director introduction speech

Make a positive first impression and set the tone for your leadership team by mastering your introduction.

Moving into a new role is one of the biggest challenges you can face as a manager. In fact, nearly half of all new managers fail at their assigned objectives. The good news is that being strategic about how you start your new role can have a big impact on your effectiveness as a leader.

The first step to a successful transition is to think about how you want to introduce yourself to your new team. According to Michael Watkins, your introduction is an opportunity to hit the ground running and set your team up for success.

“Step back and ask yourself questions like, what new relationships do I need to build to be effective? What things do I need to learn about that I don’t understand today but are necessary? How am I going to get early wins in this situation?” — Michael Watkins, author of The First 90 Days, on the Supermanagers podcast

Much more than just a “hello,” your introduction is a key time to build trust and credibility, set expectations, and build a foundation for your team’s collaboration. Read on for a step-by-step guide on how to manage your introduction with helpful tools and examples to get started.

How to introduce yourself to a new team

How fellow can help you introduce yourself to a new team, examples of how to introduce yourself to a new team, first team meeting agenda template.

• Send a positive message or email introducing yourself
• Schedule a team meeting
• Start with an icebreaker or by sharing a fun fact
• Talk about your professional background and experience
• Open the floor for questions from the team
• Write an “about me” or “read me” page
• Schedule one-on-one meetings to connect with each individual
• Set expectations about team meetings and communication cadence

1 Send a positive message or email introducing yourself

As soon as you start, send a brief email or message to introduce yourself and express your enthusiasm for working with your new team. Use a friendly subject line like “A Quick Hello” and share a brief description of yourself and your experience. Make sure to learn about the company culture before sending your introduction. For example, if the culture is more relaxed, you can include a few fun facts about yourself; if it’s more formal, stick to a summary of your professional background. Let people know you’ll be scheduling a team meeting followed by one-on-ones and encourage them to reach out with any questions in the meantime.

2 Schedule a team meeting

You can make a good impression by running a well-organized introductory meeting with your new team. The objective of this meeting is to establish rapport, learn about your team, and set the tone as a new leader. Creating an agenda and sharing it ahead of time will help you stay on track—we’ve even included a template below! Make sure to read up on your team members before the meeting so you know their names, roles, and some details about their professional skills and accomplishments to begin fostering positive working relationships.

With Fellow , you can easily schedule meetings, automatically share agendas with attendees, and add actions in real time to run a successful first meeting.

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3 Start with an icebreaker or by sharing a fun fact

Kick off your meeting with an icebreaker to get to know your new team and help people relax. You can ask a question like, “What’s a bucket list item you want to complete this year?” or “What movie or TV show character do you relate to the most, and why?” or even ask team members to pitch their favorite vacation spot to the group in 30 seconds. Sharing some fun personal facts will help you bond with your new team and allow people to express their personalities. For more ideas, check out our list of the best icebreaker questions.

4 Talk about your professional background and experience 

Research shows that when forming a first impression, people evaluate two main factors: competence and trustworthiness. Sharing your professional highlights is a good way to demonstrate the former; you can mention companies you’ve worked for, notable projects, and areas of expertise. Be mindful of your tone and body language so you come across as relaxed and confident instead of boastful. If you have previous experience as a manager, you’ve also developed an important set of skills. You can share your managerial experience with your team and briefly describe your management philosophy to demonstrate credibility.

5 Open the floor for questions from the team

An effective way to build trust with your team is to invite them to ask questions and to answer openly and honestly. By including a section for questions in the meeting agenda and sharing it ahead of time, you’ll give everyone the chance to come up with any questions. People may have some anxiety or uncertainty about having a new manager, so it’s important to show empathy and support your team members during the transition. Be an active listener when they share questions and concerns, and remember that it’s okay not to have all the answers. In fact, sometimes it’s even preferable; you’ll gain more respect by listening and learning than by coming up with answers immediately.

6 Write an “about me” or “read me” page

A best practice in management is to create a ‘user guide’ to help your team members get to know you and explain how you like to work. For example, PatientPing CEO Jay Desai credits his personal user guide as an important part of improving his team’s collaboration. When writing your user guide, include information about your values, expectations, communication styles, and personality traits. You can also add a few interests and hobbies to help people connect with you on a personal level.

If there’s a company wiki, you can add your user guide there; otherwise, share it as a document with your team. User guides aren’t just for managers, either! Encourage your team members to create their own user guides for a fun way to learn more about them.

7 Schedule one-on-one meetings to connect with each individual

Schedule a one-on-one with each of your new team members to meet them and address any questions or concerns they may have. Ask them about their communication style, their preferred method for receiving feedback, and how they perceive their strengths and weaknesses. It’s also a good time to find out about their professional goals and how you can support them. These one-on-ones are an important opportunity to build trust on an individual level and lay the foundation for effective collaboration. Sharing an agenda ahead of time will allow people to reflect on their answers before the meeting for a thoughtful discussion.

8 Set expectations about team meetings and communication cadence

Establish clear expectations around communication from the start to prevent misunderstandings that could erode trust with your new team. As a group, discuss details like communication channels and frequency, meeting cadence , and response times. Specifically relating to meetings, you can cover how agendas will work, who will take notes, your method for assigning action items , and how you’ll collect feedback to optimize meeting effectiveness.

When setting communication guidelines, make sure to honor company culture and uphold values like trust, open communication, and accountability. To foster mutual respect, don’t forget to ask your team members what communication they need from you to do their best work.

Make a good impression with your introduction using Fellow ! In your first team meeting, there’s a lot to cover—use our ready-to-go templates to make sure you’ve got all the essentials on your agenda. The agenda will be automatically sent ahead of time to help everyone feel prepared and alleviate any first-meeting nerves for you and your team. You can also use Fellow to manage your one-on-ones and record action items, feedback, and notes. Following your initial meetings, Fellow can help you manage effective meetings on an ongoing basis and ensure your team follows best practices before, during, and after every meeting.

Plus, Fellow’s AI-generated agendas help you generate headings and talking points for your meeting based off of the title of the meeting and the calendar description.

Here are some example templates you can use for your introductions.

Sending an introductory email

In-person or via video call.

Use this template to send an email introduction on your first day.

Subject: A Quick Hello

It’s my first day here at [company name]. I’m joining the team as the new [job title].

I’ve worked as a [what you do] for [X] years. I recently worked at [company name], where I was the [job title]. You can learn more about me and my experience on my LinkedIn profile. [LinkedIn link]. Outside of work, I enjoy [a few short things you like to do].

I’m really looking forward to working with all of you. I’ll be scheduling a team meeting and one-on-ones to get to know everyone.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions before then. I’m happy to share more about what I’ll be doing here, and I’m excited to find out how I can best support you.

[Your name]

Use this template to introduce yourself at your first team meeting in person or on a video call.

Hello everyone! Thank you for being here today. My name is [your name], and I’ll be your new manager going forward. Before we get started, I’d like to briefly share a little bit about myself.

[Two quick personal facts that are relatable for your team]. [Your relevant experience–namely, how many years of experience you have and what you’ve done in the past]. Together I’m confident we can all [a few quick goals]. I’m looking forward to working with all of you.

Use this template for your first meeting to establish rapport and set the tone for your team’s success.

Parting advice

Your actions in the first few weeks and months can have a big impact on whether your team ultimately delivers results. While a change in leadership always requires team members to adjust, being intentional about your introduction will help make the transition as smooth as possible. However, there’s a lot to remember when getting started—following these steps will make sure you don’t miss any key practices. While trust is built over time and through mutual respect, you’ll be able to start building rapport and good communication from the start. Check out the Fellow blog for more tips and advice for managers to help you lead your new team to success.

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Introducing Yourself as a New Leader

The interviews are done, the offer letter signed—you can’t wait to start your first day as the new leader of a team. But before you charge in with your undoubtedly brilliant plan, have you reflected on how to best introduce yourself to the team?

Like our mothers always said, you never get a second chance to make a first impression—and this one in particular feels very high stakes. Your team will be used to working with their old leader, so their emotions may range from resentment to relief. And since old habits die hard, they’ll probably expect to treat you like they treated the old leader, regardless of how you want to be treated. Meanwhile, you’ll naturally want to prove to the team—and your bosses—that you can make an impact right away.

As a new leader, your official introduction must accomplish five goals:

Tell a story

Set expectations

Build relationships

Establish a positive tone, and

Explain how you’ll execute the work together.

Story.  Humanize and credentialize yourself to the team. Share the CliffsNotes version of your life: how you started your career, why you chose to pursue new opportunities, and what work you’re most proud of. What would you consider your most formative experiences? Don’t be afraid to get a little personal—being vulnerable and open can build the psychological safety that the team needs to succeed.

Empowering Leaders

NOBL has helped ambitious leaders in world-famous organizations to quickly form effective bonds with their new teams. Reach out to see how we might be able to help your organization .

Expectations . Lay out what you hope to achieve together. What do you see as the team’s role within the organization, and what makes people good at that role? Call out work they’ve done that’s impressed you so far, and identify the opportunities that you believe you can shepherd the team towards. Be careful to avoid Mighty Mouse Syndrome—don’t create the expectation that you’re there to “fix” things unless it’s absolutely necessary.

Relationships.  Now that you’ve established what you want to do, explain how you want work to be done. What are your biases as a leader? How should people interact with you, and what do you expect from the managers below you? This is also a good time to share your plan for how you intend to get to know the organization, and the individual members of team, better.

Vibes.  Set yourself up to convey the right tone. Think about when you felt most “on” as a leader—how did you behave? What emotions did you want to portray? Or, try modeling your behavior on a leader you admire—what would they do in this situation? Evaluate where these interactions should take place. If you want to make it feel like work is changing, for instance, hold informal meetings in coffee shops or take the team out for a fancy breakfast.

Execution.  Help the team understand what you want from them. Not only is it ok to ask for help, you  should  ask the team what they can help you better understand about the situation. Find out what’s made them successful and what you should take pains to avoid, and clarify what will change and what will stay the same. Lastly, determine what you want the team to do when they leave your presentation.

If you’re a leader in a remote environment, we’ve developed additional best practices .

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Five of the Best Speech Opening Lines

Great opening lines to a speech get us curious and can set the direction for a powerful talk.   In those first few seconds you have the chance to gain your audience’s attention, earn their trust, and persuade them you are someone worth listening to.   The best introductions to speeches are a mile away from the standard welcomes and thank yous that set the snoozometer to max. Get it right, and those initial words can captivate the crowd from the off, creating a connection with every individual in the room.   But how do you go about opening your speech with something different and memorable? A great place to start is looking at examples of introductions to successful speeches to see what you can learn from them.   To show you what we mean, we’ve picked some of our favourite opening lines from TED talks, home to some of the best conference speeches in the world. From funny stories to hard-hitting introductions, TED talks show the art of the possible when it comes to getting your speech off to a kick-ass start.   Have a go at guessing the speaker, or the focus of the rest of their talk (hint…we give you the answers later on).  

Do you want to improve your public speaking? Why not view our  Public Speaking Courses !

Guess the Speech: Five of the best speech opening lines

Speech A:  Good morning. How are you? It’s been great, hasn’t it? I’ve been blown away by the whole thing. In fact, I’m leaving.

Speech B:  For a long time, there was me, and my body. Me was composed of stories, of cravings, of strivings, of desires of the future. Me was trying not to be an outcome of my violent past, but the separation that had already occurred between me and my body was a pretty significant outcome. Me was always trying to become something, somebody. Me only existed in the trying. My body was often in the way.

Speech C:  Sadly, in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat, four Americans that are alive will be dead from the food that they eat.

Speech D:  Okay, now I don’t want to alarm anybody in this room, but it’s just come to my attention that the person to your right is a liar. (Laughter) Also, the person to your left is a liar. Also the person sitting in your very seats is a liar. We’re all liars. What I’m going to do today is I’m going to show you what the research says about why we’re all liars, how you can become a liespotter and why you might want to go the extra mile and go from liespotting to truth seeking, and ultimately to trust building.

Speech E:  Imagine a big explosion as you climb through 3,000 ft. Imagine a plane full of smoke. Imagine an engine going clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack. It sounds scary. Well I had a unique seat that day. I was sitting in 1D.

Answers: Who delivered these great opening lines?

These examples pack a punch for very different reasons. There’s absolutely no chance of the audience zoning out when the speaker goes straight in with such a powerful start.   So, who gave these speeches, and why are the introductions so good? Time for the big reveal….

A:  Sir Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity

Deceptively simple, the opening lines for this speech set the tone for what has become the most viewed TED talk of all (currently nearly 57 million views). Far from being just ‘throat clearing’, Sir Ken’s funny introduction cleverly paves the way for a talk that will gently but profoundly show us a new way of looking at education. It’s as if we are at a dinner party, being hosted by Sir Ken – he makes us feel comfortable, interested and open all at once. We are not being lectured to (which is always a possibility when education is the subject matter of choice), we want to learn and hear more. Very skilful indeed.

Ginger tip: funny introductions

Using humour in your introduction can be a great way to get your speech off to a flying start – but only if you do it in a way that feels natural. This example shows how you can make people laugh without telling a joke. It’s about finding your own funny and feeling totally comfortable with what you’re saying. If it feels a bit forced to you, it definitely will to your audience. You don’t have to make people roll around on the floor laughing, but light-hearted and amusing anecdotes can add energy and engagement to your talk – which is especially needed if you’re in the dreaded after-lunch slot . Remember, when you open your speech with something funny, you are setting the tone for the rest of your talk – so you’ll need to pepper humour throughout.

Extra Ginger nuggets

How to write a funny speech Funny inspiring speakers talks 

B: Eve Ensler: Suddenly, my body

As you’d expect from a the writer of the Vagina Monologues, the start of this speech opening was profound, stark in its honesty and inviting. We empathize and want to know more. Unfortunately this speech suffered from a common affliction that writers face; in getting focused on the precise words of the speech (in this instance, Eve Ensler read her speech), we can get disconnected from the full power of the material. Whilst the words were powerful, we would have enjoyed the rest of this speech more if Eve had given herself permission to find the right words in the moment, rather than needing to be perfectly scripted.

Ginger tip: going unscripted

You want it to be perfect. You’re worried about forgetting something vital. You’re scared of doing it wrong. These are common and perfectly understandable reasons why people opt to script their speech and read it word for word. But rather than delivering a foot-perfect performance, you’re more likely to lose the vital connection with the audience. Not to mention risking plunging yourself into the dreaded ‘I’m sorry I’ve lost my place’ scenario. More than anything, people want you to be human and to speak from the heart. It takes confidence to ditch your notes, but with some simple techniques, you can prepare and remember your speech in a way that allows you to deliver a clear, compelling and authentic talk.

How to start a speech with power and confidence How to remember a speech without notes

C: Jamie Oliver’s TED Wish: Teach every child about food

This is one of our favourite ever TED talks, and it doesn’t pull its punches from the very first line. Jamie Oliver manages to balance preparation (statistics, stories, well-developed ideas) with heart in his TED talk. This speech opening line both makes our jaws drop to the ground in shock at such a statistic and opens our hearts to the human side of the story. Powerful stuff.

Ginger tip: punchy facts

Opening your speech with a hard-hitting fact can quickly add credibility to your talk and demonstrate the scale of an issue. It’s best to keep statistics simple and make them as relevant to the audience as possible, so it feels memorable rather than dry. Resist the urge to stuff the rest of the speech with stats. Try to stick to a few powerful facts and bring them to life with real examples.

Extra Ginger nuggets:

The key to presenting data…is not to present data How to make a powerful point with your speech

D: Pamela Meyer: How to spot a liar

We love talks that balance humour and connect us to the subject matter in hand – and Pamela Meyer does this perfectly in her TED talk opening line. By bringing a challenge straight to us, in our very seats, Pamela engages us and makes sure the talk is about ‘me’ the audience member. We’re laughing and ready to listen. Great job.

Ginger tip: setting up a problem

Setting up a problem at the start of your speech immediately creates a reason for listening and a direction for your talk. And if you involve the audience in the problem, it’s even more powerful. It doesn’t have to be something completely new, in fact telling us what we already know and explaining why that’s a problem can be a really engaging way to start. Depending on the subject matter, you can frame the problem in different ways – from serious to humorous. And it gives a natural structure to the rest of your talk as you explore how to solve the issue.  

The best way to engage your audience Five methods to master audience interaction

E: Ric Elias: 3 things I learned while my plane crashed

Wow, what an opening! Who wouldn’t want to know more? Ric Elias showed here how powerful it is to jump straight into a story, with no fussing around with thank yous and throat clearing. Unfortunately after the winning start, the rest of the talk lacked some of the gusto and drama of its opening lines. What can we learn from this? Start with power, but make sure you structure your talk to include a journey that will continue to keep us involved all the way through.

Ginger tip: start with a story

Stories are one of the most effective ways to inspire others. We’re hard wired to connect with stories and your experience of the world is one of the most valuable speaking tools that you possess. Telling a story is a popular way to open a speech because it can quickly build that all-important human connection with your audience. If you have a message that’s personal, or if you’re trying to influence your audience to make a change, a story is a great place to start.

Why is it so important to tell your story? 3 storytelling secrets for public speaking

Creating the best introduction for your speech

We hope these examples of great opening lines demonstrate that you don’t have to conform to the ‘safe’ introductions we’re all used to hearing at corporate conferences. In fact, at Ginger, we dare our speakers to rip up the ‘rulebook’, to be courageous, and to take a different approach to setting the scene. You can find even more tips in our free guide,  The 10 best ways to start your talk .   We’d love to hear your thoughts on these and other examples of great opening lines – so please share your ideas in the comments below.

Beyond introductions

Of course, it’s all very well creating a captivating introduction, but you don’t want the rest of your talk to fall off a cliff edge after you’ve built it up so spectacularly. Maintaining the audience’s attention for the rest of your speech is just as important.   We’ve developed the  TED-style Talk Guidebook  to help you through the process of writing a brilliant speech. Whether you’re crafting a short talk or a keynote, it will help you create a speech that’s as good as a TED talk – so you can wow your audience from the first word to the final thank you.   If you’d like to get hands-on support with becoming a better public speaker, then take a look at our  training courses.  There’s something for every level, from nervous beginners to becoming a leading speaker on the world stage. We’d love to welcome you along.

UK based? Here’s some courses that you might enjoy: 

• Presentation Skills and Essentials
• Leadership and Communications
• TED Talk Presentations

Ginger Leadership Communications

This showcase of inspiring female speakers is part of Ginger’s work with game changing leaders.

More From Forbes

How to make a memorable executive speech: 14 expert tips.

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Executives can be called on to deliver engaging speeches in various situations, ranging from industry events to private gatherings. While you might have a lot of addresses to give as an executive, the quality shouldn't suffer because of the quantity. Speeches should engage the audience and make them think and consider new possibilities.

But how does an executive consistently deliver rousing speeches time and again? How do they engage an audience that might have heard it all before? Fourteen professionals from Forbes Agency Council share valuable tips executives should consider when crafting speeches to make them stand out in the audience's memory long after the address is over.

Members share tips for crafting and delivering an engaging, memorable executive speech.

1. Provide Value, Be Charismatic

If you use Charlie Munger's Theory of Inversion, ways by which one would forget your message would be if it provides no value, there is no enthusiasm in delivery or the thesis is convoluted. In order to have a memorable message, I'd argue, do the opposite. So, provide value, be charismatic and be concise. Your message will not be forgotten. There is no need to speak otherwise. - Phillip Hui-Bon-Hoa , Abacus Growth

2. Find One Central Message

To make your speech memorable, find one central message you want to get across. Use the three Cs to hone your message: concise, compelling and consistent. Next, use the three Ss to bring that message to life: stories to illustrate your message, statistics to emphasize your argument and soundbites to leave your audience with a power sentence they'll never forget. - Nathan Miller , Miller Ink, Inc.

3. Tell Stories That Matter To Them

Tell stories that matter to them. Don't just state facts, because as valuable as information is, it won't impact anyone without context. Share the relevance of your words and give engaging examples. Explain what your message has meant for others and what it should mean to your audience. People won't just listen; they'll share what you have to say. - Fran Biderman-Gross , Advantages

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Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?

4. Strive To Be Relatable

Be relatable. If at an industry event, tell a story that you know every person there has faced. Talk about triumph. Internally, thank your team for their wins and successes. Relating back to others evokes emotion and likens the chance that they will never forget your speech. - Nick Brucker , Sparq Designs

5. Always Be Honest

Honesty is key. I believe that as an executive, you're always trying hard to say the "right things" to the team. And in the process, you sometimes forget to speak "your truth." How do you feel? Speak the truth, regardless of how it will be perceived. This will give rise to a culture that's real and will help team members to connect with you and the rest with real, honest conversations. - Osama Khabab , MotionCue

6. Make It Interactive

Invite the audience to share their opinions and questions throughout the meeting. If your audience feels like they are being “talked to” rather than having a meaningful interaction, your message might get lost, and they may even tune you out. Actively engage your team so they remain focused. - Hannah Trivette , NUVEW Web Solutions

7. Focus On The Human Connection

No matter how important your position or the precise speech that must be delivered, you cannot leave out one element — a moment of human connection. Standing up on a stage won't get the audience to pay attention. It doesn't even matter if your message is critical. You need a human connection to make your speech matter, to make it memorable. - Dmitrii Kustov , Regex SEO

8. Bring The Right Energy

The most important thing to make a speech memorable, aside from a clear, concise message, is energy. The energy you exude while giving a speech transfers to the audience. If you bring high, passionate energy while delivering your speech, it shows your conviction behind your message. When delivering a speech, you want the audience to feel your energy; and they’ll leave saying, "Wow, what a speech." - Tony Pec , Y Not You Media

9. Make It Personal

The personal factor is definitely a big element to create rapport with an audience and a brand. Today, we care more about personal stories than general business advice. We learn and remember a lesson or a particular event when we add a personal view and experience. So, even if we represent a business, we always need to show ourselves as a person with weaknesses and strengths. - Stefano Mongardi , TheWebMate

10. Use Humor

Humor is a crucial element. You don't have to be a pro stand-up, but you do have to offer something to the people listening that isn't dry. The truth is that many of the funniest moments speaking aren't a prepared joke; they're a human, even vulnerable moment the audience isn't expecting. Stating something that's happening "right now" and "in the moment" can enliven and elevate any talk. - Danny Star , Website Depot

11. Establish A Shared World View

I have found “Resonate ” by Nancy Duarte to be an invaluable resource when preparing executive presentations. She counsels presenters to begin by establishing a shared view of the world with the audience. This allows you to establish an immediate connection so that you can then build a bridge to the "new idea" you want to introduce. - Jenni Smith , EGR International

12. Push The Envelope

Push the envelope. Challenge the status quo. Share opinions that nobody else has. Be brutally honest. Authenticity is the key to engagement. If you're regurgitating the same info everyone else does, you'll lose interest fast. If you're 20% crazier than everyone else that speaks to your audience, they'll pay attention — regardless of whether they agree or not. - Josh Sample , Drive Social Media Saint Louis

13. Use The Basics Of Storytelling

Giving a speech just describes the format and set-up. It is not an excuse to ignore the basics of storytelling — develop a conflict that gets resolved after going through some trouble. It sounds trivial, but the biggest impact comes from stories people remember as they can relate to them emotionally. - Lars Voedisch , PRecious Communications

14. Make Sure You're Making An Impact

One thing that is very important is making sure that you are making an impact. The impact needs to be something that is memorable, as well as something that is going to help others. Knowing that you are going to make an impact and saying something meaningful is very important. - Jon James , Ignited Results

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If you landed a job as a new manager and you want to start things off on the right foot, begin by reflecting upon your strengths and weaknesses. According to Northeastern University , 58 percent of new managers haven’t gone through formal training or education related to management skills. Even if you feel prepared, you’ll want to focus on relationship building. Your new staff will form an opinion of you immediately and your ability to connect with them will make a difference. Read on to learn some new manager tips for the first day on the job.

Say Hello with Sincerity

Treat each opportunity to meet someone new as a way to build an authentic relationship. As new people are introduced to you, do your best to learn their names. Hone in on something unique about each person that you encounter. If possible, reconnect with each staff person during the day. You will make a dynamic first impression if you are intentional about connecting with the staff right away. A sincere connection with each employee is an essential item on a new manager checklist for the first day on the job.

Consider Employee Fears and Concerns

As you are writing your first day as a manager speech to be delivered to staff, avoid the word change. A survey of 288 companies by the University of Texas indicated that more than 40 percent of employees are afraid of change. Even though your job may be focused on transformative change, avoid discussing this on the first day. Employees will be wondering if you are going to change their role or ask them to do their work differently. If you begin by talking about the changes that you hope to make, you will begin building a wall that will be tough to tear down.

Meet with Each Employee

A new manager checklist should include an individual meeting with each employee. This is your opportunity to spend time listening, rather than talking. You will immediately break the ice with your employees if you show them that you’re interested in their thoughts and ideas. Here are a few questions that you can ask:

• I would like to learn more about you – tell me about yourself.
• Tell me about the work that you do in the organization.
• What do you need from a manager?
• What are some things that you are proud of in your work?
• What is an example of great teamwork that has occurred in this organization?
• What resources do you need to be more successful than you already are?
• How can I support you in your work?

These are just sample questions. You don’t want your first interaction to seem like a job interview. In between questions, be ready to share some information about who you are, too.

Communicate an Open-Door Policy

One of the most important new manager tips when starting at a new job is to establish an open-door policy. Let your employees know that you value open communication and that you really want staff to know that you are eager to help and be supportive. Model this by leaving your door open when you aren’t in a meeting. Similarly, encourage your staff to leave their doors open and pop in to say hello to each employee on a daily basis.

First Day as a Manager Speech

As you are writing your first day as a manager speech, put yourself in the shoes of your new employees. They are wondering what kind of boss you will be. Show your interest in their personal success and tout the success of the company. Recognize them for all of the accomplishments of the organization. Don’t spend too much time talking about yourself, but rather, tell them how much you want to learn about them. Here is an example of a speech introduction:

Good Morning! I am so excited to be a part of this successful team. I come to you with eager anticipation of the great work that we will do together. I look forward to learning about each of you and gathering your best ideas for how we can take this organization to even greater heights. Please know that if you need anything, my primary focus is to be a support and resource to each and every one of you. Over the coming days, my goal is to meet with each of you and learn more about your role in this amazing organization.

Hold a Staff Meeting

One of the most important new manager tips when starting a new job is to have a staff meeting. This is an ideal setting to give your first day as a manager speech. Use your staff meeting to encourage everyone to participate and engage in conversation. Here is a sample agenda of a first staff meeting:

• Opening introductions of you and your staff
• Teambuilder or icebreaker
• Next steps for working together

Keep your meeting short and to the point. Don’t go too deep into the details of the work that you are planning to do. Use this meeting to begin the process of creating a positive climate and team environment.

Try Some Teambuilders

Use a short icebreaker to kick off your first meeting with the staff. There may be some resistance at first, but a short activity will demonstrate your commitment to building a team. Here are a few to consider:

Weather Check:

Ask each person to give their personal weather forecast. If someone says, “Sunny and warm,” you’ll know that they are feeling positive about the meeting. If someone says, “Cloudy with a chance for rain,” check in with them later to see how they are feeling.

Two Truths and a Lie:

Ask each person to write on a piece of paper two things that are true about themselves and one that is a lie. Mix up the pieces of paper and distribute one to each person. Have participants read each one aloud and guess who wrote down the information.

Adjective Game:

Ask each participant to introduce themself with a descriptive adjective that begins with the same letter of their name. Have them further give an example of why they chose that particular adjective. Be the first one to participate in this game.

Bring Treats to Share

There’s no better way to break the ice than to break bread together. Bring a treat to share with your employees at your first staff meeting. Pick something that is gluten- and nut-free to be inclusive of everyone.

Do’s and Don’ts

Harvard Business Review discusses the importance of building a team before you jump into success-driven action steps. Consider these new manager tips for the first day:

• Learn as much as you can about your co-workers and direct reports.
• Be aware that your actions and behavior speak louder than your words.
• Set personal and group goals.
• Show your support by demonstrating care for each employee.
• Look for ways that you can serve as a problem-solver.
• Begin working on tasks before developing relationships with others.
• Fail to explain expectations and your personal work style.
• Learn about the needs of each individual employee.
• Assume that the first person who talks to you is liked by all.
• Develop assumptions about people without getting to know them personally.
• Harvard Business Review: Becoming the Boss
• Ascend: What New Team Leaders Should Do First
• Northeastern University: Are You a New Manager?

Dr. Kelly Meier earned her doctorate from Minnesota State Mankato in Educational Leadership. She is the author and co-author of 12 books focusing on customer service, diversity and team building. She serves as a consultant for business, industry and educational organizations. Dr. Meier has written business articles and books for Talico, Inc, Dynateam Consulting, Inc. and Kinect Education Group.

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7 ways for opening a speech! The ideal speech introduction to grab your audience’s attention

Maybe you know this: you may or must give a speech, but how do you start? Whether you’re giving a speech as an employer or to your colleagues, or you’re an external keynote speaker, the principles are always the same. Likewise, your preparation is not much different: whether it’s a keynote at a kick-off event , the festive speech at the company Christmas party , a motivational speech at a team event or even a laudatory speech at an awards ceremony – the search for the right begining should not be left to chance.

How do you get your audience’s attention so that they want to listen and can follow you easily? How do you sound interesting? In this article you will get the necessary tips for your ideal start for your next speech to inspire your audience. I have collected these speech introductions and examples in my work in the field of public speaking as a presenter and keynote speaker in front of over 5 million people.

Why is the beginning, i.e. the first few minutes of a presentation, so important? This is where the first impression is being made. Your audience intuitively decides within a few seconds whether they like the speaker and want to follow. After that, you still have up to three minutes to pick up your audience with the content of your speech.

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The first impression is crucial for further success

There’s a saying that goes, “ There’s no second chance for a first impression. ” It takes between 100 milliseconds and 7 seconds for your audience to get the same impression of you. If you as a speaker fail to make that first impression, no matter how impressive your speech, it will be very difficult to pick up your audience. 

US comedian Jerry Seinfeld , one of the most famous American comedians of the 90s, said that his fame only gives him a starting bonus for the first three minutes – at the latest then he has to deliver. If you don’t enjoy the celebrity bonus in your speeches, that means you have to deliver right from the get go to win over your audience.

Requirements for the ideal introduction for your speech

Before you can wow people as a speaker and give any thought to content, you need to set the stage. If you want to give a good speech and move your audience from A to B, two things are essential: you need to know where you want to go and where your audience is coming from .

Know the outcome of your speech

If you don’t know in which direction you want to move your audience, then no amount of tips will get you there. So before you tinker with the ideal introduction, you need to be clear about what your outcome is .

 What feeling do you want the audience to have when you leave the stage? What impression do you want to convey as a speaker? Even more public speaking tips you can find here.

Know your audience members

If you want to catch a fish, you have to use a bait that tastes good to the fish, not to the fisherman . The same applies to presentations: who decides what is a top speech? That is, of course, in the eye of your audience. Therefore, it is all the more important to know who the people are, listening to your speech. 

An American proverb says that your audience doesn’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Your audience won’t pay attention to you until they see that your speech is relevant to them. As a speaker, do you bring examples and tips and answer questions in your main points that matter to the audience? Do your main ideas strike a cord?

Tip: Try to find out as much as possible to know in advance what moves your audience and why people are here today. If you have the opportunity, use the time for successful networking and listen to their needs.

The goal of an ideal introduction to your speech

Only after you know your outcome and your audience you can focus on how to start your presentation, because now you know as a speaker in which direction your ship should sail. If you want to give a speech, you need to get your audience interested in you and your main points. For this to happen, you need the attention of your audience.

Speaker Tip: First create attention , then develop interest in your message and your main points to make it worth listening for your audience.

Giving a speech: seven perfect speech introductions

Now let’s look at tips and examples of how you as a speaker can inspire your audience. These tips should give you a guideline from where you can successfully transition from your chosen introduction to the main part and final part of your speech.

1. He who asks, leads – starting with a question

An elegant way to begin a speech is with a question . The goal is to engage your listener directly in your opening and generate interest. In order for the question to be effective, it must be tailored to your target audience. The question may be provocative, surprising or even make you smile, but it must be relevant.

For example, if you’re speaking to a group of retirees, a question like “Which one of you went to a disco last weekend?” would be just as out of place as asking a group of Wall street brokers “Which one of you has been involved in stocks?”. Your audience needs to feel like you know who you’re dealing with.

“Who remembers what they did last Saturday night?” was an opening I chose many years ago when giving a speech. Of course, after that, there was a story about my Saturday night that fit right in with the theme of my speech. People were immediately involved and everyone was thinking. Because just about everybody did something last Saturday and so it was relevant… even if many didn’t even remember it. 

With questions that fit the topics, you are sure to get the attention of the participants. However, always pay attention to what you trigger in your audience with a question and, if requested, also provide the appropriate answer.

Another speaking tip: When you ask a question, give your audience time to respond . Whether out loud, with a show of hands, or silently, people need time for what you say to have an impact. Of course, questions can also be used during your speech.

2. Start your speech with a quote

Using the words of another person in your speech is a proven way. The art of building a good speech is to pick up your audience where they are. A pointed quote that gets to the heart of your ideas or the occasion is the basic premise for choosing someone else’s statement as your lead-in. If people are familiar with the name of the person you are quoting, it gives you added credibility as a speaker.

Very similar to a quote is using a proverb to start your speech. Again, there is often a deeper wisdom behind it. Link this to the idea of your speech and you have a great introduction.

Again, I’ll give you an example from my own experience when I was asked to give a presentation on the topic of corporate mission statements many years ago. I decided to start with a quote, but the number of quotes on this topic are manageable. However, the corporate mission statement compares very well with the soul for people, and so on this occasion I found a quote on the subject of the soul and then drew the analogy with the corporate mission statement. “Outside the box” solutions are also the speaker’s friend. 

3. Inspire your audience with storytelling

A particularly powerful way to start is to share a story or personal real life experience with your audience at the beginning of your presentation. With a personal story, you create compelling moments and build an emotional connection with your audience. However, this is also where the biggest danger lies: your story must absolutely correspond to the facts and at the same time should have a connection to the topic of the event. The audience has a good nose for it, if you serve them a “suitably made” story.

Of course, storytelling is not limited to stories you have experienced yourself. You can also draw on a current or even historical event. Important, as mentioned above, is the connection to the goal of your presentation. Also, make sure that you start right in the relevant event and do not begin with Adam and Eve. Especially extroverted people like to get into narration and then it can happen that you lose the drive to your actual presentation and your audience is no longer on the point.

One of my stage coaching clients, for example, took his audience into a situation right at the beginning of his speech when he was at the start of his first triathlon. He immediately built up a tension, because he put his audience directly into it instead of talking about preparation and planning for the triathlon. Because he also found the right tone, the speech went down great. Bonus tip for your speech: Stories absolutely need to be rehearsed and tailored to your audience and the occasion. This does not mean, as already mentioned, that you add things, but that you leave out unnecessary things. Don’t just tell from memory, but really practice.

4. Start with an open loop

Starting with an open loop is something like the supreme discipline. Here, you start with a story, but don’t finish telling it until the end of your speech . This type of introduction is certainly a bit unusual and, in my opinion, more suitable for experienced speakers, especially to keep the tension high.

You start with the open loop in the same way as with storytelling and take your audience along until the point where the tension is at its highest. Instead of the resolution, you lead into the topic of your speech and then come to the main part, where the content is presented with further examples. Only at the end do you pick up the ball of your introductory story again and close the open loop.

As an example, I start one of my keynote speeches with such an open loop: I take the audience on my experience at the New York City Marathon. Since my preparation for it was far from ideal due to injuries, I wasn’t sure until the start how far I would run that day. My speech started with the thoughts going through my head at the start, with my uncertainty but also anticipation. The start of the marathon was then the Open Loop, which I only resolved at the end of the speech.

5. Enchant the audience with parables

A parable is a very short to short story which might not even have a plot of its own. While a parable can be told with action, as if something has actually taken place, it can also be about something hypothetical: “Imagine…” or “Suppose…”. In both cases, the point is that we want to make a connection to the content. 

The purpose of parables is to pick up the audience as they enter your presentation and provide an emotional experience that immediately introduces them to the topic through your words.

6. Facts, figures and statistics as an introduction for the speech

The FFS introduction is particularly useful if you have facts, figures or statistics that are not familiar to your audience and are also unusual. In addition, it must of course fit your topic and possibly support your thesis. A personalized statistic works best to meet your audience’s needs.

When we were designing the outline for one of my Executive Legacy Coaching clients’ investor pitch, we made a conscious decision to start with a number that would probably come as a surprise to many listeners. To back up the pain point that his product solves, he asked the panel how much they thought that an unhappy employee costs a company per year. Starting with that number was so effective because the audience’s estimates were all substantially lower than the true number, creating an a-ha effect.

7. Looking back

Another way to start your speech is with a look back . This variant is particularly suitable if you are to give a speech on the occasion of an anniversary or birthday. In your preparation, you should pay special attention to who is sitting in your audience: what connection do they have to the person or the company or the occasion and, above all, have they experienced the period themselves.

Some time ago, I had the privilege of being on stage at a company’s 20th anniversary. In order to give the audience as emotional an experience as possible, I first had to find out who was in the audience. Have people lived through these last 20 years, and are they likely to remember the moment from 20 years ago? Since my audience was mostly over 35 years old I assumed that was the case. Thus I dove into the world of 20 years ago: how did the world look and what moved people at the time? Immediately the people were in the emotions of the memories and from that I could then draw a bow to the company anniversary: “much has changed, but one thing has remained the same…”.

Giving a speech: here’s what you should avoid when getting started

Jokes are for comedians.

There are talented joke tellers and there are those who always flub the punch line. If you feel uncomfortable in the role of the joker, don’t do it. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t spice up the introduction with a little humor. Humor arouses positive emotions and loosens the atmosphere. A humorous introduction, which also works without a joke, signals to the participants that the event will not be dry as dust and that it is worth staying for.

Bonus tip: Humor is different in different regions and works best when you approach your audience with respect and humility.

Stay away from provocative introductions

A provocative introduction is like riding on a razor blade: very dangerous. You have to have an incredible ace up your sleeve to win your audience back. As a rule, I would strongly advise you not to use provocative introductions. If your audience perceives you as an unsympathetic person, no matter how ingenious the content of your speech, it will not bring the desired success.

Start with an apology

Some insecure speaker starts his speech with an apology for his insecurity or God knows what else. Please don’t do that. For one thing, the audience usually doesn’t notice it anyway, and for another, it immediately takes something away from your first impression. You might get sympathy for it, but in the rarest cases you will get the attention for your speech.

One of the most important tips I once received was that your audience wants you to win . That’s right, you read that correctly. Your audience wants you to be good. No one sits in the audience hoping for a boring speaker to come on now. Your audience wants you to do your job well. If you feel anxiety on the way to the stage, keep reading.

The way to the stage and the first seconds

The key to a perfect introduction lies not only in the preparation for your speech, but also in the emotional preparation in the moments before public speaking. Especially if you are nervous or even feel speech anxiety , it is even more important that you, to present convincingly, are in an ideal state.

Take a deep breath just before your performance, send positive emotions to your audience and off you go. Many speakers also like to take index cards with their notes to be prepared in case of an emergency. The phrase for the introduction as well as for the conclusion I would always write in full. For the main points, keywords are enough here.

When you finally arrive on stage, at first be aware of your audience . Before you begin, start with eye contact and confident body language to radiate stage presence . Only then, when you feel the attention of your audience, you start to talk. This confidence will automatically boost your credibility.

Bonus tip: if you’re unsure about your voice, a little voice training will help.

The ideal start for your virtual speech

Of course, the principles for your ideal start also apply at virtual events. So if you hold a webinar or a virtual presentation or are on stage at a hybrid event , nothing will change in the structure of your preparation. The main point in the virtual space is that you have to speak in front of the camera and this should be practiced. The specific elements of structuring your presentation stay the same.

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Feeling ready for your next speech?

In this article you have learned how to start your speech in an ideal way. Do you already have an idea which structure you like best? Remember that you always start with your outcome and your audience before you create a thread for your presentation.

The tone makes the music. Former American writer Maya Angelou summed it up this way: “Your audience won’t remember exactly what you said, but they’ll always remember how it made them feel.” Whatever the occasion, take your audience on an emotional journey.

If you feel that you still need help for your next speech or keynote , feel free to contact me  or just write me an e-mail ! Together many things are easier.

Which introduction appeals to you the most? Which start to a speech have you learned about here and would like to try out for your next performance? Please leave a comment below and share this article with someone who you think will profit from it. All the best for your next speeches.

There is no second chance for a first impression . The first impression is created in the first few seconds of perception and is crucial to whether your audience perceives you as likeable or unlikeable. If you mess up the first impression, the next few minutes will be a steep uphill climb to get the audience back on your side.

First, take three deep breaths and consciously put a smile on your face. Stand up straight, shoulders back, head up and visualize your audience and your goal. The important thing here is to move as quickly as possible from an internal focus (thinking about you) to an external focus (thinking about your audience). Imagine how your audience will benefit from your speech. For even more tips, I recommend you read my blog post Persuasive presentations: 3 Steps to Your Ideal State in Front of an Audience.

Ideally, you were introduced by a presenter who has also given some interesting background information about you to the audience. However, it always makes sense to leave nothing to chance here and, on the one hand, to discuss your introduction with the presenter upfront and, on the other hand, to include the most important points in your speech. I would always start with an introduction into the topic to get the audience interested and then introduce myself. The best way to find the right introduction is to read this article.

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How to Memorably Introduce Another Speaker

• Deborah Grayson Riegel

What to say to get your audience’s attention.

As a professional speaker and facilitator for over 20 years, I’ve been introduced more than a thousand times, by countless meeting planners, conference organizers, and team leaders. Nevertheless, most of the introductions have fallen into one of four categories:

• Deborah Grayson Riegel is a professional speaker and facilitator, as well as a communication and presentation skills coach. She teaches leadership communication at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and has taught for Wharton Business School, Columbia Business School’s Women in Leadership Program, and Peking University’s International MBA Program. She is the author of Overcoming Overthinking: 36 Ways to Tame Anxiety for Work, School, and Life and the best-selling Go To Help: 31 Strategies to Offer, Ask for, and Accept Help .

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How to write a speech introduction

12 of the best attention getters to start a speech

By:  Susan Dugdale  | Last modified: 01-12-2023

The audience settles in their seats. The lights dim. You walk out to the center of the stage. You pause, take a deep breath, open your mouth and begin.

What you say over the next 30 seconds to introduce your speech or presentation is crucial.

That's how much time you have to make a positive impression on your audience. In it they will decide whether or not you have anything relevant or useful to say. Those first impressions count!

So how do you write an effective speech introduction to grab and hold their attention?

Begin by finding out how to choose the right opener.

What's on this page:

• how to choose the right opener for your speech

12 of the very best ways to start a speech

3. What if?

5. Key fact

7. Rhetorical

9. Headlines

10. History

11. Challenge

How to choose the right opener for your speech

The better way to make your choice of opener is after you have carefully considered who you are talking to and why you're talking to them.

One size does not fit all. Different audiences will respond differently. If you are giving the same speech multiple times think about what you may need to change to fit. 

To work well your opening needs to be aligned with:

• the type of speech you're giving
• your main purpose for giving it
• your target audience and,  
• their interests or needs

Both the hook * to catch their attention and your topic must be relevant to them. Unless they're a captive audience, they've come freely to listen to you and they're expecting something of value from you.

How are you going to let them know they're in the right place? Why should they listen? What are they going to get or gain through listening?

Out of all the different ways to open, what attention getter is absolutely the best way?

The only way I know to work out what is best is to go through each of them, and as you do, consider your audience. Make a short list of those you think might work then try them out before making your final choice.

* hook – an opening statement that immediately captures the audience's attention just like a well baited hook on a fishing line catches a fish.

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1. Use imagination to create mind pictures

Ask the audience to use their imagination. Get them to build evocative compelling images in their minds. Make them large. Add vibrant color, sound and movement.

For example:

“Let's take a break. Make yourself comfortable. Now close your eyes for a moment. Take a deep breath, and you're there, in the place where you feel the most at ease, the place where all the tensions, all the demands of your normal everyday life disappear. Look around you. See it. Feel it. It's so good, it's perfect."

“Close your eyes. Take a deep breath and a moment to picture in your mind the people dearest to you, the people you feel you could not live without. Now when did you talk to them, or spend real time with them last?"

2. Use an item to build a connection 

Choose an image or an object related to your speech, for instance a pair of shoes, to trigger interest and build a connection.

For example, if I were giving a speech on the lives of upper-middle class 19th century women I could open by holding up a pair of ornately decorated kid leather pumps.

“What's the name of the young woman who wore these? Listen. Can you hear the rustle of her silk skirts? And hear her heart beat bom-biddy-bom as the beau of the ball stepped her way? Would he, or wouldn't he ask her to dance?”

3. Ask a 'What if...?' rhetorical question

'What if...?' invites an audience to consider the possibilities of something becoming real. They can be positive somethings or negative, trivial or something that would have a significant impact if it came to pass.

The power of a 'what if...?' rhetorical question as an opener lies in the potency of the images and feelings it triggers. A well-chosen 'what if...?' will immediately have an audience wanting to hear the rest of your speech.

• "What if we don't find a way to successfully manage climate change?"
• "What if we really did solve the affordable housing crisis?"
• "What if questions of race and color ceased to matter?"
• "What if medicines were freely available to everybody who needed them?"
• "What if the person sitting next to you turned, looked into your eyes and said they loved you? Truly. Madly. Deeply."

4. Try a quotation from someone who's impacted your life in some way

To be effective a quotation doesn't have to be the clever quip or snippet of enduring wisdom: a famous quote from a well known person. It's origin could be personal, something someone important in your life said that's remained with you.

For example, my Mother answered all initial wails of outrage, pain or hurt from any of her five children with a command. "Breathe!" That was repeated, interwoven with encouraging asides, until whoever it was, was able to talk clearly and be understood.  "It's OK.", she'd say. "Breathe. Come on. You can do it. Breathe. That's it. Keep going. Good."

Or I could use this line from one of my high school reports which read, "...with further maturity she should do well." (Thank you Mr Phillips. Your prediction was right on target.) 

Or this from our son aged four as he watched me getting ready for another day of teaching: "When I grow up I'm going to wear pretty dresses and go to school just like you."

5. Use an interesting key fact

Choose an interesting key fact as an attention getting device: one of the most rarely known, or a shocking statistic from the body of your speech to open with.

For example: "Take a guess at what the most powerful and frequently used word is in the English language? 

It's not one of those usually thought of candidates.  Love? No. Money? Nope. Neither is it  any member of your family... Mum, Dad, brother, sister, son, or daughter.

It's a three letter word, so common it's overlooked and taken for granted. 'The'. It's the humble 'the'."

(For more see this BBC article:  Is this the most powerful word in the English language?

Or: "Between 2020/21 and 2021/2022, Americans consumed about 11 million metric tons of sugar, up from about 10 million metric tons in 2009/2010. Can you even begin to imagine the size of that sweet white mountain?"

(For more see: US sugar consumption statistics )

6. Share personal stories

Share a personal story related to your specific topic as the beginning of a speech. Done well, it lets the audience know you understand their situation and helps establish your credibility: your right to talk on the subject.

As an example here's the opening of a speech I gave about the impact of suicide on families and friends:

“One fine Spring day I biked home from school and found a policemen guarding our backdoor. Through it came sounds I'll never forget: my quiet Mother screaming. He said, "You can't go in."

I kicked him in the shins and did. It was the 15th of September, three days before my thirteenth birthday and my father was dead. Killed by his own hand. Suicide.”

(If you want to find out more about the speech and read it, it's here: After they're gone . It's an example persuasive speech using the five steps of Monroe's Motivated Sequence.)

7. Rhetorical questions

These are questions that although they are asked, they're never really intended to be answered by anyone other than the person asking them. * Their principal function is to act as a segue, or lead in, to what the person intends to say next. For instance, the first main point of your introduction.

Examples: "What if I were to say to you that there was no such thing as public speaking fear?"

"What do you think the main benefits of being able to speak up in public are?"

* Although there's bound to be someone in your audience who will. Be ready for them, and move on.

8. An empathetic question, aligning yourself with the audience and eliciting a response

These questions bring speaker and audience together, establishing a common ground, a mutual understanding, which is an effective way to ease into a speech. If your question 'works' you'll see heads nodding in agreement.

• "Have you ever experienced the butterflies in your stomach turning into a herd of rampaging elephants, just before you step up to give your presentation?"
• "Have you ever wanted a good day to never end?"
• "How often have you 'lost' your car in the supermarket car park?"
• "How often have you ever wanted to shout, NO? You want me to prepare a new presentation by tomorrow? NO. You want me to stay late, again? NO."

9. It's in the news

Take headlines from what's trending in media you know the audience will be familiar with and see.

Using those that relate to your speech topic as the opening of your speech is a good way to grab the attention of the audience. It shows how relevant and up-to-the-minute the topic is.

For example: "'Death toll soars to 76 in Florida after Hurricane Ian demolished entire communities.' 'Noru became a super typhoon in 6 hours. Scientists say powerful storms are becoming harder to forecast.' 'Hurricane Orlene strengthens into Category 4 storm as it heads toward western Mexico.'

Three front page headlines from CNN just today. Climate change. Let's do what we can."

10. This day in history

If you're giving a speech to celebrate a special birthday or an anniversary, consider using several carefully selected events that occurred on the same day as a speech opening. They could be either funny or serious, depending on the specific purpose of your speech. They're a great way to place the person in a much wider context and often with exalted company.

For example: "What do the 1863 National Thanksgiving Day proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln, National Boyfriend Day, and Gwen Stefani have in common with Joe? Yes, the 3rd of October! It's a great date made better by being Joe's birthday. And we say Gwen is truly privileged to have the same one as him."

11. Issue a challenge

Let the audience know first thing, at the beginning of the speech, what action you expect they'll be able to take by the time your presentation is complete. Then when you come to the final points, repeat the call to action, or challenge, as part of your closing statement.

For example: "I've a challenge for you. That's to sign up for our public speaking course. Right now you may not see yourself doing that. Public speaking? Me? I'd rather have a root canal done, without painkillers. However, by the end of the presentation...well, let's see. There's a first time for everything!"

Use a startling statement, a fact, or a series of facts, to jolt the audience into paying attention.

"Covid. We've had 1.06 million of us die in the US, so far. Today there are nearly 60,00 new cases. More mothers, fathers, friends, colleagues, children – people. People ill. People who might die. So why have we stopped wearing masks?"

For more: Google: Covid stats US

Other speech writing resources

• how to end a speech effectively : explanations with examples showing how to close a speech with impact
• how to write a speech : a detailed guide with examples covering audience analysis, planning, writing oral language, transitions, how to use an outline... 

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12+ Opening Speech Examples for Presentations & Quick Tips

Last updated on June 7th, 2024

These days, most of the audience prefers an informal approach in presentations, but at the same time, it must sound professional. When people prepare for any type of presentation, they often face this dilemma: how to start a presentation? What should be the opening speech? How much time should we take for the introduction part?

The first three minutes of your presentations are crucial to get to your audience with an engaging message and make the overall presentation effective. With the proper opening speech for your presentation, you can hook your audience, win the audience’s attention and get them audience interested in what you have to say. Check out some speech introduction examples to get familiar with this topic. Undoubtedly, if the beginning of your presentation is solid and exciting, the chances of success of your presentation increase. Opening your persuasive speech entirely depends upon your style and choice because when you are giving a presentation, you are required to be yourself and avoid putting artistic elements. So, choose something with which you are entirely comfortable.

If you are looking on how to start a speech then this article can help you to get some ideas. Here is a list of opening speech examples that you can use to prepare your presentations with a persuasive speech that convinces the audience. Find useful starting lines of speech, phrases and strategies to make your presentation a success:

1. Opening Speech with Greetings

This is the very basic, common and important step in which you need to greet your audience by wish them good morning/afternoon or evening (as per the time of session in which you are giving presentation). How to start a speech? Check out some of the examples below including a simple but effective speech introduction greeting example.

Example of Opening Greetings

Hello, everyone. I’d like, first of all, to thank the organizers of this meeting for inviting me here today.

Another example of opening Greeting speech.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am honored to have the opportunity to address such a distinguished audience.

2. Open the Speech by Giving Compliment & Show Gratitude towards your Audience

Secondly, just after wishing greeting to your audience give them compliment and choose some words which show that you are delighted to see them there.

Example: 

It’s great to see you all, Thank you for coming here today.

3. Give your introduction: Introduce Yourself

How you introduce yourself during a presentation is important. There are many ways to introduce yourself. Here we will see some examples on how to introduce yourself in a presentation. First of all, give your introduction start from telling your name. You can show some casual attitude by telling your short name or nick name, and then tell the audience more about your background and what you do.

For example, a good way to start introducing yourself could be:

My name is Louis Taylor, friends call me Lee sometimes.

Then introduce yourself professionally and give quite information about what you do and why are here today. For Example:

I am a software engineer by profession and working in ABC Corp. Today, I am here to provide you some exciting information about new technology, which is going to be very beneficial for you in future.

Another example of self-introduction speech:

For those of you who don’t know me already, my name is Louis Taylor, and I’m responsible for the software department at ABC Corp.

Using a self-introduction template and slide in your presentation, you can support your speech while presenting the information about you in the projection. You can also visit self introduction speech examples to find out some examples on how to introduce yourself and download self-introduction templates for PowerPoint & Google Slides.

4. Opening with the Topic of the Speech

Next is the part where you introduce the topic of your presentation or speech. Here are some examples of good opening speech for presentations examples on a specific topic.

What I’d like to present to you today is…

Or here is a simplified example of a good introduction for presentation in which we try to get the audience’s attention over the screen where you are presenting the content of your PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation.

As you can see on the screen, our topic today is…

5. Signpost

Put all your information in front of them and then put your proposal and its related information and key point by which you can implement and utilize that idea effectively. Now let collect these points to make a summary and concise illustration. Here is an example of presentation starting speech that you can use:

“Good afternoon every one, it’s great to see you all here, thank you for coming. My name is Louis Taylor, friends call me Lee sometimes. I am a software engineer by profession and working with ABC Ltd. Today we are here to know about new software so that we can take most of it. Firstly, we will look how it work, next we will discuss where can we use it, then we will learn what are its advantages and finally we will discuss what precautions are required to kept in mind while implementing it.”

6. Creating an Emotional Connection in Your Opening Speech

An effective opening speech is not just about presenting information or stating facts; it’s about forging an emotional connection with your audience. Building this connection can make your presentation more engaging, relatable, and memorable. Here are some strategies to achieve this:

Storytelling: One of the most powerful ways to establish an emotional connection is through storytelling. Sharing a personal anecdote or a relevant story can evoke emotions and draw your audience into your presentation. Make sure your story aligns with the overall theme of your presentation and adds value to your message.

Example of speech opening:

“Good morning, everyone. When I was a little boy, I used to watch my grandfather work tirelessly on his old typewriter. The clacking of the keys was a lullaby that lulled me into dreams of creating something impactful. Today, I am here to talk about the evolution of technology and its effect on communication, from typewriters of old to the smartphones of today.”

Relatability: Find common ground with your audience. This could be based on shared experiences, values, or aspirations. Doing so helps to humanize you, making it easier for your audience to relate to your message.

“Like many of you, I too struggle with maintaining a work-life balance in this fast-paced digital world. Today, I’ll share some strategies I’ve discovered that have significantly improved my quality of life.”

Utilizing Emotions: Use emotions like humor, surprise, curiosity, or inspiration to engage your audience. Different emotions can be used depending on the tone and purpose of your presentation.

“Did you know that the average person spends two weeks of their life waiting for traffic lights to change? That certainly puts our daily commute in a new light, doesn’t it?”

Remember, authenticity is crucial in building an emotional connection. Be yourself, share your experiences, and speak from the heart. This helps to gain your audience’s trust and keeps them engaged throughout your presentation.

7. Harnessing the Power of Visual Aids in Your Opening Speech

Visual aids are a potent tool in any presentation, particularly in your opening speech. They can grab your audience’s attention with a visually appealing cover slide, support your message, and make a lasting impression. Here are some ways you can utilize visual aids in your opening speech.

Images: An image is worth a thousand words, they say, and it’s true. An impactful or relevant image can pique the curiosity of your audience and set the tone for your presentation. Ensure the image aligns with your topic and contributes to your overall message.

“As you can see on the screen, this is an image of a barren desert. It may surprise you to learn that this was once a thriving forest. Today, I’ll be talking about climate change and its irreversible effects.”

Short Videos: A short video can be a great way to engage your audience. This could be a brief clip that illustrates your topic, a short animation, or even a quick introductory video about you or your organization.

Example of a presentation opening statement:

“Before we start, let’s watch this brief video about the incredible journey of a raindrop.”

Infographics and Charts: If you are sharing statistical data or complex information, infographic slides or charts can simplify and clarify your message. They are visually engaging and can help your audience understand and remember the information.

“Take a look at this chart. It shows the exponential increase in cybercrime over the last five years, a topic that we will delve into further today.”

Slides: A well-designed slide can provide a visual structure for your opening speech. It should be clean, easy to read, and should not distract from your speech. Avoid cluttering your slides with too much text or complex graphics.

“According to the infographic on the screen, we can see the three core areas we’ll be focusing on in today’s presentation.”

Remember, the goal of using visual slides is to enhance your message, not overshadow it. They should complement your speech and provide visual interest for your audience. Always test your visual aids beforehand to ensure they work properly during your presentation.

8. Engaging Your Audience with Rhetorical Questions

A rhetorical question is a powerful tool you can use in your opening speech to provoke thought and engage your audience. By posing a question that doesn’t require an answer, you can pique your audience’s interest, make them think, and steer their focus towards your presentation’s key points. Here’s how to use rhetorical questions effectively in your opening speech:

Spark Curiosity: Use a rhetorical question to spark curiosity about your topic. This question should be thought-provoking and relevant to your presentation.

“Have you ever stopped to wonder how much of your life is influenced by social media?”

Highlight Key Issues: A rhetorical question can help highlight the key issues or problems that your presentation aims to address. This will help your audience understand the importance of your topic.

“What would happen if our natural resources were to run out tomorrow?”

Encourage Reflection: Encourage your audience to reflect on their personal experiences or beliefs. This will make your presentation more relatable and engaging.

“How many of us truly understand the value of our mental health?”

Set the Tone: You can also use a rhetorical question to set the tone of your presentation, whether it’s serious, humorous, or contemplative.

“Is there anyone here who doesn’t love pizza?”

Remember, rhetorical questions are meant to stimulate thought, not to put anyone on the spot. Make sure your questions are relevant to your topic and are appropriate for your audience. With the right questions, you can grab your audience’s attention, keep them engaged, and guide their thinking throughout your presentation.

9. Leveraging Statistical Data in Your Opening Speech

Using statistical data in your opening speech is a powerful way to capture the audience’s attention and lend credibility to your message. Surprising or impactful statistics related to your presentation’s topic can instantly make your audience sit up and take notice. Here’s how you can incorporate statistical data effectively in your opening speech:

Relevant and Interesting Data: Choose statistics that are directly relevant to your topic and are likely to pique your audience’s interest. This data should enhance your message and provide valuable context for your presentation.

“Do you know that according to the World Health Organization, depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting over 264 million people?”

Simplify Complex Data: If you’re presenting complex or dense data, make sure to simplify it for your audience. Use percentages, comparisons, or visual aids like infographics or charts to make the data easily understandable.

“Look at this chart. It represents the staggering 80% increase in cybercrime incidents over the past five years.”

Credible Sources: Always ensure your data comes from credible and reputable sources. This not only adds legitimacy to your presentation, but it also boosts your credibility as a speaker.

“According to a recent study published in the Journal of Environmental Science, air pollution contributes to 1 in 8 deaths worldwide.”

Shocking or Surprising Data: If you have statistics that are surprising or counter-intuitive, they can be an excellent way to grab your audience’s attention and spark curiosity about your presentation.

“Can you believe that, according to the United Nations, we waste approximately 1.3 billion tons of food every year, while one in nine people worldwide go hungry?”

Using statistical data in your opening speech can help to highlight the significance of your topic, draw your audience in, and lay a solid foundation for the rest of your presentation. Remember to present your data in a clear, accessible way, and always cite your sources to maintain credibility.

10. Creating a Powerful Hook with Anecdotes and Quotations

Anecdotes and quotations can be a powerful tool in your opening speech, serving as hooks that draw your audience into your presentation. They can provide a human element to your topic, connect with your audience on an emotional level, and add depth to your message. Here’s how you can effectively incorporate anecdotes and quotations in your opening speech:

Relevant Anecdotes: Sharing a relevant anecdote, whether personal or related to your topic, can make your presentation more relatable and engaging. Your anecdote should be brief, interesting, and serve to illustrate a point related to your topic.

“When I was a teenager, my family’s home was destroyed by a fire. That experience ignited in me a passion for safety measures and awareness, which brings us to today’s topic: fire safety in residential areas.”

Inspiring Quotations: A well-chosen quote can add depth and perspective to your topic. It can inspire, provoke thought, or set the tone for your presentation. Presenting it with a visually appealing quote slide increases the chances to make a lasting impression. Make sure the quote is relevant to your topic and from a credible source.

“Albert Einstein once said, ‘The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.’ This leads us into our discussion today on the importance of mindset in personal development.”

Humorous Anecdotes or Quotations: Depending on the formality of the setting and the topic of your presentation, a funny anecdote or quote can help to relax the audience, making them more receptive to your message.

“Mark Twain once said, ‘I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.’ As a fellow writer, I can relate to this sentiment, which brings us to our topic today: the art of concise writing.”

Remember, your anecdote or quote should serve to enhance your message, not distract from it. It should be interesting, relevant, and appropriately timed. With the right anecdote or quote, you can create a powerful hook that engages your audience from the outset.

11. Integrating Storytelling in your Opening Speech

Storytelling is a compelling method to make your opening speech memorable and engaging. A well-told story can create a strong emotional connection with your audience, making your presentation more impactful. Here’s how to effectively weave storytelling into your opening speech:

Choosing the Right Story: The story you tell should be relevant to your topic and capable of illustrating the point you’re trying to make. It could be a personal experience, a case study, or a historical event.

“Years ago, I worked on a project that, at the outset, seemed destined for success. But due to a lack of clear communication within the team, the project failed. Today, we will be discussing the importance of effective communication within teams.”

Creating Suspense: Build suspense in your story to hold your audience’s attention. You can do this by posing a problem or a conflict at the beginning of your story, which gets resolved by the end of your presentation.

“One day, as I was walking through a remote village in Africa, I came across a scene that profoundly changed my perspective. But before I reveal what it was, let’s discuss the issue of clean drinking water in underdeveloped countries.”

Showing, Not Telling: Make your story more vivid and engaging by showing, not telling. Use descriptive language and paint a picture with your words to make your audience feel like they’re part of the story.

“As the sun rose over the bustling city of Tokyo, I found myself in a small sushi shop tucked away in a quiet alley, experiencing what would become a pivotal moment in my culinary journey.”

Relatable Characters: If your story involves characters, make them relatable. Your audience should be able to see themselves in your characters, or at least understand their motivations and challenges.

“Meet Sarah, a single mother of two, working two jobs just to make ends meet. Her struggle is the reason we’re here today, to discuss the issue of minimum wage in our country.”

Storytelling is a powerful tool that can bring your presentation to life. A well-told story can captivate your audience, making your message more memorable and impactful. Be sure to select a story that aligns with your overall message and is appropriate for your audience.

12. Incorporating Interactive Elements in Your Opening Speech

Involving your audience from the get-go can make your presentation more engaging and memorable. By integrating interactive elements into your opening speech, you can foster a sense of participation and connection among your listeners. Here’s how you can do it:

Audience Polling: Modern presentation software often includes real-time polling features. You can ask your audience a question related to your topic and display the results instantly.

“To start, I’d like to ask you all a question. (Show poll on screen) How many of you think that Artificial Intelligence will significantly change our lives in the next ten years?”

Questions for Thought: Pose a thought-provoking question to your audience at the beginning of your speech. It can stimulate curiosity and get your listeners thinking about your topic.

“Before we delve into today’s topic, I want you to ponder this: what would you do if you had only 24 hours left to live? Keep that in mind as we discuss the importance of time management.”

Physical Engagement: Depending on the formality and size of your audience, you can incorporate physical engagement. This can range from a simple show of hands to engaging activities.

“By a show of hands, how many of you have ever felt overwhelmed by the amount of information available on the internet? That’s what we’ll be discussing today: information overload in the digital age.”

Interactive Quizzes: Quizzes can be a fun and interactive way to engage your audience and test their knowledge on your topic. It can also serve as a hook to introduce your topic. You can use a free Quiz PowerPoint template to ease the job of creating a quiz for your presentation.

“I have a quick quiz for you all (show quiz on screen). Let’s see who can guess the most common fear among adults. The answer will lead us into our topic of discussion today: overcoming fear.”

Remember, the goal of incorporating interactive elements is to engage your audience, so it should be relevant and add value to your presentation. Tailor your interactive elements to suit the needs and preferences of your audience, and you’ll have a winning opening speech.

What are the Objectives of Preparing a Good Introduction and Opening Speech?

As we mentioned earlier, the first minutes of your presentation are crucial to hook the audience and let them pay attention to the message you want to convey. This will depend on the type of presentation (if it is persuasive presentation, informative presentation or a presentation for entertaining the audience), but in general terms, when presenting we need to:

• Capture the audience’s attention
• Present information, opinions, ideas to the audience.
• Present important details about a specific topic.
• Sell an idea.
• Make the information memorable so it can persist over the time.
• Get your audience to take action, a Call to Action. E.g. purchase a product, enroll to something, fundraise, etc.

Real-Life Examples of Effective Opening Speeches

Barack Obama started his speech in the White House Correspondents’ Dinner saying: “You can’t say it, but you know it’s true.”

In same cases, humour can be a great companion for your speech. If you can use humour in a positive way, then getting a laugh in the first seconds of a presentation can get your audience hooked. It is a great way to open your speech.

Final Thoughts

Try to make habit of starting your presentation this way, it will sound great. You may come across several more opening speech examples for presentation but, once you implement this you yourself will realize that this is the best one. Alternatively you can learn more on quotes for presentations & speech topics  to use during your presentation in PowerPoint, learn how to close your presentation , or find other relevant speech introduction greeting examples.

49 comments on “ 12+ Opening Speech Examples for Presentations & Quick Tips ”

thank you very much

Hi Kavishki, we hope the article was useful for you. Will be great to learn more about how you have used the speech examples. If you need more speech ideas, I’d recommend you free Persuasive Speech topics .

hi,good morning all of you.i’m shadi.now i’m going to do a panel discussion.we want some informations from you we believe all will support us.

Hi Kavishki, good morning. Can please provide more information about the Panel Discussion needs and if it involves a PowerPoint presentation? We’d be happy to be of help!

This was very useful to me! But i need more speech ideas!

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plesae i would like u my pleasure to help me with some opening celebration word,s specially greeting to the audience

It would be appreciable if you share more speech about this.thank you.

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Thank you for the information about the introduction during pesentation.Truely,i really need to study lot about how to start my presentation so that the audience are interesting to hear what i want to talk about and do not feel bored.

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Thanks for the useful information. Can I ask how can I improve my self-confidence so as not to be embarrassed when presenting? Any idea? Thank you.

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first of all, thank you for the help. there are a lot of great idea for me to use for my next presentation

Hi please i would like you to help me write an introduction for a speech about myself to my teacher

It’s help my presentation

Thank you so so much I will tell this at the UNIVERSITY presentation

please i really love your speech but can you please throw more light on the introduction

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I need good presentation.

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Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco Delivers Remarks at the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Women in Federal Law Enforcement Foundation

Alexandria , VA United States

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Thank you, Director Wray, for that generous introduction – and to Acting Deputy Secretary Canegallo for your words. Federal law enforcement is fortunate to have great leaders in the two of you.

You know, the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security together employ 80% of all federal law enforcement. So it’s fitting the Deputy Secretary and I are here together.

Now you may have heard rumors about a law enforcement rivalry between our two agencies – which I can neither confirm nor deny – but I can tell you that Deputy Secretary Canegallo and I are unified in our commitment to advancing women in law enforcement, and I’m grateful for her partnership. She is a terrific leader for DHS.

Thank you to WIFLE President Catrina Bonus and Vice President Jessie Lane for the invitation to speak today. It’s an honor to join WIFLE’s 25th Anniversary celebration.

I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of this community of women in federal law enforcement – a community that exists in large part because of the vision of WIFLE’s founders.

I’m happy to see some of my former colleagues as well – great law enforcement leaders like Amy Jo Lyons and Regina Lombardo – two former presidents of WIFLE’s executive committee.

I think I first learned about WIFLE from Amy Jo when she was FBI’s Special Agent in Charge of the Baltimore Field Office and I was Director Mueller’s Chief of Staff.

And its great to see Regina Lombardo, former ATF Acting Director and trailblazer in that job.

We’re all here today for a simple reason: because we believe that women in law enforcement make our communities safer, and we need more of them on the job.

For 25 years, WIFLE has been leading the way to make this a reality. Today, WIFLE is the only non-profit in the country dedicated exclusively to recruiting, retaining, and promoting women in federal law enforcement. 

Because of WIFLE’s persistence in promoting women in the law enforcement profession, we’ve come a long way.

But there was a time when every federal law enforcement agent in this nation was a man.

Every single one.

And I guess that’s not hard to believe when we hear about experiences like Nancy McRae’s.

But thanks to trailblazers like her and those we honor today, and WIFLE’s founders, today there are thousands of women serving in federal law enforcement.

I’m proud to help lead the many of those women in the Department of Justice who every single day are fulfilling our mission to uphold the rule of law, keep our communities safe, and protect civil rights.

They are women serving as sworn law enforcement officers across the FBI, ATF, DEA, Marshal’s Service, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, as well as the members of the Justice Protective Service who protect our facilities.

And they are women serving as analysts and in professional staff roles across the Justice Department’s law enforcement agencies.

Today we honor some of the profession’s trailblazers.

Trailblazers is an appropriate term – because for all of us to move forward, someone had to go first.

The courage and service of those first women in federal law enforcement remain an inspiration today – and I’m so happy that many of them are here today.

I’d like to acknowledge:

• FBI Special Agent Susan Malone
• ATF Special Agent Ann Kocher
• U.S. Postal Inspector Janene Gordon
• And Secret Service Special Agents Phyllis Shantz, Kathryn Clark Childers, and Sue Ann Baker.

Your courage and service paved the path for the profession – and for women who followed in your footsteps.

Over the course of WIFLE’s 25-year history, we’ve seen sustained efforts by federal law enforcement agencies to recruit talented women to their ranks, and to retain them.

While the numbers of women in federal law enforcement have grown, the overall percentage of women across federal law enforcement has remained relatively constant – around 14%.

And that’s why initiatives like 30x30 are so important.

As the saying goes, you can’t be what you can’t see. And I’m guessing we’ve all had the experience at some point of looking around and seeing that we were the only woman in the room. I grew up with three brothers, so for me it started early.

So, we need more women in the pipeline to make that experience, the exception not the rule, and to fill the profession’s ranks – including at the executive level.

I’m proud that all of the Justice Department’s law enforcement components have signed onto the 30x30 Initiative.

I want to acknowledge Director Wray’s commitment on this and the leadership the FBI has shown in reaching this achievement with recent recruiting classes.

While 30x30 focuses on ensuring that women make up 30% of recruiting classes by 2030 – the recruiting classes are quite literally just the beginning.

It’s about recruiting more women to a career in law enforcement so that we are getting the best people for the job and strengthening our workforce across the board.

That’s why the leaders of the Justice Department’s law enforcement agencies are reaching out to colleges and universities across the country, speaking to students and promoting a more diverse profession for the next generation of criminal justice leaders, including for women.

They are running career fairs, building relationships with all-women colleges and universities, and developing targeted outreach programs for female veterans and military spouses to leverage their skills and experiences.

And it’s paying off: for instance DEA has increased women in senior executive positions by 11%.

But this effort is about more than increasing women’s representation and leadership in the profession – it’s about the safety of our communities.

Few professions stand to benefit more from adding women to their ranks than law enforcement.

Building trust with the communities we serve is critical to public safety.

Among other things, research shows that women officers are less likely than men to use excessive force; and they’re more effective at de-escalating volatile situations.

Our communities deserve to have confidence in law enforcement that is reflected in that research.

And women in law enforcement deserve the confidence of our communities.

Every woman who’s ever been the only woman in the room, at the table, or on a squad knows the feeling – the second guessing, the imposter syndrome, and worse.

Unfortunately, sometimes those critiques are not confined to the occasional voice in your head.

Recently it seems the ghost of J. Edgar Hoover is alive and well, voicing the outdated idea that women don’t belong in law enforcement.

Whether it’s in investigative, tactical, administrative – or, yes, protective roles – women in law enforcement make our communities safer.

Let me take this opportunity to say thank you to women and men of the U.S. Marshal’s Service who serve on my protective detail and keep me safe every day.

I’m grateful for their service.

The threats law enforcement is facing today are more complex and more dangerous than ever – that includes an unacceptable level of threats against public officials including law enforcement.

As these threats converge, I am certain of this: we need more women in law enforcement across more communities in more senior roles than ever.

At the Department of Justice, we have your back.

We celebrate your service, applaud your sacrifice, and appreciate everything you do to keep our public officials, our communities, and our country safe.

I have the privilege of witnessing that work every day. It’s visible across the Justice Department.

From DEA Administrator Anne Milgram to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons Colette Peters – to the many women leading within the U.S. Marshals Service, the ATF, and FBI throughout the country – our communities and our country are better because of their outstanding work.

As with WIFLE’s trailblazers – it’s only when someone goes first can the rest of us see the way.

I’m here today – as Deputy Attorney General and as a woman in law enforcement – in large part because my first boss at the Justice Department was Janet Reno — the first woman Attorney General in our country’s history.

It took too long to reach that milestone.

So, we have to keep pushing toward WIFLE’s vision of what law enforcement can and should look like; we have to ensure women have the opportunity to advance in all areas of the profession; and to stay in the field for the long term.

That’s why this gathering is so important. And that’s why I couldn’t be prouder to celebrate WIFLE’s impact.

Congratulations again on 25 years. I can’t wait to see where we are in 25 more.

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WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing – 7 August 2024

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening,

Today the WHO family is in mourning over the sudden passing of our dear friend and colleague, Aidan O’Leary, the Director of the WHO Polio Eradication Programme.

Aidan died suddenly last night from natural causes while on holiday with his family.

He was an outstanding humanitarian who served tirelessly in the most difficult parts of the world.

He joined WHO in 2020, after a career of service in the United Nations in some of the world’s most difficult places, including Afghanistan, Gaza, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Yemen.

He embodied the ideal of service and solidarity across peoples and borders.

His passing is a terrible loss for WHO and for all of humanity, but most of all for his family and friends, in his native Ireland and throughout the world.

On behalf of WHO, I extend my deepest condolences to them all.

We will miss Aidan enormously, and we will remember him for his kindness, openness and friendliness. He was a gentle giant, in every sense.

We are committed to continuing his legacy to realise his vision - and ours - of a polio-free world.

Rest in peace, my dear friend. As the Irish say, Ar dheis dé go raibh a anam dilis.

One of the last things Aidan was working on was preparations for two rounds of polio vaccination campaigns in Gaza, targeting 600 000 children under the age of 8.

WHO is sending more than 1 million polio vaccines to Gaza, which will be administered in the coming weeks.

The detection of polio in wastewater in Gaza is a tell-tale sign that the virus has been circulating in the community, putting unvaccinated children at risk.

WHO is also supporting routine immunization and disease surveillance, including for polio. 

We need absolute freedom of movement for health workers and medical equipment to carry out these complex operations safely and effectively.

A ceasefire, or at least “days of tranquility” during preparation and delivery of the vaccination campaigns are required to protect children in Gaza from polio.

Since the beginning of this year, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been experiencing a severe outbreak of Mpox, with  more than 14 000 reported cases and 511 deaths.

Outbreaks of Mpox have been reported in DRC for decades, and the number of cases reported each year has been increasing steadily.

However, the number of cases reported in the first six months of this year match the number reported in all of last year, and the virus has spread to previously unaffected provinces.

In the past month, about 50 confirmed and more suspected cases have been reported in four countries neighbouring the DRC that have not reported before: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

Mpox outbreaks are caused by different viruses called clades.

Clade 1 has been circulating in the DRC for years, while clade 2 was responsible for the global outbreak which began in 2022.

The current outbreak in the Eastern DRC is caused by a new offshoot of clade 1, called clade 1b, which causes more severe disease than clade 2.

Clade 1b has been confirmed in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, while the clade in Burundi is still being analysed.

At the same time, cases of clade 1a have been reported this year in DRC, the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo, while clade 2 has been reported in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Nigeria and South Africa.

WHO is working with the governments of the affected countries, the Africa CDC, NGOs, civil society and other partners to understand and address the drivers of these outbreaks.

Stopping transmission will require a comprehensive response, with communities at the centre.

WHO has Standing Recommendations on mpox which include advice not to impose travel restrictions on affected countries.

WHO has developed a regional response plan, requiring US$ 15 million to support surveillance, preparedness and response activities.

We have released US$ 1 million from the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies to support scale-up of the response, and we plan to release more in the coming days.

There are two vaccines for mpox that have been approved by WHO-listed national regulatory authorities, and which are recommended by WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization, or SAGE.

I have triggered the process for Emergency Use Listing of both vaccines, which will accelerate vaccine access particularly for lower-income countries, which have not yet issued their own national regulatory approval.

Emergency Use Listing also enables partners including Gavi and UNICEF to procure vaccines for distribution.

WHO is grateful to Japan, the United States, the European Union and manufacturers for working with us on vaccine donations.

We are working with all partners through the interim Medical Countermeasures Network to facilitate equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and other tools.

In light of the spread of Mpox outside DRC, and the potential for further international spread within and outside Africa, I have decided to convene an Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulations to advise me on whether the outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern. 

The committee will meet as soon as possible and will be made up of independent experts from a range of relevant disciplines from around the world.

Finally, last week, I had the honour of attending the Olympic Games in Paris.

As I joined fans from around the world in full stadiums, I was reminded of how far the world has come since the last Games in Tokyo, when stadiums were empty because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

While COVID-19 is no longer an international health emergency, these Games are taking place against the backdrop of many other crises in our world, including conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, with the risk of a wider conflict in the Middle East.

The Olympic Games won’t make the problems of our world go away, but they are a source of joy, hope and light in an often dark and divided world.

They remind us that we are one humanity, and that our commonalities are greater than our differences.

The Olympic Games are more than a sporting contest. They’re an expression of what it means to be human, and a glimpse of what our world could look like when we come together in friendship.

In the words of the Olympic Charter, the Games are about putting sport at the service of our harmonious development, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.

When the Olympic flame is extinguished in Paris this Sunday, may it continue to shine as a beacon of hope for a more peaceful world.