Impact Opening
You have 30 seconds to grab their attention, but how? Read the newspaper and use one of the news articles to set the scene. You’ll probably start off with something like this:
“I’m not certain if you read this morning’s paper but on page 5 there’s a story about…”
Obviously the ‘story’ relates somehow to an aspect of your message, preferably the key aspect. The story only need to be short and by all means have the newspaper with you and read it directly to the audience. Be wary of the time so don’t read the entire article, just the headline and the aspect that relates to your topic.
This technique really grabs the attention of the audience and it certainly makes sure you are seen as current (it’s today’s paper!). Additionally it makes you look extremely confident because obviously you could not have been practicing it for weeks or even days as it has only just been published that morning.