How to Introduce People as an Emcee
Emcee Singapore: A speech often seems more impressive when the speaker is formally introduced by an emcee. A speech or presentation is the sum of all its parts. Beyond just your actual speech, the room setup, the lead in, and the lead out all play a role in the audience’s perception, attention, and memory. Sometimes, this means relying on a support cast of contributors and depending on things to happen that are in the hands of others.
The emcee Singapore emcee’s role is more than saying the speaker’s name and passing the microphone; you need to give the audience a sense of the speaker’s purpose and value proposition. The emcee often sets the energy of the crowd and establishes the norm for audience participation.
1) Prepare the introduction.
Before it’s time to give your introduction, you need to prepare. You need to know about your speaker, about his or her presentation and you need to know your audience. In fact, knowing your audience may actually be the most vital part!
Let’s start with your audience. Why did they show up for this event in particular? As the emcee Singapore emcee, you need to understand their motivations for being there and try to think about what they are going to get out of this presentation to be sure that you emphasize the key selling points — which may differ from how the speakers summarized or sold their presentations in the invite.
In addition, you will hopefully know the background and experience level of the audience. You can help set realistic expectations, but be sure not to scare anyone away by classifying the presentation as too beginner or too basic. Think about your introduction as a sales pitch — you want to sell the speaker, and you want to close the sale.
Do some research on the speaker or, if possible, try to meet the speaker and chat with him or her well in advance of the presentation. It’s also a good idea to know the basics — their company or organization, where they came from, their expertise, etc. Also, make sure you learn and practice the proper pronunciation of the speaker’s name. Don’t be afraid to ask and to practice in front of the speaker; this shows you care and want the speaker to succeed. In addition, the speaker will probably get a bit of a boost when you pull off that tricky pronunciation that so many others in past could not manage or sadly never even attempted to say correctly.
Lastly, to bring it all together you need to know about the topic of the presentation or speech. Do not rely on the abstract or event invite. Some speakers may not be able to take their 30+ minute speech and summarize it effectively or for the benefit of the audience. You also don’t want to get caught in a situation where you are reading verbatim off a sheet or paper. Just like if you were giving a speech, do some prep and practice speaking from within, not from written notes.
2) Know Your Audience
If you ever attend a TV show taping, even an exciting game show or talk show, you will almost always see someone who comes on front to get the audience ready. This individual wants the audience to look good for TV, of course, but producers know that this impacts the people on stage, performers feed off the energy in the room of course! The warm up man or women is not only getting people excited, but will help set the expectations. When should you be quiet, when should you cheer (“Come on, you can cheer louder everyone, can’t you!?”). I’m sure you’ve been in an audience where you wanted to clap, but stopped short when you realized you would be the only one. If we want clapping, standing, quiet, or anything else — it is your role in the introduction to make this clear through your words, actions, and body language.
If the speaker is going to teach everyone a new technique for success then pump you fist in the air, smile and nod your head, stand up straight and tall. Think of your introduction as the appetizer for the upcoming main course — give them a taste of what’s to come and set the right expectations.
3) Plan and Structure your Speech
Now that you’ve done your research and mentally prepared yourself, bring it all together. You don’t want to take up to much time; however, being too brief can leave the audience feel like something is missing. Shoot for maybe 20–30 seconds, 3–5 sentences in general, especially for less formal occasions or events (for a keynote speaker you may want a more lengthy bio). This may feel long, but if you have prepped ahead of time this will be easy to fill. I am not going to recommend any hard and fast rules about what to say. Instead, think about what you need to do to sell the whole package: Will knowing the speaker’s employer or education add prestige and entice your audience? What mixture of speaker and speech is interesting? Is the speaker’s background relative the speech strongly correlated ? Or perhaps because the mix of background and experience are so weird and unexpected, this combination should be the talking point!
I will, however, recommend how you should end your introduction. Make sure you do strong hand-off. This entails acknowledging the speaker, directing the audience, and ensuring the audience gives the speaker a warm welcome.
For example:
“Now, please put your hands together as I welcome to the stage Mr. Bill Gates.”
or
“…And this is why I am so excited that Steve Jobs has joined us here today. Let’s give Steve a warm welcome.”
First and foremost, if you want the audience to clap or cheer — lead the charge as the emcee Singapore emcee. You may want to exaggerate your actions or hold your hands up high since people are usually looking at your face and this will make your actions more visible. As you hand off the microphone or the podium, look at the speaker, gesture towards him or her with your hands, and give the audience a clear transition to the speaker. You need to end your introduction purposefully. Think about your tone and body language. You should also be cognizant of where you are standing in relation to the speaker and plan to step out of the way or across the stage in a graceful and respectful manner (try to avoid stepping in front of your speaker if you can).
4) Remember
We do not experience our lives in isolated and separate boxes; instead, we flow from moment to moment and each experience impacts those in close proximity. By preparing a good introduction you are helping the speaker and you are also elevating your role as the emcee Singapore emcee. Take this responsibility seriously and prepare yourself. Arm yourself with key knowledge and the right emotions and you can help impact the future.
H/T: medium
