.

8. Calculate Your Time and Sort it Into Parts

In your run-through, always set a timer. It gives you a heads up if you may look rushing or too slow in explaining each slide.

Being not responsible for other people’s time is a turn-off, especially in business, where time is essential in the industry.

To present other samples wisely. Let me share some videos to rock and how to start a presentation:

What are some examples of great presentation structures and delivery techniques?

Successful presentations like “How Google Works” and “Start with Why” prove the power of Clarity In public speaking, clarity refers to the quality of your message being readily understood and interpreted by your audience. It encompasses both the content and delivery of your speech, ensuring your message resonates and leaves a lasting impact. <h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:16">Key Aspects:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-13:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:133">Conciseness: Avoid unnecessary details, digressions, or excessive complexity. Focus on delivering the core message efficiently.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:149">Simple language: Choose words and phrases your audience understands readily, avoiding jargon or technical terms unless you define them clearly.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:145">Logical structure: Organize your thoughts and ideas logically, using transitions and signposts to guide your audience through your message.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-10:136">Effective visuals: If using visuals, ensure they are clear, contribute to your message, and don't distract from your spoken words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="11:1-11:144">Confident delivery: Speak clearly and articulately, avoiding mumbling or rushing your words. Maintain good eye contact with your audience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="12:1-13:0">Active voice: Emphasize active voice for better flow and avoid passive constructions that can be less engaging.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="14:1-14:24">Benefits of Clarity:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="16:1-20:0"> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-16:123">Enhanced audience engagement: A clear message keeps your audience interested and helps them grasp your points easily.</li> <li data-sourcepos="17:1-17:123">Increased credibility: Clear communication projects professionalism and expertise, building trust with your audience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="18:1-18:111">Improved persuasiveness: A well-understood message is more likely to resonate and win over your audience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="19:1-20:0">Reduced confusion: Eliminating ambiguity minimizes misinterpretations and ensures your message arrives as intended.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="21:1-21:15">Challenges:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="23:1-27:0"> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:129">Condensing complex information: Simplifying complex topics without sacrificing crucial details requires skill and practice.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:128">Understanding your audience: Tailoring your language and structure to resonate with a diverse audience can be challenging.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:85">Managing nerves: Nerves can impact your delivery, making it unclear or rushed.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-27:0">Avoiding jargon: Breaking technical habits and simplifying language requires constant awareness.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="28:1-28:22">Improving Clarity:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="30:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="30:1-30:117">Practice and rehearse: The more you rehearse your speech, the more natural and clear your delivery will become.</li> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:107">Seek feedback: Share your draft speech with others and ask for feedback on clarity and comprehension.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:161">Consider a public speaking coach: A coach can provide personalized guidance on structuring your message, simplifying language, and improving your delivery.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:128">Join a public speaking group: Practicing in a supportive environment can help you gain confidence and refine your clarity.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0">Listen to effective speakers: Analyze how clear and impactful others achieve communication.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:250">Remember:</h2> Clarity is a cornerstone of impactful public speaking. By honing your message, focusing on delivery, and actively seeking feedback, you can ensure your audience receives your message clearly and leaves a lasting impression. " href="https://orai.com/glossary/clarity/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">clarity and simplicity. Both Schmidt and Sinek captivate audiences with straightforward messages enhanced by visuals (slides or whiteboard) that support, not overpower, their narratives. The lesson: ditch complexity, focus on your core message, and deliver it with a conviction for maximum impact.

How can group presentations be structured effectively?

Effective group presentations require thorough rehearsal, clean transitions, and speaker handovers. Recap your section, introduce the next speaker, and gesture towards them to link sections and keep the audience engaged.

How can physical movement enhance the delivery of my presentation?

Ditch the podium! Move around the stage to grab attention, connect with listeners, and emphasize key points. Strategic shifts in location signal transitions, while your energy and passion come alive through purposeful movement. Make your presentation dynamic and memorable – get moving!

How can I structure a presentation using the remaining method approach?

To master the “remaining method,” Briefly introduce the controversy, dive deep with your side (logos & pathos!), acknowledge and dissect opposing solutions, and then unveil your “remaining solution” as the superior answer. Wrap up with a strong summary and a call to action. Guide your audience, earn trust, and win them over!

What are the key elements involved in storytelling for presentations?

Ditch the dry facts! Captivate your audience with stories. Use classic structures like the hero’s journey or jump into the action with “in media res.” Craft your narrative with a clear plot, relatable characters, and a consistent tone. Tie it all back to your key points for maximum impact. Storytelling makes presentations memorable, engaging, and impactful – go forth and win hearts (and minds)!

How can I structure my presentation using the problem-solution method?

Hook them, hit them, fix them! Problem-solution presentations start with a clear pain point, delve deep with causes and impacts (think logic and emotions!), and then unveil your solution as the hero and its amazing benefits. Finish with a call to action – tell them what to do next! Simple, powerful, persuasive.

What are some common presentation structures beyond the typical format described in the passage?

Forget the slides; show and tell! Demo presentations explain the “what” and “why” of your product, then dazzle with a live showcase. Highlight problem-solving and potential uses to keep them hooked. Leave them curious and wanting more with a glimpse of what your product can truly do. It’s all about interactive understanding and engagement!

What is the purpose of the Q&A session at the end of a presentation?

Q&A isn’t just an add-on! It’s a chance to clear confusion, recap key points, and answer burning questions. Wrapping up the discussion, offering deeper dives, and inviting audience participation – it’s the perfect way to seal the deal and connect with your listeners.

What should be included in the main body of a presentation?

Ditch the tangents and deliver on your promises! The main body is where you unpack your points. Organize it clearly, hit each topic with evidence and examples, summarize as you go, and link your ideas. Keep it focused, relevant, and audience-friendly – take notes, stay on track, and make your impact!

How should the introduction of a presentation be structured?

Hook, roadmap, and expectations – that’s your intro! Briefly introduce the topic, explain why it matters and what you’ll cover, and tell the audience how long they’re in for and if they can participate. Set the stage, guide them through, and make them feel comfortable – then dive in!

Why is structuring a presentation important?

Get organized, and get remembered! Structure keeps your audience engaged and learning while boosting your Confidence In the context of public speaking, confidence refers to the belief in one's ability to communicate effectively and deliver one's message with clarity and impact. It encompasses various elements, including self-belief, composure, and the ability to manage one's fear of public speaking. <h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:16">Key Aspects:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-12:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:108">Self-belief: A strong conviction in your knowledge, skills, and ability to connect with your audience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:95">Composure: Maintaining calmness and poise under pressure, even in challenging situations.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:100">Assertiveness: Expressing your ideas clearly and concisely, avoiding hesitation or self-doubt.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-10:104">Positive self-talk: Countering negative thoughts with affirmations and focusing on your strengths.</li> <li data-sourcepos="11:1-12:0">Strong body language: Using gestures, posture, and eye contact that project confidence and professionalism.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="13:1-13:27">Benefits of Confidence:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="15:1-19:0"> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:99">Reduced anxiety: Feeling confident helps manage fear of public speaking and stage fright.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-16:133">Engaging delivery: Confident speakers project their voices, hold eye contact, and connect with their audience more effectively.</li> <li data-sourcepos="17:1-17:137">Increased persuasiveness: A confident presentation inspires belief and motivates your audience to listen and remember your message.</li> <li data-sourcepos="18:1-19:0">Greater impact: Confidently delivered speeches leave a lasting impression and achieve desired outcomes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="20:1-20:15">Challenges:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="22:1-26:0"> <li data-sourcepos="22:1-22:112">Overcoming fear of public speaking: Many people experience some level of anxiety when speaking publicly.</li> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:101">Imposter syndrome: Doubting your abilities and qualifications, even when objectively qualified.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:92">Negative self-talk: Internalized criticism and limiting beliefs can hamper confidence.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-26:0">Past negative experiences: Unsuccessful presentations or negative feedback can erode confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="27:1-27:24">Building Confidence:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="29:1-36:0"> <li data-sourcepos="29:1-29:102">Practice and preparation: Thoroughly rehearse your speech to feel comfortable with the material.</li> <li data-sourcepos="30:1-30:101">Visualization: Imagine yourself delivering a successful presentation with confidence and poise.</li> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:100">Positive self-talk: Actively replace negative thoughts with affirmations about your abilities.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:106">Seek feedback: Ask trusted individuals for constructive criticism and use it to improve your skills.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:157">Consider a speaking coach: Working with a coach can provide personalized guidance and support to address specific challenges and confidence barriers.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-34:114">Start small: Gradually increase the size and complexity of your speaking engagements as you gain experience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="35:1-36:0">Focus on progress: Celebrate small successes and acknowledge your improvement over time.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="37:1-37:282">Remember:</h2> Confidence in public speaking is a journey, not a destination. By actively practicing, embracing feedback, and focusing on your strengths, you can overcome fear of public speaking and develop the confidence to deliver impactful and memorable presentations. " href="https://orai.com/glossary/confidence/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">confidence and delivery. It’s a win-win for both the speaker and the listener!

Conclusion:

To be an effective speaker or presenter, you must master how to start a presentation. Learn the basics and dynamics.

Earn persuasive skills and grasp how to start a PowerPoint presentation with the steps and tips above to disseminate the information in a free-lingual way effectively.

I hope you find this helpful; you are free to use these tips for any goals.

You can try Orai , an AI-powered Speech Coach A speech coach is a trained professional who provides personalized guidance and support to individuals seeking to improve their public speaking skills. Whether you aim to master public speaking for professional presentations, overcome stage fright, or simply hone your everyday communication, a speech coach can tailor their expertise to meet your needs and goals. <h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:32">What Does a Speech Coach Do?</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-13:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:124">Conduct assessments: Analyze your strengths, weaknesses, and communication style through evaluations and observations.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:149">Develop personalized plans: Create a customized roadmap with exercises, techniques, and feedback to address your specific areas of improvement.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:167">Offer expert instruction: We will guide you through various aspects of public speaking, including vocal control, body language, content delivery, and overcoming anxiety.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-10:168">Provide practice opportunities: Facilitate mock presentations, simulations, and role-playing scenarios to refine your skills in a safe and supportive environment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="11:1-11:114">Offer constructive feedback: Identify areas for improvement and suggest strategies for achieving your goals.</li> <li data-sourcepos="12:1-13:0">Boost confidence and motivation: Encourage and support you throughout your journey, empowering you to become a confident and impactful communicator.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="14:1-14:40">Who Can Benefit from a Speech Coach?</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="16:1-20:0"> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-16:174">Professionals: Refining public speaking skills can benefit executives, entrepreneurs, salespeople, leaders, and anyone who presents in professional settings.</li> <li data-sourcepos="17:1-17:160">Students: Teachers, public speakers, debaters, and students wanting to excel in presentations or classroom settings can gain valuable skills with a coach.</li> <li data-sourcepos="18:1-18:176">Individuals who fear public speaking: Coaching can help those who experience anxiety or nervousness when speaking in public develop strategies and gain confidence.</li> <li data-sourcepos="19:1-20:0">Anyone seeking to improve communication: A coach can provide guidance to individuals seeking to enhance their communication skills for personal or professional development.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="21:1-21:28">Types of Speech Coaches:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="23:1-26:0"> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:110">Private coaches: Work one-on-one with individuals to provide highly personalized attention and feedback.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:130">Group coaches: Offer workshops or classes in group settings, often at a lower cost but with less individualized attention.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-26:0">Specialization coaches: Some coaches specialize in executive communication, storytelling, or presentation design.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="27:1-27:35">Finding the Right Speech Coach:</h2> <ul data-sourcepos="29:1-33:0"> <li data-sourcepos="29:1-29:91">Identify your goals: What areas do you want to improve? What are your specific needs?</li> <li data-sourcepos="30:1-30:109">Research credentials and experience: Look for qualified coaches with relevant experience and expertise.</li> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:122">Consider availability and budget: Set a budget and explore options that fit your schedule and financial constraints.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-33:0">Schedule consultations: Talk to potential coaches to assess their personality, approach, and compatibility with your needs.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="34:1-34:418">Remember:</h2> Investing in a speech coach can be a transformative experience, enhancing your communication skills, boosting your confidence, and empowering you to achieve your communication goals. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting your journey, consider exploring the potential of working with a speech coach to unlock your full potential as a communicator and master public speaking. " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech-coach/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech coach that perfectly suits your budget! They provide instant feedback on you to help with your public speaking needs. Start your free trial with Orai today!

How many words is a 5-minute speech, good attention getters for speeches with 10+ examples, quick links.

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50 powerful quotes to start your presentation.

Written by Kai Xin Koh

When was the last time you attended a conference where the speaker didn’t just say: “Oh hi, my name is XYZ and today, I’ll be speaking to you about Topic X”?

Great stories possess riveting narrative arcs that begin strong and end strong. We’ve written at length about some of the best ways to end your presentation , but how does one design a presentation to start without sounding too cliche?

One of the most powerful ways to begin a presentation is to start by sharing a powerful and memorable quote that relates to the message of your talk.

Powerful quotes have so much power on your presentation. Not only does it help reinforce your message, it also helps boost your credibility since it implied the quote is ‘agreeing’ with your statement.

Take this TED talk by Andrew Solomon for example. Notice how he skilfully uses a quote from a book by Emily Dickinson to set the stage for his numerous anecdotes regarding the topic on Depression in his presentation:

Hence, if you’re looking to follow suit and start your next presentation strong with a powerful quote, we’ve got you covered. Here, we compiled a list of 50 quotes that you can use to boost your next presentation.

50 Powerful Quotes To Start Your Presentation:

1) “ The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain

2) “Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.” – Babe Ruth

3) “ If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein

4) “ If you’re too comfortable, it’s time to move on. Terrified of what’s next? You’re on the right track.” – Susan Fales Hill

5) “ Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates

6) “ You can’t look at the competition and say you’re going to do it better. You have to look at the competition and say you’re going to do it differently.” – Steve Jobs

7) “ Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect.” – Jack Dorsey

8) “ Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.” – Oprah Winfrey

9) “ Your smile is your logo, your personality is your business card, how you leave others feeling after an experience with you becomes your trademark.” – Jay Danzie

10) “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” – Warren Buffett

11) “Some entrepreneurs think how can I make a lot of money? But a better way is to think how can I make people’s lives a lot better? If you get it right, the money will come.” – Richard Branson

12) “When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars people said, ‘Nah, what’s wrong with a horse? ’ That was a huge bet he made, and it worked.” – Elon Musk

13) “There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.” – Ray Goforth

14) “Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.” – Charles F. Kettering

15) “People rarely buy what they need. They buy what they want.” – Seth Godin

16) “Please think about your legacy, because you’re writing it every day.” – Gary Vaynerchuck

17) “The golden rule for every business man is this: Put yourself in your customer’s place.” – Orison Swett Marden

18) “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” – David Brinkley

19) “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing it is stupid.” – Einstein

20) “The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.” – Lilly Tomlin

21) “ When you run a part of the relay and pass on the baton, there is no sense of unfinished business in your mind. There is just the sense of having done your part to the best of your ability. That is it. The hope is to pass on the baton to somebody who will run faster and run a better marathon.” – N. R. Narayana Murthy

22) “Whatever you’re thinking, think bigger.” – Tony Hsieh

23) “When you find an idea that you can’t stop thinking about, that’s probably a good one to pursue.” – Josh James

24) “What would you do if you’re not afraid?” – Sheryl Sandberg

25) “Don’t worry about failure, you only have to be right once.” – Drew Houston

26) “When I’m old and dying. I plan to look back on my life and say ‘Wow, an adventure’ not, ‘Wow, I sure felt safe’” – Tom Preston Werner

27) “80% of your sales comes from 20% of your clients.” – Vilfredo Pareto

28) “You just have to pay attention to what people need and what has not been done.” – Russell Simmons

29) “We are really competing against ourselves, we have no control over how other people perform.” – Pete Cashmore

30) “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” – Wayne Gretzy

31) “Always remember, your focus determines your reality.” – George Lucas

32) “If people like you they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you they’ll do business with you.” – Zig Ziglar

33) “Words may inspire but action creates change.” – Simon Sinek

34) “It isn’t what we say or think that denies us, but what we do.” – Jane Austen

35) “Get action. Do things; be sane; don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be someone; get action.” – Theodore Roosevelt

36) “There is only one boss. The customer.” – Sam Walton

37) “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Barack Obama

38) “You have to go wholeheartedly into anything in order to achieve anything worth having.” – Frank Lloyd Wright

39) “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela

40) “Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.” – Bob Marley

41) “There is no great genius without some touch of madness.” – Seneca

42) “If you think you are too small to make an impact try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.” – Ekaterina Walter

43) “If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.” – Mark Zuckerberg

44) “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison

45) “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” – Abraham Lincoln

46) “Don’t build links. Build relationships.” – Rand Fishkin

47) “100 percent of the shots you don’t take, don’t go in.” – Wayne Gretzky, Hockey Legend

48) “If you’ve got an idea, start today. There’s no better time than now to get going. That doesn’t mean quit your job and jump into your idea 100 percent from day one, but there’s always small progress that can be made to start the movement.” – Kevin Systrom, Founder of Instagram

49) “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” – Jack Welch, Former CEO of GE

50) “You must be very patient, very persistent. The world isn’t going to shower gold coins on you just because you have a good idea. You’re going to have to work like crazy to bring that idea to the attention of people. They’re not going to buy it unless they know about it.” – Herb Kelleher, Founder of Southwest Airlines.

There you have it!

Phew! – now you have an additional 50 powerful quotes that you can add in your presentation arsenal. Leave an unforgettable impression on your presentation with these quotes starting today!

Comment down your favourite quote. And let us know if you have any that we didn’t add to the list!

Article Written By: Kai Xin Koh

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Learning English with Oxford

The latest language learning tips, resources, and content from oxford university press., useful phrases for giving a presentation in english.

by Oxford University Press ELT
Posted on April 21, 2023 February 2, 2024

Giving a presentation in English can be challenging, but with these helpful phrases, you can feel confident and ready to make a good presentation in English.

Starting your presentation

So how to start a presentation in English? Begin by saying hello and welcoming everyone. You can also thank the audience for being there with you.

The beginning of the presentation is one of the most important parts because you need to make sure your audience is interested from the start.

You could tell a short story, give a fact, or simply tell the audience a little bit about yourself, e.g. ‘ Let me start by telling you a little bit about myself …’

Then, introduce what your presentation is about by giving an opening statement or an overview of your session. For example, ‘Today, I am going to talk to you about …’ or, ‘Today, we’ll be looking at/focusing on …’.

You can also tell the audience, ‘ If you have any questions, please raise your hand and I’ll be happy to answer them’ … or ‘ We’ll have time at the end for questions.’

Presenting the topic

When you get into the main part of giving your presentation in English, remember that what you’re saying to your audience is new information. Speak slowly, organise your ideas, and make sure your pronunciation is clear. You can learn more about boosting your pronunciation here .

Use expressions to order your ideas and introduce new ones. You can use words and phrases to sequence like, firstly/first of all, secondly, then, next, following this, and lastly/finally.

If you want to introduce the opposite point of view, you can use language like however, on the other hand, contrary to this and then again.

It’s a good idea to link what you are saying back to previous things you have said. This shows you have a well-organised presentation and also helps keep people engaged. For example, ‘as I said previously/at the beginning …’, ‘as you may remember’ and ‘this relates to what I said about ….’

Highlighting information during your talk

When you are giving a presentation in English, you might want to highlight a particular piece of information or something that’s important. You can use phrases such as ‘Let’s focus on …’, ‘I want to highlight …’, ‘Pay attention to …’, ‘Let’s look at …’, ‘I want to briefly address …’, or ‘Now, let’s discuss ….’ You can use these phrases after your sequencing words to help you with your structure.

You can also highlight information by asking your audience their opinion of what you are saying or having them engage with the presentation in some way. For example, you could ask a question and have the audience raise their hands if they agree, or disagree, or if you want to find out how many of them have experience with the situation you’re discussing. Asking questions is a good way to make sure you still have the audience’s attention after you’ve been speaking for a while.

You can also highlight information on your visuals if you’re using them. Use bright, impactful pictures and colours, and don’t include too much writing on your slides.

Finalising the talk

At the end of the presentation, you should summarise your talk and remind the audience of the things you have discussed, and the new information you have given them. You can say things like ‘In summary, we have looked at …’, ‘I’d like to finish by …’, and ‘We’re coming to the end of the presentation. We’ve discussed …’.

You can then ask the audience for any questions you haven’t already answered.

What are your experiences of giving a presentation in English? Do you have any other tips to add? Share below!

Billie Jago is an ELT writer and teacher trainer, specialising in digital & assessments. She is the founder of the professional development podcast ELTcpd and co-founder of the digital ELT content agency, otterelt .

Author: Oxford University Press ELT

Every year we help millions of people around the world to learn English. As a department of the University of Oxford, we further the University’s objective of excellence in education by publishing proven and tested language learning books, eBooks, learning materials, and educational technologies. View all posts by Oxford University Press ELT

before You start your presentation ,try please to mention the time duration . sometimes people should be informed so that we can take a coffe break or cigarettes break in order to make evry one happy with the topics

Here is the tip I would add according to my experience :

end your presentation on a positive note, for example with a funny sentence /image /meme / an inspirational quote, in short something that will make your talk pleasant to remember.

Valentina T.

You need to chill out and show calmness and confidence. You should rehearse your presentation on the stage some time before its previously stated time.

Clear, cogent & commanding. Thanks.

I think to get better respond to presentation you can do some mistakes in it and then explain it the end or in the next presentation. Because if anyone would like to learn something also should show involvement.

How to Start a Presentation: 5 Strong Opening Slides and 12 Tricks To Test

Cover image of a How to Start a Presentation article with an illustration of a presenter giving a speech.

Knowing how to start a presentation is crucial: if you fail to capture the audience’s attention right off the bat, your entire presentation will flop. Few listeners will stick with you to the end and retain what you have told.

That is mildly unpleasant when you are doing an in-house presentation in front of your colleagues. But it can become utterly embarrassing when you present in front of larger audiences (e.g., at a conference) or worse – delivering a sales presentation to prospective customers.

Here is how most of us begin a presentation: give an awkward greeting, thank everyone for coming, clear our throats, tap the mic, and humbly start to mumble about our subject. The problem with such an opening performance? It effectively kills and buries even the best messages.

Table of Contents

The Classic Trick: Open a Presentation with an Introduction
Open a Presentation with a Hook
Begin with a Captivating Visual
Ask a “What if…” Question
Use the Word “Imagine”
Leverage The Curiosity Gap
The Power of Silence
Facts as Weapons of Communication
Fact vs. Myths
The Power of Music
Physical Activity
Acknowledging a Person

How to Start a PowerPoint Presentation The Right Way

Let’s say you have all of your presentation slides polished up (in case you don’t, check our quick & effective PowerPoint presentation design tips first). Your presentation has a clear storyline and agenda. Main ideas are broken into bite-sized statements for your slides and complemented with visuals. All you have left is to figure out how you begin presenting.

The best way is to appeal to and invoke certain emotions in your audience – curiosity, surprise, fear, or good old amusements. Also, it is recommended to present your main idea in the first 30 seconds of the presentation. And here’s how it’s done.

1. The Classic Trick: Open a Presentation with an Introduction

When you don’t feel like reinventing the wheel, use a classic trick from the book – start with a quick personal introduction. Don’t want to sound as boring as everyone else with your humble “Hi, I’m John, the head of the Customer Support Department”? Great, because we are all about promoting effective presentation techniques (hint: using a dull welcome slide isn’t one of them).

Here’s how to introduce yourself in a presentation the right way.

a. Use a link-back memory formula

To ace a presentation, you need to connect with your audience. The best way to do so is by throwing in a simple story showing who you are, where you came from, and why your words matter.

The human brain loves a good story, and we are more inclined to listen and retain the information told this way. Besides, when we can relate to the narrator (or story hero), we create an emotional bond with them, and, again – become more receptive, and less skeptical of the information that is about to be delivered.

So here are your presentation introduction lines:

My name is Joanne, and I’m the Head of Marketing at company XYZ. Five years ago I was working as a waitress, earning $10/hour and collecting rejection letters from editors. About ten letters every week landed to my mailbox. You see, I love words, but decent publisher thought mine were good enough. Except for the restaurant owner. I was very good at up-selling and recommending dishes to the customers. My boss even bumped my salary to $15/hour as a token of appreciation for my skill. And this made me realize: I should ditch creative writing and focus on copywriting instead. After loads of trial and error back in the day, I learned how to write persuasive copy. I was no longer getting rejection letters. I was receiving thousands of emails saying that someone just bought another product from our company. My sales copy pages generated over $1,500,000 in revenue over last year. And I want to teach you how to do the same”

b. Test the Stereotype Formula

This one’s simple and effective as well. Introduce yourself by sharing an obvious stereotype about your profession. This cue will help you connect with your audience better, make them chuckle a bit, and set a lighter mood for the speech to follow.

Here’s how you can frame your intro:

“My name is ___, and I am a lead software engineer at our platform [Your Job Title]. And yes, I’m that nerdy type who never liked presenting in front of large groups of people. I would rather stay in my den and write code all day long. [Stereotype]. But hey, since I have mustered enough courage…let’s talk today about the new product features my team is about to release….”

After sharing a quick, self-deprecating line, you transition back to your topic, reinforcing the audience’s attention . Both of these formulas help you set the “mood” for your further presentation, so try using them interchangeably on different occasions.

2. Open a Presentation with a Hook

Wow your audience straight off the bat by sharing something they would not expect to hear. This may be one of the popular first-time presentation tips but don’t rush to discard it.

Because here’s the thing: psychologically , we are more inclined to pay attention whenever presented with an unexpected cue. When we know what will happen next – someone flips the switch, and lights turn on – we don’t really pay much attention to that action.

But when we don’t know what to expect next – e.g., someone flips the switch and a bell starts ringing – we are likely to pay more attention to what will happen next. The same goes for words: everyone loves stories with unpredictable twists. So begin your presentation with a PowerPoint introduction slide or a line that no one expects to hear.

Here are a few hook examples you can swipe:

a. Open with a provocative statement

It creates an instant jolt and makes the audience intrigued to hear what you are about to say next – pedal back, continue with the provocation, or do something else that they will not expect.

TED.com Jane McGonigal Ted Talk - This Game Will Give You 10 Years of Life

“You will live seven and a half minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just because you watched this talk.”

That’s how Jane McGonigal opens one of her TED talks . Shocking and intriguing, right?

b. Ask a rhetorical, thought-provoking question

Seasoned presenters know that one good practice is to ask a question at the beginning of a presentation to increase audience engagement. Rhetorical questions have a great persuasive effect – instead of answering aloud, your audience will silently start musing over it during your presentation. They aroused curiosity and motivated the audience to remain attentive, as they did want to learn your answer to this question.

To reinforce your message throughout the presentation, you can further use the Rhetorical Triangle Concept – a rhetorical approach to building a persuasive argument based on Aristotle’s teachings.

c. Use a bold number, factor stat

A clean slide with some mind-boggling stat makes an undeniably strong impact. Here are a few opening statement examples you can use along with your slide:

Shock them: “We are effectively wasting over $1.2 billion per year on producing clothes no one will ever purchase”
Create empathy: “Are you among the 20% of people with undiagnosed ADHD?”
Call to arms: “58% of marketing budgets are wasted due to poor landing page design. Let’s change this!”
Spark curiosity: “Did you know that companies who invested in speech recognition have seen a 13% increase in ROI within just 3 years?”

3. Begin with a Captivating Visual

Compelling visuals are the ABC of presentation design – use them strategically to make an interesting statement at the beginning and throughout your presentation. Your first presentation slide can be text-free. Communicate your idea with a visual instead – a photo, a chart, an infographic, or another graphics asset.

Visuals are a powerful medium for communication as our brain needs just 13 milliseconds to render what our eyes see, whereas text comprehension requires more cognitive effort.

Relevant images add additional aesthetic appeal to your deck, bolster the audience’s imagination, and make your key message instantly more memorable.

Here’s an intro slide example. You want to make a strong presentation introduction to global pollution. Use the following slide to reinforce the statement you share:

Our Iceberg Is Melting Concept with Penguins in an Iceberg

“Seven of nine snow samples taken on land in Antarctica found chemicals known as PFAs, which are used in industrial products and can harm wildlife”

Source: Reuters

4. Ask a “What if…” Question

The “what if” combo carries massive power. It gives your audience a sense of what will happen if they choose to listen to you and follow your advice. Here are a few presentations with starting sentences + slides to illustrate this option:

What if example with an Opening Slide for Presentation

Alternatively, you can work your way to this point using different questions:

Ask the audience about their “Why.” Why are they attending this event, or why do they find this topic relevant?
Use “How” as your question hook if you plan to introduce a potential solution to a problem.
If your presentation has a persuasion factor associated, use “When” as a question to trigger the interest of the audience on, for example, when they are planning to take action regarding the topic being presented (if we talk about an inspirational presentation).

What if technique analysis for a Financial topic

5. Use the Word “Imagine”

“Imagine,” “Picture This,” and “Think of” are better word choices for when you plan to begin your presentation with a quick story.

Our brain loves interacting with stories. In fact, a captivating story makes us more collaborative. Scientists have discovered that stories with tension during narrative make us:

Pay more attention,
Share emotions with the characters and even mimic the feelings and behaviors of those characters afterward.

That’s why good action movies often feel empowering and make us want to change the world too. By incorporating a good, persuasive story with a relatable hero, you can also create that “bond” with your audience and make them more perceptive to your pitch – donate money to support the cause; explore the solution you are offering, and so on.

6. Leverage The Curiosity Gap

The curiosity gap is another psychological trick frequently used by marketers to solicit more clicks, reads, and other interactions from the audience. In essence, it’s the trick you see behind all those clickbait, Buzzfeed-style headlines:

Curiosity Gap example clickbait Buzzfeed

Not everyone is a fan of such titles. But the truth is – they do the trick and instantly capture attention. The curiosity gap sparks our desire to dig deeper into the matter. We are explicitly told that we don’t know something important, and now we crave to change that. Curiosity is an incredibly strong driving force for action – think Eve, think Pandora’s Box.

So consider incorporating these attention grabbers for your presentation speech to shock the audience. You can open with one, or strategically weave them in the middle of your presentation when you feel like your audience is getting tired and may lose their focus.

Here’s how you can use the curiosity gap during your presentation:

Start telling a story, pause in the middle, and delay the conclusion of it.
Withhold the key information (e.g., the best solution to the problem you have described) for a bit – but not for too long, as this can reduce the initial curiosity.
Introduce an idea or concept and link it with an unexpected outcome or subject – this is the best opening for a presentation tip.

7. The Power of Silence

What would you do if you attended a presentation in which the speaker remains silent for 30 seconds after the presentation starts? Just the presenter, standing in front of the audience, in absolute silence.

Most likely, your mind starts racing with thoughts, expecting something of vital importance to be disclosed. The surprise factor with this effect is for us to acknowledge things we tend to take for granted.

It is a powerful resource to introduce a product or to start an inspirational presentation if followed by a fact.

8. Facts as Weapons of Communication

In some niches, using statistics as the icebreaker is the best method to retain the audience’s interest.

Say your presentation is about climate change. Why not introduce a not-so-common fact, such as the amount of wool that can be produced out of oceanic plastic waste per month? And since you have to base your introduction on facts, research manufacturers that work with Oceanic fabrics from recycled plastic bottles .

Using facts helps to build a better narrative, and also gives leverage to your presentation as you are speaking not just from emotional elements but from actually recorded data backed up by research.

9. Fact vs. Myths

Related to our previous point, we make quite an interesting speech if we contrast a fact vs. a myth in a non-conventional way: using a myth to question a well-accepted fact, then introducing a new point of view or theory, backed on sufficient research, that proves the fact wrong. This technique, when used in niches related to academia, can significantly increase the audience’s interest, and it will highlight your presentation as innovative.

Another approach is to debunk a myth using a fact. This contrast immediately piques interest because it promises to overturn commonly held beliefs, and people naturally find it compelling when their existing knowledge is put to the test. An example of this is when a nutritionist wishes to speak about how to lose weight via diet, and debunks the myth that all carbohydrates are “bad”.

10. The Power of Music

Think about a presentation that discusses the benefits of using alternative therapies to treat anxiety, reducing the need to rely on benzodiazepines. Rather than going technical and introducing facts, the presenter can play a soothing tune and invite the audience to follow an exercise that teaches how to practice breathing meditation . Perhaps, in less than 2 minutes, the presenter can accomplish the goal of exposing the advantages of this practice with a live case study fueled by the proper ambiance (due to the music played in the beginning).

11. Physical Activity

Let’s picture ourselves in an in-company presentation about workspace wellness. For this company, the sedentary lifestyle their employees engage in is a worrying factor, so they brought a personal trainer to coach the employees on a basic flexibility routine they can practice in 5 minutes after a couple of hours of desk time.

“Before we dive in, let’s all stand up for a moment.” This simple instruction breaks the ice and creates a moment of shared experience among the attendees. You could then lead them through a brief stretching routine, saying something like, “Let’s reach up high, and stretch out those muscles that get so tight sitting at our desks all day.” With this action, you’re not just talking about workplace wellness, you’re giving them a direct, personal experience of it.

This approach has several advantages. Firstly, it infuses energy into the room and increases the oxygen flow to the brain, potentially boosting the audience’s concentration and retention. Secondly, it sets a precedent that your presentation is not going to be a standard lecture, but rather an interactive experience. This can raise the level of anticipation for what’s to come, and make the presentation a topic for future conversation between coworkers.

12. Acknowledging a Person

How many times have you heard the phrase: “Before we begin, I’d like to dedicate a few words to …” . The speaker could be referring to a mentor figure, a prominent person in the local community, or a group of people who performed charity work or obtained a prize for their hard work and dedication. Whichever is the reason behind this, acknowledgment is a powerful force to use as a method of starting a presentation. It builds a connection with the audience, it speaks about your values and who you admire, and it can transmit what the conversation is going to be about based on who the acknowledged person is.

Closing Thoughts

Now you know how to start your presentation – you have the opening lines, you have the slides to use, and you can browse even more attractive PowerPoint presentation slides and templates on our website. Also, we recommend you visit our article on how to make a PowerPoint Presentation to get familiarized with the best tactics for professional presentation design and delivery, or if you need to save time preparing your presentation, we highly recommend you check our AI Presentation Maker to pair these concepts with cutting-edge slide design powered by AI.

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Curiosity Gap, Opening, Public Speaking, Rhetorical Triangle, Speech, What If Filed under Presentation Ideas

Filed under Presentation Ideas • September 5th, 2023

Persuasive Speech: Actionable Writing Tips and Sample Topics

Business professionals, students, and others can all benefit from learning the principles of persuasive speech. After all, the art of persuasion can be applied to any area of life where getting people to agree with you is important. In this article, we get into the basics of persuasive speaking, persuasive speech writing, and lastly persuasive speech topics.

Filed under Presentation Ideas • August 5th, 2023

How Parkinson’s Law Can Make Your Presentations Better

Sometimes even the best presenters procrastinate their work until the very last moment. And then, suddenly, they get a flow of ideas to complete their slide deck and present like they have been preparing for it for ages. However, doing so has drawbacks, as even professional presenters cannot always elude the side effects of […]

Filed under Presentation Ideas • April 29th, 2022

How to Become Great in Public Speaking: Presenting Best Practices

Public Speaking takes a lot of practice and grit, however, it also requires a method that can help you through your presentation. Explore more about this subject in this blog post.

5 Responses to “How to Start a Presentation: 5 Strong Opening Slides and 12 Tricks To Test”

I love to follow the ideas, it’s good for a freshman

Useful English phrases for a presentation

Presentations have the advantage that many standard phrases can be used at various points. Perhaps you wish to welcome the audience, introduce the speaker and the topic, outline the structure, offer a summary, or deal with questions. In all these situations, you can apply a number of useful expressions that will make your presentation a linguistic success.

At the beginning of each presentation, you should welcome your audience. Depending on who you are addressing, you should extend a more or less formal welcome.

Good morning/afternoon/evening, ladies and gentlemen/everyone.

On behalf of “Company X”, allow me to extend a warm welcome to you.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to “Name of the event”.

Introducing the speaker

The level of formality of your welcome address will also apply to how you introduce yourself. Customize it to match your audience.

Let me briefly introduce myself. My name is “John Miller” and I am delighted to be here today to talk to you about…

First, let me introduce myself. My name is “John Miller” and I am the “Position” of “Company X”.

I’m “John” from “Company Y” and today I’d like to talk to you about…

Introducing the topic

After the welcome address and the introduction of the speaker comes the presentation of the topic. Here are some useful introductory phrases.

Today I am here to talk to you about…

What I am going to talk about today is…

I would like to take this opportunity to talk to you about…

I am delighted to be here today to tell you about…

I want to make you a short presentation about…

I’d like to give you a brief breakdown of…

Explanation of goals

It is always recommended to present the goals of your presentation at the beginning. This will help the audience to understand your objectives.

The purpose of this presentation is…

My objective today is…

After presenting the topic and your objectives, give your listeners an overview of the presentation’s structure. Your audience will then know what to expect in detail.

My talk/presentation is divided into “x” parts.

I’ll start with…/First, I will talk about…/I’ll begin with…

…then I will look at…

and finally…

Starting point

After all this preparation, you can finally get started with the main part of the presentation. The following phrases will help you with that.

Let me start with some general information on…

Let me begin by explaining why/how…

I’d like to give you some background information about…

Before I start, does anyone know…

As you are all aware…

I think everybody has heard about…, but hardly anyone knows a lot about it.

End of a section

If you have completed a chapter or section of your presentation, inform your audience, so that they do not lose their train of thought.

That’s all I have to say about…

We’ve looked at…

So much for…

Interim conclusion

Drawing interim conclusions is of utmost importance in a presentation, particularly at the end of a chapter or section. Without interim conclusions, your audience will quickly forget everything you may have said earlier.

Let’s summarize briefly what we have looked at.

Here is a quick recap of the main points of this section.

I’d like to recap the main points.

Well, that’s about it for this part. We’ve covered…

Use one of the following phrases to move on from one chapter to the next.

I’d now like to move on to the next part…

This leads me to my next point, which is…

Turning our attention now to…

Let’s now turn to…

Frequently, you have to give examples in a presentation. The following phrases are useful in that respect.

For example,…

A good example of this is…

As an illustration,…

To give you an example,…

To illustrate this point…

In a presentation, you may often need to provide more details regarding a certain issue. These expressions will help you to do so.

I’d like to expand on this aspect/problem/point.

Let me elaborate further on…

If you want to link to another point in your presentation, the following phrases may come in handy.

As I said at the beginning,…

This relates to what I was saying earlier…

Let me go back to what I said earlier about…

This ties in with…

Reference to the starting point

In longer presentations, you run the risk that after a while the audience may forget your original topic and objective. Therefore, it makes sense to refer to the starting point from time to time.

I hope that you are a little clearer on how we can…

To return to the original question, we can…

Just to round the talk off, I want to go back to the beginning when I…

I hope that my presentation today will help with what I said at the beginning…

Reference to sources

In a presentation, you frequently have to refer to external sources, such as studies and surveys. Here are some useful phrases for marking these references.

Based on our findings,…

According to our study,…

Our data shows/indicates…

Graphs and images

Presentations are usually full of graphs and images. Use the following phrases to give your audience an understanding of your visuals.

Let me use a graphic to explain this.

I’d like to illustrate this point by showing you…

Let the pictures speak for themselves.

I think the graph perfectly shows how/that…

If you look at this table/bar chart/flow chart/line chart/graph, you can see that…

To ensure that your presentation does not sound monotonous, from time to time you should emphasize certain points. Here are some suggestions.

It should be emphasized that…

I would like to draw your attention to this point…

Another significant point is that…

The significance of this is…

This is important because…

We have to remember that…

At times it might happen that you expressed yourself unclearly and your audience did not understand your point. In such a case, you should paraphrase your argument using simpler language.

In other words,…

To put it more simply,…

What I mean to say is…

So, what I’m saying is….

To put it in another way….

Questions during the presentation

Questions are an integral part of a presentation. These phrases allow you to respond to questions during a presentation.

Does anyone have any questions or comments?

I am happy to answer your questions now.

Please feel free to interrupt me if you have questions.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Please stop me if you have any questions.

Do you have any questions before I move on?

If there are no further questions at this point, I’d like to…

Questions at the end of a presentation

To ensure that a presentation is not disrupted by questions, it is advisable to answer questions at the very end. Inform your audience about this by using these phrases.

There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.

I’ll gladly answer any of your questions at the end.

I’d be grateful if you could ask your questions after the presentation.

After answering a question from the audience, check that the addressee has understood your answer and is satisfied with it.

Does this answer your question?

Did I make myself clear?

I hope this explains the situation for you.

Unknown answer

Occasionally, it may happen that you do not have an answer to a question. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Simply use one of the following phrases to address the fact.

That’s an interesting question. I don’t actually know off the top of my head, but I’ll try to get back to you later with an answer.

I’m afraid I’m unable to answer that at the moment. Perhaps, I can get back to you later.

Good question. I really don’t know! What do you think?

That’s a very good question. However, I don’t have any figures on that, so I can’t give you an accurate answer.

Unfortunately, I’m not the best person to answer that.

Summary and conclusion

At the end of the presentation, you should summarize the important facts once again.

I’d like to conclude by…

In conclusion, let me sum up my main points.

Weighing the pros and cons, I come to the conclusion that…

That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thank you for listening/your attention.

Thank you all for listening. It was a pleasure being here today.

Well, that’s it from me. Thanks very much.

That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thanks for your attention.

Handing over

If you are not the only speaker, you can hand over to somebody else by using one of these phrases.

Now I will pass you over to my colleague ‘Jerry’.

‘Jerry’, the floor is yours.

We hope that our article will help you in preparing and holding your next presentation. It goes without saying that our list is just a small extract from the huge world of expressions and phrases. As always, the Internet is an inexhaustible source of further information. Here are the links to two websites that we would recommend to you in this context.

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What is the difference between American English (AE) and British English (BE)?

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Miscellaneous

Learn the Phrases to Start your Presentation

In this Business English lesson, you will learn how to structure your Presentation’s start.

You’ll also learn common Business English Phrases on ‘Starting a Presentation. Watch the lesson and read the article for definitions and examples.

Don’t forget to like and follow us on YouTube and LinkedIn .

How do I structure the start of my Presentation?

Firstly, you want to establish a rapport with your audience. So, you open proceedings by welcoming them.

You continue building rapport and momentum by introducing yourself.

You can then explain what subject matter/topic you will cover and why it is particularly relevant.

Finally, every Presentation has an objective which is the purpose of your Presentation. It’s at this point you bring this into play and relay this to your audience.

It’s good practice to follow a structure. It makes life easy for yourself, and it ensures your audience has direction and clarity.

It’s also useful to know the Phrases for starting your Presentation. I’m going to teach you these now.

Phrases to Welcome your Audience

“ Hi/Hello everyone.’

“Good morning/Good afternoon, everyone.”

“I’m delighted to welcome you all here today.”

“Thank you for attending today.”

“It’s great to see so many people in the room today.”

Phrases to Introduce Yourself

“ Allow me to introduce myself. My name’s [Rick Singleton.]”

“Some of you may already know me. I’m [Rick Singleton.]”

“I’m the [Head of Product Design.]”

“I’m here today in my role of [Head of Product Design.]”

Phrases to Introduce your Subject Matter

“Today, I’m going to be talking about [Subject Matter.]”

“The Subject/Topic today is …”

“This Presentation focuses on [Subject Matter.]”

“I’d like to present today on [Subject Matter.]

Phrases to Explain the Relevance of the Subject Matter

“It’s an important subject for you/us because…”

“Today’s subject is of special interest to those of you/us who…”

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

Phrases to Explain your Objective

“The aim/purpose/objective of this presentation is to…”

“Today, I’d like to give you an overview of…”|

“During the next [25 minutes,] we’ll be….”

“This [morning] I’m going to be talking to you about…”

LESSON END.

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman (St. Martin’s Press).

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15 Powerful Speech Opening Lines (And How to Create Your Own)

Hrideep barot.

Public Speaking , Speech Writing

Powerful speech opening lines set the tone and mood of your speech. It’s what grips the audience to want to know more about the rest of your talk.

The first few seconds are critical. It’s when you have maximum attention of the audience. And you must capitalize on that!

Instead of starting off with something plain and obvious such as a ‘Thank you’ or ‘Good Morning’, there’s so much more you can do for a powerful speech opening (here’s a great article we wrote a while ago on how you should NOT start your speech ).

To help you with this, I’ve compiled some of my favourite openings from various speakers. These speakers have gone on to deliver TED talks , win international Toastmaster competitions or are just noteworthy people who have mastered the art of communication.

After each speaker’s opening line, I have added how you can include their style of opening into your own speech. Understanding how these great speakers do it will certainly give you an idea to create your own speech opening line which will grip the audience from the outset!

Alright! Let’s dive into the 15 powerful speech openings…

Note: Want to take your communications skills to the next level? Book a complimentary consultation with one of our expert communication coaches. We’ll look under the hood of your hurdles and pick two to three growth opportunities so you can speak with impact!

1. Ric Elias

Opening: “Imagine a big explosion as you climb through 3,000 ft. Imagine a plane full of smoke. Imagine an engine going clack, clack, clack. It sounds scary. Well I had a unique seat that day. I was sitting in 1D.”

How to use the power of imagination to open your speech?

Putting your audience in a state of imagination can work extremely well to captivate them for the remainder of your talk.

It really helps to bring your audience in a certain mood that preps them for what’s about to come next. Speakers have used this with high effectiveness by transporting their audience into an imaginary land to help prove their point.

When Ric Elias opened his speech, the detail he used (3000 ft, sound of the engine going clack-clack-clack) made me feel that I too was in the plane. He was trying to make the audience experience what he was feeling – and, at least in my opinion, he did.

When using the imagination opening for speeches, the key is – detail. While we want the audience to wander into imagination, we want them to wander off to the image that we want to create for them. So, detail out your scenario if you’re going to use this technique.

Make your audience feel like they too are in the same circumstance as you were when you were in that particular situation.

2. Barack Obama

Opening: “You can’t say it, but you know it’s true.”

3. Seth MacFarlane

Opening: “There’s nowhere I would rather be on a day like this than around all this electoral equipment.” (It was raining)

How to use humour to open your speech?

When you use humour in a manner that suits your personality, it can set you up for a great speech. Why? Because getting a laugh in the first 30 seconds or so is a great way to quickly get the audience to like you.

And when they like you, they are much more likely to listen to and believe in your ideas.

Obama effortlessly uses his opening line to entice laughter among the audience. He brilliantly used the setting (the context of Trump becoming President) and said a line that completely matched his style of speaking.

Saying a joke without really saying a joke and getting people to laugh requires you to be completely comfortable in your own skin. And that’s not easy for many people (me being one of them).

If the joke doesn’t land as expected, it could lead to a rocky start.

Keep in mind the following when attempting to deliver a funny introduction:

Know your audience: Make sure your audience gets the context of the joke (if it’s an inside joke among the members you’re speaking to, that’s even better!). You can read this article we wrote where we give you tips on how you can actually get to know your audience better to ensure maximum impact with your speech openings
The joke should suit your natural personality. Don’t make it look forced or it won’t elicit the desired response
Test the opening out on a few people who match your real audience. Analyze their response and tweak the joke accordingly if necessary
Starting your speech with humour means your setting the tone of your speech. It would make sense to have a few more jokes sprinkled around the rest of the speech as well as the audience might be expecting the same from you

4. Mohammed Qahtani

Opening: Puts a cigarette on his lips, lights a lighter, stops just before lighting the cigarette. Looks at audience, “What?”

5. Darren Tay

Opening: Puts a white pair of briefs over his pants.

How to use props to begin your speech?

The reason props work so well in a talk is because in most cases the audience is not expecting anything more than just talking. So when a speaker pulls out an object that is unusual, everyone’s attention goes right to it.

It makes you wonder why that prop is being used in this particular speech.

The key word here is unusual . To grip the audience’s attention at the beginning of the speech, the prop being used should be something that the audience would never expect. Otherwise, it just becomes something that is common. And common = boring!

What Mohammed Qahtani and Darren Tay did superbly well in their talks was that they used props that nobody expected them to.

By pulling out a cigarette and lighter or a white pair of underwear, the audience can’t help but be gripped by what the speaker is about to do next. And that makes for a powerful speech opening.

6. Simon Sinek

Opening: “How do you explain when things don’t go as we assume? Or better, how do you explain when others are able to achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions?”

7. Julian Treasure

Opening: “The human voice. It’s the instrument we all play. It’s the most powerful sound in the world. Probably the only one that can start a war or say “I love you.” And yet many people have the experience that when they speak people don’t listen to them. Why is that? How can we speak powerfully to make change in the world?”

How to use questions to open a speech?

I use this method often. Starting off with a question is the simplest way to start your speech in a manner that immediately engages the audience.

But we should keep our questions compelling as opposed to something that is fairly obvious.

I’ve heard many speakers start their speeches with questions like “How many of us want to be successful?”

No one is going to say ‘no’ to that and frankly, I just feel silly raising my hand at such questions.

Simon Sinek and Jullian Treasure used questions in a manner that really made the audience think and make them curious to find out what the answer to that question is.

What Jullian Treasure did even better was the use of a few statements which built up to his question. This made the question even more compelling and set the theme for what the rest of his talk would be about.

So think of what question you can ask in your speech that will:

Set the theme for the remainder of your speech
Not be something that is fairly obvious
Be compelling enough so that the audience will actually want to know what the answer to that question will be

8. Aaron Beverley

Opening: Long pause (after an absurdly long introduction of a 57-word speech title). “Be honest. You enjoyed that, didn’t you?”

How to use silence for speech openings?

The reason this speech opening stands out is because of the fact that the title itself is 57 words long. The audience was already hilariously intrigued by what was going to come next.

But what’s so gripping here is the way Aaron holds the crowd’s suspense by…doing nothing. For about 10 to 12 seconds he did nothing but stand and look at the audience. Everyone quietened down. He then broke this silence by a humorous remark that brought the audience laughing down again.

When going on to open your speech, besides focusing on building a killer opening sentence, how about just being silent?

It’s important to keep in mind that the point of having a strong opening is so that the audience’s attention is all on you and are intrigued enough to want to listen to the rest of your speech.

Silence is a great way to do that. When you get on the stage, just pause for a few seconds (about 3 to 5 seconds) and just look at the crowd. Let the audience and yourself settle in to the fact that the spotlight is now on you.

I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something about starting the speech off with a pure pause that just makes the beginning so much more powerful. It adds credibility to you as a speaker as well, making you look more comfortable and confident on stage.

If you want to know more about the power of pausing in public speaking , check out this post we wrote. It will give you a deeper insight into the importance of pausing and how you can harness it for your own speeches. You can also check out this video to know more about Pausing for Public Speaking:

9. Dan Pink

Opening: “I need to make a confession at the outset here. Little over 20 years ago, I did something that I regret. Something that I’m not particularly proud of. Something that in many ways I wish no one would ever know but that here I feel kind of obliged to reveal.”

10. Kelly McGonigal

Opening: “I have a confession to make. But first I want you to make a little confession to me.”

How to use a build-up to open your speech?

When there are so many amazing ways to start a speech and grip an audience from the outset, why would you ever choose to begin your speech with a ‘Good morning?’.

That’s what I love about build-ups. They set the mood for something awesome that’s about to come in that the audience will feel like they just have to know about.

Instead of starting a speech as it is, see if you can add some build-up to your beginning itself. For instance, in Kelly McGonigal’s speech, she could have started off with the question of stress itself (which she eventually moves on to in her speech). It’s not a bad way to start the speech.

But by adding the statement of “I have a confession to make” and then not revealing the confession for a little bit, the audience is gripped to know what she’s about to do next and find out what indeed is her confession.

11. Tim Urban

Opening: “So in college, I was a government major. Which means that I had to write a lot of papers. Now when a normal student writes a paper, they might spread the work out a little like this.”

12. Scott Dinsmore

Opening: “8 years ago, I got the worst career advice of my life.”

How to use storytelling as a speech opening?

“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller.” Steve Jobs

Storytelling is the foundation of good speeches. Starting your speech with a story is a great way to grip the audience’s attention. It makes them yearn to want to know how the rest of the story is going to pan out.

Tim Urban starts off his speech with a story dating back to his college days. His use of slides is masterful and something we all can learn from. But while his story sounds simple, it does the job of intriguing the audience to want to know more.

As soon as I heard the opening lines, I thought to myself “If normal students write their paper in a certain manner, how does Tim write his papers?”

Combine such a simple yet intriguing opening with comedic slides, and you’ve got yourself a pretty gripping speech.

Scott Dismore’s statement has a similar impact. However, just a side note, Scott Dismore actually started his speech with “Wow, what an honour.”

I would advise to not start your talk with something such as that. It’s way too common and does not do the job an opening must, which is to grip your audience and set the tone for what’s coming.

13. Larry Smith

Opening: “I want to discuss with you this afternoon why you’re going to fail to have a great career.”

14. Jane McGonigal

Opening: “You will live 7.5 minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just because you watched this talk.”

How to use provocative statements to start your speech?

Making a provocative statement creates a keen desire among the audience to want to know more about what you have to say. It immediately brings everyone into attention.

Larry Smith did just that by making his opening statement surprising, lightly humorous, and above all – fearful. These elements lead to an opening statement which creates so much curiosity among the audience that they need to know how your speech pans out.

This one time, I remember seeing a speaker start a speech with, “Last week, my best friend committed suicide.” The entire crowd was gripped. Everyone could feel the tension in the room.

They were just waiting for the speaker to continue to know where this speech will go.

That’s what a hard-hitting statement does, it intrigues your audience so much that they can’t wait to hear more! Just a tip, if you do start off with a provocative, hard-hitting statement, make sure you pause for a moment after saying it.

Silence after an impactful statement will allow your message to really sink in with the audience.

Related article: 5 Ways to Grab Your Audience’s Attention When You’re Losing it!

15. Ramona J Smith

Opening: In a boxing stance, “Life would sometimes feel like a fight. The punches, jabs and hooks will come in the form of challenges, obstacles and failures. Yet if you stay in the ring and learn from those past fights, at the end of each round, you’ll be still standing.”

How to use your full body to grip the audience at the beginning of your speech?

In a talk, the audience is expecting you to do just that – talk. But when you enter the stage and start putting your full body into use in a way that the audience does not expect, it grabs their attention.

Body language is critical when it comes to public speaking. Hand gestures, stage movement, facial expressions are all things that need to be paid attention to while you’re speaking on stage. But that’s not I’m talking about here.

Here, I’m referring to a unique use of the body that grips the audience, like how Ramona did. By using her body to get into a boxing stance, imitating punches, jabs and hooks with her arms while talking – that’s what got the audience’s attention.

The reason I say this is so powerful is because if you take Ramona’s speech and remove the body usage from her opening, the entire magic of the opening falls flat.

While the content is definitely strong, without those movements, she would not have captured the audience’s attention as beautifully as she did with the use of her body.

So if you have a speech opening that seems slightly dull, see if you can add some body movement to it.

If your speech starts with a story of someone running, actually act out the running. If your speech starts with a story of someone reading, actually act out the reading.

It will make your speech opening that much more impactful.

Related article: 5 Body Language Tips to Command the Stage

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Final Words

So there it is! 15 speech openings from some of my favourite speeches. Hopefully, these will act as a guide for you to create your own opening which is super impactful and sets you off on the path to becoming a powerful public speaker!

But remember, while a speech opening is super important, it’s just part of an overall structure.

If you’re serious about not just creating a great speech opening but to improve your public speaking at an overall level, I would highly recommend you to check out this course: Acumen Presents: Chris Anderson on Public Speaking on Udemy. Not only does it have specific lectures on starting and ending a speech, but it also offers an in-depth guide into all the nuances of public speaking.

Being the founder of TED Talks, Chris Anderson provides numerous examples of the best TED speakers to give us a very practical way of overcoming stage fear and delivering a speech that people will remember. His course has helped me personally and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to learn public speaking.

No one is ever “done” learning public speaking. It’s a continuous process and you can always get better. Keep learning, keep conquering and keep being awesome!

Lastly, if you want to know how you should NOT open your speech, we’ve got a video for you:

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10 Tips for a Persuasive Presentation

Powerful presentation is persuasion. here's how to elevate your impact..

Posted May 11, 2024 | Reviewed by Ray Parker

Presentations aim to effect change. It's essential to be clear about what change you want to see.
Powerful presenters embrace and extend empathy to seek first to understand their audience.
Substance and style both matter to create an audience-informed communication experience.
Persuasive presentations are relevant, reasoned, real, and resonant.

How many of us realize that giving a presentation or making a speech is all about persuasion , influence, and emotional intelligence ? Impactful presenters understand the power of empathy to understand and engage their audience, the efficiency and kindness of having a clear objective and message, and the importance of substance and style—all as a way to connect in a way that engages and inspires.

Much has been written on the power and behavioral science of persuasion, not least by expert Robert Cialdini. His bestselling book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion explains seven research-based universal principles of influence .

From my experience as a leadership coach working with thousands of people worldwide, I have compiled a list of ten essentials to elevate our presentation.

1. Maintain an "other" focus. What do you know about your audience and how can you find out more? Ask yourself what kind of a speaker will appeal to your audience, what arguments are likely to resonate with them, and what feelings you want to inspire so the audience will positively respond to your ask.

If your audience is predominantly data-driven, you may want to use more evidence-based arguments. If the audience is mixed, a combination of data, authority, and storytelling may be more appropriate. Extend Daniel Goleman’s three types of empathy to gather intelligence , understand your audience, and tailor your intervention to connect more profoundly.

2. Determine a specific objective. Presentations aim to effect change in some way. What change do you want to see in your audience?

For instance, gaining their approval for a certain investment, soliciting their buy-in for a change, or creating a sense of enthusiasm for an idea or initiative. The purpose of a presentation is to bring about change so make sure you are clear on what kind of change you want to bring about.

3. Design a grabber. Our attention spans have shrunk as we have more and more competing demands on our attention . If you want to get someone’s attention, you need to grab it at the outset and try and hold on.

You can do this in several different ways. Throw out a question that demands a response from the audience. Give a surprising fact or statistic, or quote from a well-known figure. Tell a story or an anecdote. A good grabber captures the attention of everyone there and makes them focus on what you have to say.

4. Crystalize your message and construct your arguments. Your message is the heart of your speech. Craft a brief phrase that clearly defines your proposal in 10-12 words—for example, “This post is about crafting presentations that inspire and engage others to elevate their presentations.”

Make it memorable by choosing inspiring words, symbols, catchy expressions, something that will remain in the audience's mind. As Brené Brown says: “Clear is kind,” and a clear message provides a path to develop your ideas.

When you have a clear and concise message, it helps you formulate your arguments. Think of developing your arguments using the rule of three —three compelling arguments to convince but not overwhelm your audience.

5. Prepare a call to action. Remember, we want to change our audience in some way, so we need to make our ask clearly and concretely. Consider your call to action in terms of what you want your audience to think/feel/do:

Think: “I want you to think about how you can improve your presentations.”
Feel: “I want you to feel enthusiastic and motivated so that you can elevate your power to persuade.”
Do: “I want you to try out some of these tips and tools for yourself.”

6. Craft a memorable closing. Close the speech in an elegant and memorable way. We need people to remember what we've told them, so prepare it well.

This is not the time to improvise. Try to connect your closing to your opening grabber, which makes the presentation more memorable. Good preparation means preparing everything to the very end—finish well.

7. Plan your delivery. A dynamic speaker draws listeners in by using vocal variety (tone, intonation, speed, volume, pace, pauses, silence) and body language (posture, gestures, expression, and movement) to highlight important points and hold the audience’s attention. Be intentional: How will you use your voice and your body to emphasize a thought or idea? Think about it: If you increased the time you spent on style or delivery by 20 percent, what would it mean for the impact you make?

8. Think about how you will engage your audience. You want the audience to feel considered throughout. Include pauses so they can process what’s being said; connect with individuals throughout the room and make deliberate eye contact while speaking, especially when delivering key points. Read and respond to the audience by changing how you deliver as you go based on the audience’s nonverbal communication .

9. Rehearse and practice. Practice is one of the most crucial elements of presenting—and probably the most neglected one. If this is new to you, start by reading your presentation in front of a mirror to get comfortable speaking your presentation.

Next, video yourself and watch out for nervous or distracting habits to eliminate them and identify any areas where you can improve your delivery. If you are feeling brave, practice in front of an audience and ask for feedback.

10. Prepare your success rituals and mantra. Public speaking and/or stage fright can feel debilitating for some. Have your calm-down ritual prepared and ready to go before you start your presentation. This might be a certain gesture, a power pose, breathwork, or a mantra.

Try this tip: Identify three adjectives to describe how you would like to show up during this presentation. This sets an intention and helps focus our cognitive and emotional resources on success.

Powerful presenters embrace and extend empathy to seek first to understand their audience. They use this intelligence to carefully make choices about substance and style to create an audience-informed communication experience that feels relevant, reasoned, real, and resonant and creates a pathway for change.

Palena Neale, Ph.D. , is a women’s leadership coach, lecturer, and founder of unabridged, a boutique leadership development practice.

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Wordle Tips: The Very Best Start Words, Tips and Strategies

Learn to use your six guesses most effectively and keep your streak alive.

Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.

Winning Wordle is tricky but start words are key. "ADIEU" has been popular since the beginning and that makes sense, since it includes four vowels. But not everyone wants to know the vowels right away.

On the day that the wordle answer is ‘adieu’ social media will implode — vasili (@mockdownblues) January 20, 2022

Want some statistically supported help? I consulted with the people behind the Oxford English Dictionary, who shared an analysis they did showing which letters are most frequently used in English words. Here's the entire alphabet ranked by frequent use .

Use the list, share it, bookmark it, whatever you'd like to do. It will surprise absolutely no one that A and E are the top two. But I was shocked that J was the second-lowest, right in front of Q.

Lately I've been starting Wordle with the one-two punch of "TRAIN" and "CLOSE." That combo uses every single one of the top 10 letters, and it almost always leaves me with a decent group of correct guesses -- though not always in the right spots. That's what guesses three through six are for.

Check out this CNET TikTok , which recommends starting with ADIEU and then throwing in STORY. It's a great one-two punch that covers a lot of popular letters. The first time I tried it out, I was able to use the letter info I gained from those guesses to get the word easily on my third attempt.

I asked more CNET staffers, past and present, to share their Wordle strategies and favorite starting words. Hope it gives you a BOOST or maybe a NUDGE.

Big AUDIO dynamite

AUDIO. Get 4 out of 5 vowels out of the way immediately and focus on narrowing down consonants. Don't be afraid to deviate from your regular starter word, though -- sometimes a random word that pops into your head ends up being way more intuitive than you could have ever imagined. -- Ashley Esqueda

A blank STARE

My go-to is STARE. I'm inspired a little by the Wheel of Fortune move of guessing RSTLNE first, and with this, I also knock off two vowels. At the very least, this often seems to give me something on the board early. -- Eli Blumenthal

I cycle through TEARY, PIOUS and ADIEU as a first word, to knock out some common letters and make inroads with vowels. I then choose my next word based on the results, though sometimes I just throw up my hands and use both TEARY and PIOUS one after the other no matter what. -- Amanda Kooser

MAKER's mark

MAKER. That word puts me in the mood to 'create' the answer based on the data I get from knocking out the above letter combo. Then I move on to animal names like TIGER. It's not so much tactical as it is about just having fun for five or so minutes. -- Mike Sorrentino

Use weird words

You aren't playing Wordle correctly if you use the same word to start every day. That's my official rule and I'm flabbergasted y'all use the same word each day. What? Use weird words. Grab a dictionary, close your eyes and flick to a random page. Start with YACHT one day, try ULCER the next. Look around the room! TOAST? Why not? Just do it! Come on, people. It's not about clearing each day in the least amount of moves, it's about learning to love yourself . -- Jackson Ryan

CHEAT, and try the NYT Spelling Bee

I've been playing around with using FIRST, MANIC or CHEAT to start with. I don't know if that says more about my frame of mind than my word solving skills, but this approach has pretty much led to me solving within three words. (I got PANIC the other day in two!) But I have to say that while I enjoy Wordle, I'm still a bigger fan of the NYT's Spelling Bee , where you're asked to create words using seven letters, and each word has to use the letter at the center of the puzzle. I play Spelling Bee with my husband (he gets half the points to Genius; I get the other half). With Wordle, we play against each other to see who can solve faster. So Spelling Bee just seems nicer. -- Connie Guglielmo

Wheel good plan

First, I make sure to do it before my morning coffee, for an added layer of difficulty. I don't have a go-to word, since that feels sorta cheap, but I do generally aim for initial words that are high in either vowel count or the good old-fashioned Wheel of Fortune letters: RSTLNE. If it works for Pat Sajak's crew, it's good enough for me. -- Andrew Krok

An argument for ADIEU

I've been using ADIEU from day one. Hilariously, I still sometimes misspell it. Sometimes to shake things up -- mostly based on pressure from Jackson Ryan -- I'll try something different. But every time I stray from ADIEU, it manifests into a gigantic uphill struggle I barely recover from. Either way, I dunno what we're all arguing about. Someone did an experiment on this. The best word is ROATE . -- Mark Serrels

I steal Mark's word, ADIEU, and follow it up with STORY. Then it's just a matter of putting all the letters I uncovered into the spots I think they're in, and banging my head on the table, saying, "I'm not this stupid, am I?" until I figure it out. -- Oscar Gonzalez

The first word you think of

I'm a high-risk, high-reward Wordle player. I truly pick the first word that pops into my mind, with absolutely no strategy whatsoever. Aside from this being the purest form of Wordling (as the experts say, obviously), when I'm lucky enough to accidentally guess three or four of five letters correctly, it's immensely satisfying. -- Monisha Ravisetti

Not easy being green

TREAD is a winner, but I like to mix up my first word. That said, I always have a few first-guess rules. At least two vowels. Never use an S. (That S guess will come in handy down the track when you realize you're incredibly dim-witted and you can only think of four-letter guesses. Final rule: Your second guess should never include your greens from guess one (unless you're on hard mode). Save those greens for later and throw five new letter guesses into the mix. If I see you post a Wordle answer on Twitter that has tall green columns of letters staying in the same place, I will judge you. -- Claire Reilly

Guess it in two

My ultimate goal in Wordle is to guess the word by my second try. To that end, I use STEAR as my first word, which provides a solid set of letters in unusual positions -- so I can often predict where they'll go if they turn up yellow. From there, I make aggressive guesses, even if they're strategically inadvisable (duplicate letters, few vowels, low-likelihood letters, etc.). Since starting this strategy, my average is about the same as ever, but now I occasionally win in two guesses. So, success? - -David Priest

Don't fail

I don't believe in strategies. Pick the word that speaks to you most in the morning and follow your heart. Starting with a tactically effective word makes it too easy anyway. So what if you fail? It's just Wordle! (But I would like to make it clear that I never fail, not even when there's an X in the word.) -- Sarah McDermott

Read more : Over Wordle? Try One of These Other Puzzle Games

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IMAGES

50 Powerful Quotes To Start Your Presentation
37 Useful Phrases For Presentations In English • Study Advanced English
37 Useful Phrases For Presentations In English • Study Advanced English
Useful phrase for presentation
Phrases to help the audience understand your presentation
USEFUL PHRASES IN PRESENTATIONS

VIDEO

good phrases for the English
English Phrases start with "Get"
Presentation Phrases: What NOT to Say in a Presentation
How to start a presentation
Presentation Skills
Daily video vocabulary -- Episode 51

COMMENTS

How to Start a Presentation: 5 Templates and 90 Example Phrases
11. "Let's embark on a journey through our discussion on…". 12. "I'm delighted to have the chance to share my insights on…". 13. "Thank you for the opportunity to present to such an esteemed audience on…". 14. "Let's set the stage for an engaging discussion about…". 15.
35 Powerful Presentation Phrases in English for Engaging Your ...
Try Parrot for Free. 35 Powerful Presentation Phrases in English for Engaging Your Audience. by Ima Ocon. Your palms are sweating. For a moment, your mind goes blank. All eyes are on you. That moment right before you start presenting - as you take in your audience - is usually the scariest. The nervousness lessens with practice, but even ...
52 Phrases for Better Flowing English Presentations
Here are some phrases which you can use to structure the introduction in this way: Introduce. 1. Good morning/afternoon (everyone) (ladies and gentlemen). 2. It's a pleasure to welcome (the President) here. 3. I'm … (the Director of …) Introduce the presentation topic.
101 Must-Know Transition Phrases for Engaging Presentations ...
General vocabulary for presentations. Sometimes, the smallest changes in your presentations can make the biggest differences. One of them is to learn a few phrases that give you confidence during your speech. Here are some important verbs to get you started: To outline. To clarify. To highlight. To emphasize.
Updated for 2024
Hopefully, these phrases help you to vary your vocabulary for clear, well-structured presentations with a logical joined-up flow. The most important thing, of course, is that you are comfortable and confident in your delivery, which helps the audience feels relaxed and ready to be engaged by your subject matter. Good luck!
25 English Presentation Phrases to Impress Your Audience
Use these phrases to tell the interview that you'll be giving them a more detailed explanation are the topic. Both the words 'expand' and 'elaborate' mean to explain more fully. Tips Required A Good English Speech. Clarity. 2. Pace Band. Page 3. Content : Presentation Phrases in English. 3. REFERENCE TO TO. STARTING POINT. REFERENCE ...
25 English Presentation Phrases
Use these phrases to get started. 4. Let me start by giving you some background information. Use this phrase to give your audience a brief overview of the topic you'll be discussing. This is a good way to give them an idea of what's going on and to bring them up to date. 5.
How To Start a Presentation: 15 Ways to Set the Stage
Here are some effective presentation starting words and phrases that can help you grab your audience's attention and set the stage for a captivating presentation: ... While an introduction for a presentation sets the tone for your speech, a good slide complements your spoken words, helping the audience better understand and remember your ...
How to Start a Presentation [+ Examples]
4. Keep it short and sweet. While it's important not to rush through the start of your presentation, keeping your opening concise is equally important. But remember, concise does not mean sacrificing substance; it simply means delivering information efficiently.
Professional english Presentation Phrases & Structure
The general structure of a presentation is the following: It is up to you to design these three parts. Using videos or everyday-examples can be a great way to introduce the audience to the topic. The important thing is that you capture the audience's attention from the beginning by making an interesting introduction.
How to Start a Presentation (+ Useful Phrases)
Tip #8: Ask questions. Once you start researching public speakers, you'll find that many of them engage their audience by asking questions. It goes back to the concept of "hooking" your audience. According to Joseph Liu: "The best way to start a presentation is with a hook.
How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]
Apply the 10-20-30 rule. Apply the 10-20-30 presentation rule and keep it short, sweet and impactful! Stick to ten slides, deliver your presentation within 20 minutes and use a 30-point font to ensure clarity and focus. Less is more, and your audience will thank you for it! 9. Implement the 5-5-5 rule. Simplicity is key.
How to Start a Presentation: 12 Ways to Keep Your Audience Hooked
1 Make a provocative statement. "I want to discuss with you this afternoonwhy you're going to fail to have a great career." One surefire way to get your audience's attention is to make a provocative statement that creates interest and a keen desire to know more about what you have to say. The presentation above, for example, does just that by ...
7 Creative Ways to Start Any Presentation (With Examples!)
Going back to how to start a presentation, comparing specific ideas is a waste of time. Using hyperlinks, you can offer your audience a "video game" theme. Step 4: Play Short Video or Create GIFS. Before or after spiels about a particular slide, play a short video as an icebreaker.
150+ Essential Business Presentation Phrases (+ 8 Tips)
If you need more specific vocabulary, like for a presentation to the board, your manager, or a client on their finances, check out our blog post on the most common English for accounting vocabulary. 4. Prepare some visual aids. These days, most people use a slide deck when presenting business ideas.
50 Powerful Quotes To Start Your Presentation
50 Powerful Quotes To Start Your Presentation: 1) "The secret of getting ahead is getting started.". - Mark Twain. 2) "Yesterday's home runs don't win today's games.". - Babe Ruth. 3) "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.". - Albert Einstein. 4) "If you're too comfortable, it's ...
Useful phrases for giving a presentation in English
When giving a presentation in English, you need to make sure you're prepared. This means planning what you will say and organising your visual presentation. Giving a presentation in English can be challenging, but with these helpful phrases, you can feel confident and ready to make a good presentation in English. Starting your presentation
How to Start a Presentation: 5 Strong Opening Slides and ...
Financial PowerPoint Template with Calculator by SlideModel. 5. Use the Word "Imagine". "Imagine," "Picture This," and "Think of" are better word choices for when you plan to begin your presentation with a quick story. Our brain loves interacting with stories. In fact, a captivating story makes us more collaborative.
Useful English phrases for a presentation
Here are some useful introductory phrases. Today I am here to talk to you about…. What I am going to talk about today is…. I would like to take this opportunity to talk to you about…. I am delighted to be here today to tell you about…. I want to make you a short presentation about…. I'd like to give you a brief breakdown of….
Learn the Phrases to Start your Presentation
It's good practice to follow a structure. It makes life easy for yourself, and it ensures your audience has direction and clarity. It's also useful to know the Phrases for starting your Presentation. I'm going to teach you these now. Phrases to Welcome your Audience "Hi/Hello everyone.' "Good morning/Good afternoon, everyone."
What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation
Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired ...
15 Powerful Speech Opening Lines (And How to Create Your Own)
Analyze their response and tweak the joke accordingly if necessary. Starting your speech with humour means your setting the tone of your speech. It would make sense to have a few more jokes sprinkled around the rest of the speech as well as the audience might be expecting the same from you. 4. Mohammed Qahtani.
10 Tips for a Persuasive Presentation
4. Crystalize your message and construct your arguments. Your message is the heart of your speech. Craft a brief phrase that clearly defines your proposal in 10-12 words—for example, "This ...
Wordle Tips: The Very Best Start Words, Tips and Strategies
Wheel good plan. First, I make sure to do it before my morning coffee, for an added layer of difficulty. I don't have a go-to word, since that feels sorta cheap, but I do generally aim for initial ...

How to Start a Presentation: 5 Templates and 90 Example Phrases

Effective Openers: 5 Templates

1. Storytelling Approach

Example Introduction Template 1:

2. Quotation Strategy

Example Introduction Template 2:

3. Questioning Technique

Example Introduction Template 3:

4. Statistical Hook

Example Introduction Template 4:

5. Anecdotal Method

Example Introduction Template 5:

How to Start a Powerpoint Presentation: 45 Example Phrases

Starting a Presentation: 45 Examples

Building Credibility

Projecting Confidence

Organizational Preview

Outlining the Main Points

Setting the Tone

Explaining the Structure

Practice and Preparation

Rehearsing the Opening

Memorizing Key Points

Managing Presentation Jitters

Engagement Strategies

1. Encouraging Audience Participation

2. Utilizing Pacing and Pauses

How should one introduce their group during a presentation?

35 Powerful Presentation Phrases in English for Engaging Your Audience

Delivering a Powerful Presentation

Consider the audience

Prepare a structure

Key Business Phrases

Introduction

Greeting the audience

Describing your topic

Addressing questions and technical concerns

Giving examples

Showing visuals

Citing data

Restating an idea

Handling technical issues

Concluding the Presentation

Summarizing the presentation

Thanking the audience

Addressing questions

Practice is Crucial

Do a run-through

Record yourself

Presenting on Video Call

52 Phrases for Better Flowing English Presentations

52 Phrases to Improve the Flow of Your English Presentations

Main Body

Listing and Sequencing

Author: Steven Hobson

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101 Must-Know Transition Phrases for Engaging Presentations Online

General vocabulary for presentations

Vocabulary to start your presentation

Welcome your audience

Introduce yourself

Introduce the topic and goal of the presentation

Addressing questions from the audience

Clear out technical issues

Transition to the main topic of the presentation

Vocabulary for the main body of your presentation

Transition to a new section

Give examples and details

Describe visual aids

Emphasize an idea

Repeat the same message with different words

Finish your presentation and summarize

Start and navigate the Q&A session

Take your presentation skills to the next level.

Talaera Talks - Transcript Episode 5

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