As you can see, there are six elements that make up the introduction. Please note however that some presenters may add/omit certain sections here.
----------Greeting----------
The greeting will be the first words that you say to your audience. Make sure to start strong making your audience feel really welcomed and that you appreciate them for attending your presentation.
A Simple Greeting can include the mentioning of the time of day (Good Morning, Good Afternoon) followed by "Ladies and Gentlemen." Please note that you need to pay attention to who is in your audience. If there is only one woman then you can say, "Lady and Gentlemen," or if there is one man you can say, "Ladies and Gentleman." And you can simply finish your greeting with a sentence about the weather, traffic or any other common reference.
ex.) Good Afternoon Lady and Gentlemen. It is great to see you on this warm spring day.
If you want to extend your welcome to special guests, you can add the following:
Mr. or Mrs. Chairperson / Members of Congress / Distinguished Guests / Members of the Media / My fellow engineers / Sponsoring company members / Foreign Dignitaries / etc...
ex.) Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests and Members of the Media. It is my honor to be presenting to you today.
You can also add common references to add a human touch, for example:
weather| ... I am so glad you could make it in spite of the heavy rain.
timing| ... I have to apologize for the last minute notice but the information is essential ...
problem| ... I understand many of you were called in on your day off but ...
celebration| ... I am pleased to announce ...
place| ... It is my pleasure to welcome you to my company ...
----------Name/Position----------
It is a good rule of thumb to always mention your name and position when you begin your presentation. The only exceptions would be that all the members are from your own team or you are 100% sure that the audience already know that information.
In addition, if you are presenting to audience members outside of your commpany or organization, you should mention your company.
In this order: name / position (or title) / company
My name is John Smith and I am the Senior Managing Director of R&D at ABC Corporation.
----------Subject/Title of Presentation----------
At this point you are ready to mention the subject or title of your presentation. You can use the following:
The subject/title of my presentation is "New Product Sales Guidelines."
----------Purpose of the Presentation----------
In this section you can tell your audience a brief statement about the purpose of your presentation.
The purpose of my presentation is to introduce you to the company's guidelines when selling the new products.
----------Length of Presentation----------
It may be a good idea to let your audience know how much of their time you will take to deliver the presentation. HOWEVER, be warned, that if you say ten minutes, then you should finish within the stated time. Otherwise, your audience will be checking their watches (or cell phones) thinking to themselves that you are over the stated time.
ex.) My presentation will take about 20 minutes.
----------How You Will Handle Questions----------
Some presenters don't mind answering questions throughout their presentation. Others don't take so kindly to be interupted during their presentation to stop and answer questions. So, during the introduction you can state to your audience how you will handle any questions that may arise during your presentation.
If you dont mind: I will be happy to answer your questions throughout my presentation.
If you mind: I will answer all questions after my presentation.
All in all, the introduction of your presentation should be straight-forward and generally takes 10-20 seconds. You need to be clear and make a strong start which will capture your audience's attention.
Here is an example of the whole introduction of your presentation:
Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen, Founder, Foreign Dignitaries and Guests. It is my pleasure to welcome all of you here to South Korea. My name is John Smith and I am the Senior Vice-President in charge of Purchasing for the Asia Region at ABC Corporation. The title of my presentation is "Automated Logistics Program for the Asia Region." As all of you are aware, we recently switched to the new automated system to be more efficient in keeping track of purchases and supplies for the entire Asia region. The presentation will take approximately one hour and I will have a Q & A session at the end of each section of my presentation.
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