Ice-Breakers for Your Presentation: 5 Proven Suggestions

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By Robert Daverschot

Haven’t we all been there? That moment when you sit down to prepare the first few lines of your presentation. The core of your story isn’t that difficult – you’re an expert on the matter. Yet, you want the beginning to be smashing too! We’re here to help: pick any of these ice-breakers and melt your crowd!

1. Show Some Personal Pictures

You’ll surprise an audience with something unexpected. Choose a picture of your travels, your pets or childhood. Anything personal will do.

This not only helps to introduce yourself, but people can have a laugh too. That’s what we call an ice-breaker: A charming and light start of your story!

2. Talk to Your Neighbor

Take the focus off yourself and let attendees first briefly speak to one another.

Think of a question they can discuss, like “How innovative do you consider yourself?”, “What’s your best experience with today’s theme?”

Do you notice how the atmosphere has become so much more relaxed?

3. Tell a Story

Recently Sendsteps facilitated a large event of a hotel booking platform. The CEO asked the audience with which story he should kick-off:

1. My trend predictions for the upcoming travel season
2. My reflection on last year’s performance
3. My last holiday to Greece.

The audience voted for C.

4. Ask a Personal Question

Instead of telling your story, let the audience share theirs with you. Come up with a few fun and personal questions:

• If you would own a time machine, to what moment would you travel back?
• What will you do on your first day of retirement?
• What did you find difficult to share as a kid?

5. Check Stereotypes

Imagine yourself in front of a group that is predominantly represented by one type of profession e.g. lawyers, marketers or nurse practitioners. You’ll find plenty of image studies online that describe how people see a specific profession. Check with your crowd if indeed “Lawyers are smooth talkers” or if “Event planners are well-organized in their private lives too.”

The trick to these ice-breakers is to make people feel more relaxed. To create more interaction. To tear down some walls that can easily be pulled up in a professional context. A lighter energy will reflect on your story too. For any of the above ice-breakers, it helps to publish outcomes onto the presentation screen. You can do so for your poll, your open question or word cloud! Audience response system Sendsteps is a tool that can help you well with this. Ready? Now melt some ice!

Robert Daverschot is a moderator for corporate events. On stage, Robert has interviewed ministers, subject experts, and captains of industry. He even interviewed His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In close cooperation with Sendsteps, and in his dealings with audiences, he always seeks full audience participation. Sendsteps technology enables an audience to respond through smartphones on multiple choice questions, open question, and surveys.

The use of Sendsteps contributes to an open atmosphere whereby an audience can voice their opinions, thoughts, and experiences.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.