Every presentation
has three parts: Introduction, Body and Conclusion. Both the Introduction
and the Conclusion should start or end, respectively, with an attention-getting
opener that gets the audience's attention at the beginning and gives
them something to think about at the conclusion.
For example, I once
spoke to a group of building contractors in an attempt to solicit their
support for workers compensation legislation. As you will learn elsewhere
in this section, if you want your audience to take action, you must
appeal to them from their perspective, not yours...in other words, WIIFM.
Therefore, when
each attendee came into the room, they were randomly given a blue card
and a red card in a 2:1 ratio. They were not told what the cards were
for, but they were to hang onto them until later in the program. When
my topic and I were introduced, I asked everyone with a red card to
stand up. I then made the direct statement that that's how many of them
would be out of business within five years if this legislation was not
passed...but I was going to tell them what they could do to prevent
this from happening (problem/solution). Think that got their attention?
You'd better believe it! And, I had a rapt audience for the next 20
minutes.
Copyright
1999-2000 by William C. Wilson, Jr.
All Rights Reserved.