Don't Neglect Your Opening and Closing

The speaker understood the concept of beginning – middle – end. But he didn’t practice that in the delivery of his speech.

As the owner of an advertising agency, he explained that every ad follows a storyline and every story has a beginning, middle and end.

However, he clearly didn’t see his presentation as a story with a beginning, middle and end. He failed to deliverer an effective beginning and end. Ironic.

His opening line was, “So what I’m gonna try to do…”

Would he start an ad with such a limp phrase?

In the middle of his speech he delivered some fascinating insights and examples of advertising stories. He shone at this point because he was talking about ideas and examples about which he was passionate and knowledgeable.

The closing line to his speech was, “Enjoy your conference. Thank you for your invitation. Any questions? Am I supposed to take questions?

That’s a weak and sloppy close.

My guess is that he wouldn’t have been so caviler if he was speaking to a client instead of a university group.

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