English for Presentations: Starting

For the remainder of the series, we will turn our focus to useful English sayings and expressions for giving presentations.  In this section we will look at how to start an English presentation.  Your presentation is a blank canvas, and your first brush strokes are important.  The first 1 or 2 minutes of your presentation set the tone for the rest of the presentation.  And as you know, first impressions are everything. 

English for Presentations: Starting

1. Welcome your audience
2. Introduce yourself
3. Introduce the topic of the presentation.
4. Sample Presentation
5. English for Presentations Menu

Welcoming your audience

This is your ‘hello’ and your first impression.  It’s your chance to set the tone of the presentation.  Choose between a formal or friendly tone. You can expand here with a joke, a story, or a reference to the audience members that you know.  There are many ways to build your rapport here.

• Good morning, ladies and gentlemen
• Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman
• Hello everybody.  How are you?
• Hi everyone and welcome to my presentation.
• First of all, let me thank you all for coming here today.

Introducing yourself

Here you can choose between your full name or just your first name.  You can add your company, department, job title, or even your professional background.

• Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is ….
• I’m _(name)______ from ___(company)_______
• Let me start by saying a few words about my own background.

Introducing the Presentation Subject

Here, you give the topic.  The title is enough as you’ll have plenty of time later to give further information.

• I am going to talk today about…
• This morning I’m going to take a look at …..
• The purpose / topic / goal of my presentation is to …
• As you can see on the screen, our topic today is……
• This talk is designed to …
• My talk is particularly relevant to those of you who….

Sample Presentation

Below you will see how you can mix and match the expressions to make your presentation light and easy, or formal and professional

Friendly

Hello everyone.  How are you?  I’m John from ABC Company, and I’m going to talk today about our new product.

Formal

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. First of all, let me thank you all for coming here today. Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is John McCucheon from ABC Company. Let me start by saying a few words about my own background. I’m originally from London, Ontario, and have been with ABC for 15 years in the R&D department.

The purpose of my presentation is to introduce our new product to you. My talk is particularly relevant to those of you who have noticed an increase in customer interest in the last 6 months in the sporting goods market. This presentation is designed to show you some of our products unique features and advantages.

English for Presentations: Menu