To Acknowledge Or Not?

Imagine you're about to give a presentation or speech. Do you automatically begin it with an acknowledgment of country?

When I teach presentation skills I tell people no, you don't have to do an acknowledgment of country if someone else has already done one.

How you choose to begin a presentation is crucial because your aim is to capture your audience's attention immediately. There are so many creative ways to do this (see below for a list of suggestions) yet when you begin with an unnecessary acknowledgement of country, I think you've wasted a golden opportunity.

Not wanting to be disrespectful, I checked with a Reconciliation Manger (who is also an Indigenous Australian) from a top Australian corporate. Her view is the same as mine: as long as someone has performed a welcome to, or acknowledgement of, country at the beginning of an event or official meeting, then no one else has to.

Interestingly, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had this to say today: “I do get the point that when you go to a function and there’s an MC who I think appropriately can do recognition, you then get the next five or 10 speakers who each do their own acknowledgment to country, and frankly, I think it detracts from the significance of the statement that’s being made.”

I agree.

To be sure, the rest of the article in The Australian is more about whether recognition like this has become mere virtue signaling, or perhaps even divisive. I don't know about that, but what I can say from my position as a presentation skills trainer is that I think it's a poor - perhaps even lazy? - way to begin your speech if someone else has already fulfilled that role.

How else to begin a presentation/speech then? Here's 12 different ways and I recommend you give one of them a try next time you have to address a room:

1. Have an intriguing title slide?(respected economist Chris Richardson recently gave a speech to a bunch of economists titled 'Freeing Your Inner Superhero')???????????????????????????????????????????

2. Ask the audience for a show of hands (for example, "How many of you have decided which way you'll vote at the coming referendum?)

3. Throw up a stunning statistic as your first slide and explain it (for example: "$US1.2?trillion. That's the amount of cumulative investment needed in clean energy manufacturing and critical minerals supply by 2030 to get the world back on track for a 1.5°C warming, according to the IEA.")

4. Copy and paste a provocative statement or compelling quote that someone has made that corresponds with what your speech is about.

5. Display a startling image that sends a clear message about what you're about to talk about.

6. Begin with a simile, metaphor or analogy (e.g. "I've heard it said that tackling the fake Indigenous art industry is like playing whack-a-mole").

7. Play a short video or piece of music.

8. Ask your audience to close their eyes and imagine something.

9. Tell a relevant personal anecdote, or a short story about someone else.

10. Bring in a relevant prop (e.g. if you're talking about the rising cost of living, bring in a big glass of milk and place it on the lectern, as the price of dairy items have risen 15.2% in the past 12 months).

11. Propose an audacious goal to the group (and then follow up with how to achieve it, obviously).

12. Say something funny (watch J.K Rowling's Harvard speech, she uses humor very effectively).

Remember, when giving a presentation you want to assert your presence early to make people sit up and listen to you with interest. Put some effort into thinking about how to begin and you'll be well on your way to winning over your audience.