RE: How to introduce myself

Hi Rita

It's great to hear from you and I'm glad you found the course useful. Thank you for your interesting question too.

I would suggest there are a number of factors that could influence us with regards how to handle introductions:

The audience profile - whether we know each other or not, our message and what's in it for them, the form and structure of the event (is there a protocol followed by other speakers?)

As a rule of thumb I would say names are one of those pieces of information that can comfortably be repeated often to good effect as they are frequently said quickly, retained in short term memory (so quickly forgotten) and shared at a time when we are distracted with other matters (How do I look? Am I in the right meeting? Where is the coffee?).

So at its simplest you could thank your boss and re-introduce yourself so you can immediately position your purpose and WIIFT (what's in it for them) like this:

(Your boss introduces you)
Hi everyone, as Amanda (boss) said I am Rita and..

(then you choose)

my role is (set your credibility or authority then...)

and I have a question/decision/thought for you...

This could lead into an interesting / unusual or attention grabbing starting point perhaps accompanied by a single image, a quote or a startling statistic. The tone is set, attention grabbed and you are on your way!

What goes into this slide is decided by the goals you originally set out for your presentation and your assessment of WIIFT.

Re-using this slide at the end of your presentation - perhaps with some slight adjustment is an effective way of rounding off a presentation and signaling to the group that we have reached then end.

The key thing with names is to say them slowly. We are so familiar with our own name that we say it quickly. Help the audience by giving them cues and pauses like this:

Hi everyone, I've been looking forward to talking to you today. As Amanda said, my name is Rita and ....


I hope this helps. Good luck with the presentation. Do let me know how it goes or if I can be of any further help.


Kind regards,
Andrew