But a funny thing happened on the way to the podium. The master of ceremonies botched your credentials and announced your name as if it were a medical disease. The audience's bubbling enthusiasm for your speech appeared buoyed by a full-course meal and several cocktails. The dull introduction polarized your listeners into two camps: the clock-watchers and the yawners. Suddenly you realize that the faint and polite applause is exactly what it sounds like, faint and polite. In the minds of the audience members, the inept introduction labeled your speech as dead on arrival.

If you think this can't happen to you, think again. More speeches than you can imagine are doomed to fail by bad introductions - doomed not because of the speaker, but because the introduction turned the listeners off. Instead of kindling fires of enthusiasm within the audience, the introduction led to an epidemic outbreak of brain freeze. Now the speaker is working at a disadvantage, faced not only with delivering his speech but also with the challenge of breathing life back into listless listening corpses. All because of a failed introduction.

Rethinking the Introduction
An introduction is not just an introduction, but a mini-speech with the purpose of motivating the audience to listen. It look at the speech in advance from the audience's perspective and plays music to the tunes broadcast by WIIFM, "What's In It For Me." The introduction sets the stage, builds excitement and creates momentum for the speaker.

Then why is this the exception and not the rule? For three reasons: the lack of emphasis placed on introductions, an unprepared master of ceremonies or Toastmaster, and a speech-only focus by the speaker.

Let's look at each briefly:

A lack of emphasis placed on introductions. There are no trophies, ribbons, or evaluations doled out for setting the scene before a speech. Introductional education is usually limited to that of mirroring other people's introductions - which are usually done incorrectly. In fact, an introduction is often looked on as a remedial task or chore fit for "winging."

An unprepared master of ceremonies or Toastmaster. The Toastmaster might know the speaker and his or her background, but not in enough detail to present this person to the audience. Many times the emcee or Toastmaster lacks a concrete understanding of why this particular person is speaking, the speaker's objectives, and how the audience will benefit.

Overcoming a speech-only focus by the speaker. As much as the master of ceremonies is responsible for introducing the speaker, the speaker is responsible for providing adequate information in a timely fashion. This does not mean shoving a 3x5 card of scribble in front of the Toastmaster seconds before the introduction. The same is true for introductions as for computers: garbage-in, garbage-out. Professional speakers make sure the master of ceremonies has the necessary information for an introduction long before the meeting begins.

The T-I-S Formula for Introductions
Like a well-prepared speech, an introduction should be natural, smooth and free of grammatical errors and oral stammers. An ideal method is the T-I-S formula taught by Dale Carnegie in his public speak classes: T-I-S stands for Topic, Importance, and Speaker. When making an introduction, remember to maintain eye contact with the audience, not the speaker.