Ice-breakers for your presentation | 5 proven suggestions!

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!

Take the focus of 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 relaxt?

Recently Sendsteps facilitated a large event of a hotel booking platform. The CEO asked the audience with which story he should kick off: A] My trend predictions for the upcoming travel season B] My reflection on last year’s performance C] My last holiday to Greece. The audience voted for C.

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?” or “What did you find difficult to share as a kid?”.

Imagine yourself in front of a group that is predominantly represented by one type of profession e.g. lawyers, marketeers 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 live too”. The trick to these ice-breakers is to make people feel more relaxt. 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 wordcloud! Ready? Now melt some ice!