The Role of the Introducer

Fellow Law Enforcement Officers, distinguished guests.

It is my pleasure to introduce to you this evening a speaker who is a Mother of two children, a homemaker and a resident of our City/Town. She is a member of our community who for the last two years has waged an unrelenting drive to bring to the forefront of our society consciousness of the terrible ramifications of impaired driving.

As a member of (MADD) Mothers against drunk driving, she has brought a sense of awareness of the scope of the problem to the many service clubs, schools and businesses that she has spoken to. Her commitment to making her community a safer place was recently recognized by the State/Provincial Crime Prevention Society with her receiving the Order of Merit of Volunteers.

As a police officer I too am very aware of the unnecessary pain and suffering afflicted on innocent people caused by this attitude of indifference by careless drivers who make poor choices.

Tonight, I look forward as I am sure you will to our speaker bringing us both statistical facts on impaired driving along with a deeply personal story that she and her family had to endure at the hands of an impaired driver.

Please help me welcome Mrs ......................

No my friends, I am not writing to speak to you on impaired driving, although I certainly could do that. However I am here to show you how to properly introduce a speaker.

From time to time in your career you will be asked to introduce a speaker, whether at a conference, business meeting, seminar or a service club. You will no doubt want to do it correctly in order to assist the speaker in his/her mission.

How many of you have ever been the speaker to be introduced? Did you feel that your introduction was great and that the subject you were to speak on benefited from the introduction?

How many of you feel it was just adequate? Did you feel let down, perhaps like the rug was just pulled out from under you, instead of a great lead in you felt like being led off the stage?

I sure have, I’d been instructing police related courses for several years and never heard an introduction worth hearing. Normally my Introducer would go on something like this...

            “and now our next speaker is speaking about Criminal Law and is a Constable from Prince Rupert I believe”

Now, at that time I was actually a Lieutenant and was from Prince George not Prince Rupert. These Introducers had just put me to a disadvantage and I hadn’t even muttered my first words yet.

Have you ever been to a function and heard the speaker introduced like this.

“George will be giving us a talk on something to do with hospital charities or something like that. I’m really not sure but I’m looking forward to a great speech, I’ll let George tell us what it’s about.”

Wow, thrilling, everyone is really going to be excited and anticipating your speech and they don’t even know what it’s about.

The introductory remarks by which a speaker is presented to the audience form a very important aspect of public speaking. Actually it’s very seldom that a speaker receives a good introduction. Mark Twain, one of America’s greatest lecturers refused to ever let anyone introduce him. He would introduce himself.

I do the same thing, I write out my introduction and when read properly by the Introducer it sets the stage and I usually joke by saying “Wow what a great introduction, it should be I wrote it”. It usually gets a laugh which the speaker needs.

Why should a speaker be introduced?

First, its ceremony, no matter who the speaker is or how well they are known, liked or disliked, when they speak they separate themselves from the listeners. They have a unique function, they talk and everyone listens, and if for no other reason than ritual or ceremony they deserve to be introduced.

Wayne Gretzky is a Canadian icon, no one would ever ask Wayne to give a presentation, talk or speech without mulling over his statistics, his awards that have been the summation of his achievements. We all know who he is but even so we want to hear from the Introducer personal facts about him.

Secondly, its expertise, the introduction should make clear to the audience exactly why the speaker is qualified to give this speech. What special experience, what knowledge or preparation allows them to give their opinions to the audience on a particular subject? If he is introduced as a Chartered Accountant yet his speech is on the oxygen to gasoline ratio for jet combustion engines what is the audience to think?

He may be an accountant but maybe his hobby is engines and he is very knowledgeable. If the Introducer fails to make the connection the audience’s perception may affect the speech dramatically. You need to bring out the speakers expertise.

Thirdly, atmosphere, if another speaker has preceded the person you are introducing, you must ensure that the atmosphere is conducive to your speaker. If the previous speaker’s speech was a humorous one and your speaker is about to talk on a serious subject then you must set the mood.

An example would be....”ladies and gentlemen, we have just heard a very humorous speech but now I invite your attention to a more serious subject .........”

The atmosphere prior to the speaker speaking has serious implications for the speaker as to his/her success.

So what exactly should the Introducer say?

Your job is to give star billing to the speaker and not yourself, you can find interesting and innovative ways to present the speaker. You can use congenial remarks, light humor but don’t get tempted to impress the audience with your wit, your not there to roast the person. What you want is to get the audiences attention to the speaker and his subject.

Find out in advance what the speech is about and its title. Don’t say their speech is on fitness and then give them your idea of fitness, repress the desire to give a long lengthy introduction.

I find it beneficial to give the outline of the speaker and his speech first and save the last two words for the speaker’s name. This builds the audiences anticipation and attention. After you have given the speakers name, lead the applause, if you fail to do this they won’t know if they’re to applaud or not. It’s certainly a cold start when you can’t even get a small applause before you start.

All right now, you have your preparation to do but what about the speaker. Realistically they can’t expect you to know everything about them that needs to placed into the introduction unless they tell you.

Too often from a false sense of modesty the speaker contributes negatively to their own introduction by insisting that how they are introduced is not that important. They may say “whatever you want, they all know me anyway.”

Instead they should

1. Consider the introduction important and help you and themselves in the process.
2. They should tell you how they want to be introduced, stay clear of laying claim to them being brilliant, successful or wise. The last thing you want to do is introduce someone as a good or great speaker, if they flop the audience will be looking at you very oddly. If they do possess these attributes it will become obvious to the audience and they will appreciate it.

Previous expertise or experience connected to the speech should be brought out to ensure the listeners are informed that the speaker speaks with some authority on the subject.

In conclusion, both you and the speaker are an active part of the introduction. Whatever you do the most important thing is to be brief. You may forget or neglect to say something that perhaps should have been said but nothing is as bad as being overly loquacious.

If you tell a joke, be swift about it, the time frame for an introduction should be anywhere from thirty seconds to one minute. Unless its Wayne Gretzky.

 I urge you all to practice the art of Introduction because if done properly, it will make you a sought after person to build the bridge between presenters and audiences enhancing your own career.