Grab their attention!

When you start to speak in front of an audience, your listeners will decide in a few seconds if it's worth it to listen to you or if it's better to get out their mobile phone and check their emails. 

Getting their attention is not a secret technic. Just remember situations when you join a group of people and you need to find your hook to enter the conversation. What are you normally doing? You tell your personal experience with the topic, you have questions, you use pop-culture facts, news, common experience or practically anything that can connect you to that group. In the case that you give a presentation, the attitude is very similar. You can start your presentation with a personal tone and a personal story related to your life, work or family:

• When I was a small girl, I was always pretending to be a doctor. I cured all the dolls and teddy bears around me, and I believed there was a medicine for all the illnesses. Nowadays, as a researcher, I still have that dream.

You can also use a news hook, which makes your presentation immediately very timely and actual:

• One week ago, a special plastic trash-collector boat started its journey in the ocean, with the aim to clean up the surface of the North Pacific. Behind that project, there is a 22-year-old student, without a university degree and work experience but already backed by experts and funds. We are here today to speak about entrepreneurship.

This news hook also could be a historical event or special anniversary, which happened on that day or in that year:

• Exactly today on the October 18th in 1931, Thomas Edison died - the inventor of the phonograph, the light bulb, the movie camera and the power plant. His personal approach is very well reflected in one of his sentences, "I have not failed. I've just found 10 000 ways that won't work." So, I can say that today, we are here to find and work on the 10 001th way that will fight Alzheimer.

Or a quote -as I used in my previous example- could be also an interesting start:

• "The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new," said Socrates in the V. century BC. And, five years since the foundation of our enterprise, I'm also focused on building the new.

We can refer to pop-culture in music, films, literature, advertisement, television or books but carefully selected for the age and interest of our audience:

• "Power resides where men believe it resides. It's a trick. A shadow on the wall. And a very small man can cast a very large shadow," says Lord Varys in the Game of Thrones. What does this really mean in history? In today's class, we will speak about a king, who had a very large shadow.

We can also start with interesting or surprising new studies:

• According to new nationwide research, 50% of married men cheated on their wife once in their relationship. Is the institution of marriage out of date? As a psychologist...

We ask the audience questions, to immediately involve them in the presentation:

• Who has children in this room? Who has the feeling that they can't spend the necessary time with them? So, I will try to show you how you prioritise your day and have more time with your family.

The most important thing is that we offer value to our audience in the very first seconds. Value means a piece of our personality, passion, interest in their opinion and feelings or important information - all these will grab their attention. They will feel that they are honoured and appreciated listeners, who will have a good time to listening to you. 

And in such case, they surely won't be dealing with their social media posts.