Involving Your Participants: Using Participant Introductions

Interacting with your participants generally increases their learning, holds their attention, helps you make your points, and possibly provides for new information to be shared. Technical presentations hold some different challenges because most of the participants will be writing and taking notes throughout the program. Interactive processes must enhance the learning process and not just provide a break or entertainment. There are lots of proven techniques, but the introduction seems to work best of all and will, as a general rule, get most if not all of the attendees to participate.

Attendees at a technical session generally have a specific need in mind when they sign up for the program. By getting them to open up and share their needs, all the participants stand to benefit from the applications and concerns of someone else. In other words, there is a sharing of goals, concerns, and needs which may become as relevant and valuable to the participants as the materials you
present. Participant introductions serve two useful purposes. First, getting people to say anything at the beginning of a session gets them involved and is a way to establish interest in what you will say afterward. And second, if the participants do not know each other they may find it useful to know who is in the room.

On the other hand, introductions can take up a lot of time. People can insert many irrelevant comments and take up valuable time talking about themselves. If your session is part of a larger program, like a conference, introductions may not fit into the workshop format.

The critical consideration in whether to have participants introduce themselves is time. For instance, if there were 15 people in the room for a three-hour session, introductions might be helpful. If there are 60 people in the room for a one-hour program, the time constraint would eliminate the possibility of adequate introductions.

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Presentation Skills - Interplay

I love to interact with the audience. It is much easier now that wireless microphones are so readily available. I can go right into the audience, I can sit in one of their chairs, I can sit on an audience member's lap if I want to (by now you should have realized that I am inclined to be totally irreverent if I know the audience can handle it).

You don't have to be as wild as I sometimes am to get the job done. You can calmly go into the audience with a wireless handheld microphone. Let the audience members ask their questions directly to you while you hold the mic to their mouths so that everyone else can hear. (Don't forget to bring the microphone back to your mouth for the answer.)

Another technique I use frequently is to speak directly to one audience member. It goes like this, Sharon, this is just between you and me. Whenever I do this, I can see out of the corner of my eye everyone else killing themselves to eavesdrop on Sharon and me. They feel like they are getting to hear something secret.

One-on-one interplay is also good when you are teasing or doing a little roast humor on someone in the group. Joe, lots of people believe that you are one of the top sales managers in the company. . . . Lots of people believe in the Easter Bunny too! I'll go right up to someone in the audience and touch them on the shoulder while I'm talking (don't do this in Asia).

I might say (reading their nametag to get the name) John here may have the highest sales volume, but if his net income is no good, John is not a happy guy. Some speakers make up skits and give the audience members easy, but funny, parts to play. This is just an advanced form of role-playing.

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Public Speaking - Why Use Props?

Props help warm up the audience. They can be used as a substitute for notes. They help focus attention on the points you are trying to make along with illustrating them for you. They make better connections than your words with the visually oriented members of your audience. They create interest, add variety, and make your points more memorable.

Props can be used pre-program to pass around in the audience in anticipation of the program. You see this at large arenas when beach balls and Frisbees are being tossed around in the crowd. I pass out snacks and/or custom-designed crossword puzzles about the group that I make on my computer. The puzzles make especially great icebreakers because the members of the group get together to help each other with the solutions.

Do you hate relying on notes? Props can be a substitute for written cheat sheets. To illustrate this in live seminars I use three hats as an outline for a program. The first hat is a gag ball cap that has really long hair attached to it so that you look like a hippie when you wear it. The second hat is a black top hat.

The third is a safari hat. Each hat prompts me to talk about a thoroughly rehearsed bit or chunk. Putting on the longhaired ball cap immediately reminds me to talk about when the company was young and aggressive. After that section I remove the ball cap (if you have a fun and playful audience, you could put it on an audience member's head), then I put on the black top hat. The top hat prompts a section on the mature growth years of the company. I then put on the safari hat which kicks off a section on searching for new business. The whole talk is done without any notes at all. You only have to memorize your opening and closing and practice each of the sections independently.

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Test Humor for Introductions

Test humor is humor that is placed in your written introduction. It is to be read by your introducer, not by you.

Pick a couple of these lines and stick with them. The real value of test humor comes when you have heard the same line being delivered in your introduction over and over. The laughter of the audience will tell you if they are ready to laugh. This concept is called "in fun" (see Wake' em Up Business Presentations for a complete explanation.)

NOTE: The "?" is for your name, and most of these pieces of test humor can be used for either male or female presenters



? is one of the greatest speakers ever and that's just not my opinion, it's his/hers too. Let's welcome ? (lead enthusiastic applause)

It has been said that ? is the number one man/woman in the field of ???. And here folks is the man/woman who said it. Let's welcome ? (lead enthusiastic applause)

The man/woman I am about to introduce is so full of ideas I have heard him described as a manic EXPRESSIVE. Let's welcome ? (lead enthusiastic applause)

? is a man/woman who helps people. In fact, he/she would never turn someone away from his/her door if they needed help ...He/she would let them sit there all day if they wanted to. Let's welcome ? (lead enthusiastic applause)

Some people believe that ? is one of the greatest business speakers alive today....Of course some people believe in the Easter Bunny. Let's welcome ? (lead enthusiastic applause)

?'s discussion of (subject) will be very enlightening. She says that after her talk you will still be confused, but on a much higher plane.

? says she is going to speak and hopefully you are going to listen. If you finish before she does, please raise your hand.

? says she will be happy to answer any questions you might have as long as you don't ask, "Why did you bother to come here?"

Although she eventually became a model ? says she wasn't the cutest child. In fact, her parents threw away her kindergarten photo and framed the negative.

? says she doesn't read Fortune, but she has eaten a lot of their cookies.

? says she wants to fly to Hawaii for a second honeymoon and she's getting her husband to drive her to the airport.

? says their are seven ages of women: Baby, infant, Jr. Miss, Young Woman, Young Woman, Young Woman and Young Woman.

? Says the best years of her life were the ten years between 29 and 30.

? Says he was a war baby. His parents looked at him and started fighting.

? Says he was born during the great depression. Not the countries. His mothers.

? Says she will give you in length what she lacks in depth.

She/he wants you to think of her/his talk as the horns of a steer. A point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.

For all female audience:

? says diamonds are a girl's best friend and dogs are a man's best friend. Now you know which sex has more sense.

? says a businesswoman has to be twice as good as a man. Fortunately, that's not hard to do.

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Public Speaking - Anecdotes For Presentations

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Public Speaking - Getting The Sale

Humor can help you get the sales presentation in the first place. It will also help you stay upbeat in the face of rejection, overcome inevitable problems that arise during a presentation, break down sales resistance, and create loyal customers who will buy again. Let me tell you how humor has greatly helped me.

One of the ways professional speakers gain business is to do no fee demo talks in front of potential buyers. I was doing one of these talks for an advertising association in Washington, D.C. After the presentation, a lady came up to me and invited me to call her. She said my information would be perfect for the employees at her government agency. I called three times that week and did not get a return call. I called three times the next week and did not get a return call. I called three times the next week and the week after that. Finally, I got sick of calling so I sent her a funny fax.

She called back within the hour. I went down and got a $3000 contract and another one the following month for $2000. She said my fax really made her laugh in the midst of the constant pressure she was under and that's why she called.

Was my success in this case only because of the humor? No. It was a combination of humor and persistence.

Humor is just the tip of the iceberg for getting big sales. What else do you need to know?

Public Speaking Business Humor

YOU KNOW YOU WORK IN CORPORATE AMERICA IF ...

You sat at the same desk for 4 years and worked for three different companies

Your company welcome sign is attached with Velcro

Your resume is on a diskette in your pocket

Your company logo on your badge is applied with stick-um

You order your business cards in "half orders" instead of whole boxes

When someone asks about what you do for a living, you lie

You get really excited about a 2% pay raise

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Public Speaking Humor - Dreaming

Don't tell me what you dreamed last night for I've been reading Freud.---Franklin Adams

Insomniacs don't sleep because they worry about it, and they worry about it because they don't
sleep.---Franklin Adams

He dreamed he was eating shredded wheat and woke up to find the mattress half gone.---Fred Allen

It is such stuff and nonsense that dreams are made of.---Clifton Fadiman

The smaller the head, the bigger the dream.
---Austin O'Malley

My life's dream has been a perpetual nightmare.
---Voltaire

A professor is someone who talk's in someone else's sleep.---Wystan Auden

A man of sixty has spent twenty years in bed and over three years eating.---Arnold Bennett

It's not easy for X and Y to lay in the same bed unless both are asleep.
(Use this and substitute two rivaling parties for X & Y)

The only time most women give their orating husbands undivided attention is when the old boys mumble in their sleep.---Wilson Mizner

I never sleep comfortably except when I am at a sermon.---Rabelais

Sleep is an excellent way of listening to an opera.
---James Stephens