Starting a Presentation

The Basics:

 In modern English, presentations tend to be much less formal than they were even twenty years ago. Most audience these days prefer a relatively informal approach. However, there is a certain structure to the opening of a presentation that you should observe.



1.Get people's attention


2.Welcome them


3.Introduce yourself


4.State the purpose of your presentation


5.State how you want to deal with questions



Get people's attention

• If I could have everybody's attention.
• If we can start.
• Perhaps we should begin?
• Let's get started.

Welcome them

• Welcome to Calgary State University.
• Thank you for coming today.
• Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
• On behalf of Intel, I'd like to welcome you.

Introduce yourself

• My name's Jane Davis from Human Resource.
• For those of you who don't know me, my name's James Bon.
• As you know, I'm in charge of public relations.
• I'm the new Marketing Manager.

State the purpose of your presentation

• This morning I'd like to present some additions to the school policy.
• Today I'd like to discuss the shortcomings of the traditional approach in education and suggest innovations.
• What I want to do this morning is to talk to you about the Montesorri method. 
• What I want to do is to tell you about our successes and failures in introducing new working patterns.

State how you want to deal with questions.

• If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them as we go along.
• Feel free to ask any questions.
• Perhaps we can leave any questions you have until the end?
• There will be plenty of time for questions at the end.

Of course, these are only suggestions and other language is possible. Even within this limited group of phrases, just choose a few you feel comfortable with and learn and use those.
 
Note: As the heading reads, these are just the basics, the main parts of a presentation. Bear in mind that the best known presentations are those that starts well and ends well. Try  to come up with a good introduction and an impressive conclusion.
 
Tips:
Presentations/talks/discussions may be started with an anecdote, a joke or a quote from a famous person. And they may be concluded by doing the same, depending on the nature of the talk.
 
In Gen. Douglas McArthur's Farewell Speech to Westpoint, he started with

    General Westmoreland, General Groves, distinguished guests, and gentlemen of the Corps. As I      was leaving the hotel this morning, a doorman asked me, "Where are you bound for, General?" and when I replied, "West Point," he remarked, "Beautiful place, have you ever been there before?"







reference: http://www.effective-public-speaking.com/starting/menu.php