The opening of a session is not just the start.
It is the moment where the audience decides what kind of experience this is going to be.
Will they lean in?
Will they relax?
Will they trust you?
Will they stay curious?
Or will they quietly reach for their phone and disappear into email, Teams, LinkedIn, or whatever else is waiting for them?
That first moment matters.
You do not need to walk on stage like a rock star. You do not need fireworks. You do not need to shout. But you do need to create attention, confidence, and connection.
A strong opening gives the audience a fast peek into what to expect.
Performance wise. Content wise. Energy wise.
It tells them, without saying it directly:
You are safe here.
This will be interesting.
This will be worth your time.
And yes, we are going on a journey together.
Do not start by becoming your own title slide
I normally do not start with:
“Hi, I am Edwin, and today I am going to talk about…”
Of course, sometimes you need to introduce yourself. But I prefer to create a moment first.
The audience can often already see your name on the screen. They can read your title. They can see who you work for. They can Google you if they want. They can even use AI to find out more.
And if they do that, it means they already took the bait and grabbed the hook.
For me, the opening is not about listing credentials.
It is about setting the scene.
It is about testing the audience.
It is about creating curiosity.
Then, somewhere along the way, I may introduce myself. Or sometimes I do not do it explicitly at all. Sometimes the mystery works better.
Because the real question in the first thirty seconds is not:
Does the audience know my full job title?
The real question is:
Do they want to come with me?
The after lunch challenge
At the last VeeamON Tour in the Netherlands, my session was just after lunch.
That is always a dangerous slot.
People are full. Their energy drops. The room can become heavy. You are not just competing with other content. You are competing with digestion.
But before I even really opened, something happened.
Just as I was about to start, a guy stood up and walked out of the room.
So I used it.
I joked that this was already a bad start.
People laughed.
The room relaxed.
That little unexpected moment immediately created connection. It showed the audience that I was present in the room, not just running a script. I was watching what happened, reacting to it, and making it part of the experience.
Then I moved into the lunch remark.
I asked them how lunch was and told them:
“I now have the difficult task to keep you awake. Challenge accepted.”
That small moment did several things.
It acknowledged the reality of the room.
It made people smile.
It showed that I understood the situation.
It created a little energy.
Then I hooked them into the journey by saying we were going to explore the why behind the DataAI Command Platform, how it is coming together and hat it will look toward the future.
I also told them something like:
“I promise to make it interesting, and I hate breaking my promises. If you look left and right, you will see some people nodding who can vouch for me.”
That is playful, but it also creates trust.
The combination of the guy walking out, the after lunch challenge, and the promise to make it interesting helped set the tone. The audience relaxed, leaned in, and understood that this session was not going to be a standard slide reading exercise.
That is what a strong opening can do.
Create a moment before you create content
Sometimes I open with a story.
Sometimes with a question.
Sometimes with a funny anecdote.
Sometimes with something that just happened in the room.
Sometimes with silence.
The form can change, but the goal is the same: Create a moment first.
That moment is the doorway into the session.
If you walk on stage and immediately start reading the title slide, you waste that doorway. You tell the audience this will probably be the same as every other presentation.
But if you pause, look at the room, say something relevant, or create curiosity, people start paying attention.
A strong opening should make the audience feel:
Something is happening here.
This presenter is present.
This is not going to be a copy paste session.
And maybe most importantly:
I want to know what happens next.
Use your hands and voice as instruments
In the opening, your words matter.
But your delivery matters just as much.
I use my hands and voice as instruments to charm people and pull them in.
Your voice can warm up the room.
Your hands can invite people into the story.
Your pause can create curiosity.
Your body position can show confidence.
Your smile can lower tension.
Your energy can wake people up.
This is why the opening is not just a line you say. It is a full body moment.
Your voice, posture, movement, face, timing, and silence all work together.
If you rush through the opening, you lose power.
If you take the moment, the room starts to come with you.
Weak openings to avoid
There are many weak openings presenters should avoid.
- Reading the title slide.
- Starting with low energy.
- Talking while still setting up.
- Apologizing too much.
- Explaining the agenda in a boring way.
- Starting with too many credentials.
- Opening with “Can everyone hear me?” unless there is a real reason to check.
- Spending the first two minutes telling people what they can already read.
People can read. People can think for themselves. Do not waste the most valuable moment of your session by reading text from a screen.
Be original.
Bring energy.
Even if you introduce yourself, do it with life. Bring the Fire ♨
Instead of reading the title, start with why the topic matters. Start with a story. Start with a question. Start by telling the audience what journey they are about to join and why it is worth their attention.
Think about the sessions you have enjoyed most.
How did they start?
Why did they work?
Use that.
Learn from it.
Then make it your own.
Walk on stage before you speak
When I walk on stage, I often do not speak immediately.
I take ten to thirty seconds to read the room.
- Are people interested?
- Are they curious?
- Are they tired?
- Are they still on their phones?
- Are they talking?
- Are they waiting?
That silence can be powerful.
When you say nothing, people often look up.
They wonder:
Why is he not saying anything?
That creates curiosity.
But do not use silence as a gimmick. Use it to arrive. Use it to breathe. Use it to become aware of the room.
Do not start speaking while you are still not ready.
You only have one chance to create that first impression.
Use it.
Take the stage
If a host introduces you, wait until they are finished.
Then take the stage.
And I mean that intentionally.
Take the stage.
It is yours for the next twenty, thirty, or sixty minutes.
Own the moment.
Do not start talking while you are still on the stairs or at the edge of the stage, unless there is a clear reason to do that.
Walk to where you want to start.
Stand with intention.
Pause.
Breathe.
Look at the audience.
Then begin.
That is a very different energy from rushing on stage while already talking and trying to find the clicker at the same time.
The audience feels the difference.
Use the room and the people in it
A good opening is not disconnected from the room.
Use what is there.
Use the event.
Use the location.
Use the energy.
Use the host.
Use something that just happened.
But make sure it is genuine.
If I thank a host, I mean it.
If I compliment someone, I mean it.
Do not fake it. Audiences can smell fake energy very quickly.
I once opened a session in Antwerp by connecting to the architecture and the beautiful building. I also introduced the host and MC, Katja, who had replaced the original scheduled host, Celine.
Celine had called in sick that morning. Fortunately, Katja, who is also a storyteller and keynote speaker, stepped in at the last minute.
That became part of my opening.
I connected it to the idea of always having a backup and making sure you are resilient.
That is a great opening moment because it is real. It happened that day. It involved the people in the room. And it connected directly to the message.
That is what you are looking for.
Not a random opening.
A relevant opening.
The first twenty seconds
I am often nervous in the first twenty seconds.
That is normal.
But I have learned how to work with it.
I breathe slowly.
I observe the room.
I do not start speaking until I am ready.
I give myself permission to take a few seconds.
That is important. Many presenters feel they must start immediately. They walk on stage and begin talking before they are grounded.
Do not do that.
Pause.
Find your place.
Let the room settle.
Let people become comfortable in their chair.
Especially after lunch, give them a few seconds to arrive back in the room with you.
Then activate them.
With a warm welcome.
A genuine question.
A sharp sentence.
A silly remark.
A funny interaction with someone you know in row one.
But do it when you are ready.
Not before.
Know where to stand
Where you stand also matters.
Do not stand all the way at the back of the stage.
That creates distance.
But also do not balance on the very edge of the podium in front.
People may get nervous that you will fall, or you may come too close to their personal space.
Use the stage.
Use the environment.
Find a strong starting position.
Own that spot.
Then move with purpose.
Movement is powerful when it has intention. It is distracting when it is just nervous energy.
Control your time from the start
I also start my own timer.
If there is no clock, I use an app called Podium Pro on my iPhone and put it somewhere I can see it.
This is part of owning the room.
You are responsible for the time.
You are responsible for the journey.
You are responsible for landing the plane.
A strong opening is not only about starting well. It is also about making sure you can finish well.
If you lose control of time in the first minutes, you may pay for it at the end.
Should the opening be scripted?
I have multiple ways to open my sessions.
When I prepare and test the technology, I also look at the surroundings and think about what the best opening could be for that specific moment.
Sometimes I even change the opening in the last few seconds while already on stage.
That comes with experience.
For beginners, I recommend practicing the opening.
Not only the words.
Practice the volume.
Practice the pitch.
Practice the pause.
Practice where you stand.
Practice how you walk across the stage.
Practice what you do after the host introduces you.
The first minute should not feel like a surprise to you.
That does not mean you need to sound robotic or memorized. But you should know where you are going.
Your opening should feel prepared, but alive.
When technology fails before you even start
Sometimes your opening is created for you.
By something going wrong.
If there is a technical problem, do not become angry. Do not walk off. Do not panic.
Ask the technical team for help.
Tell a small story while they fix it.
Use the moment.
The audience already feels bad for you. They know this is uncomfortable. If you handle it with calm and humor, they start connecting with you.
You show them who you are under pressure.
I once had a screen that turned off every thirty seconds, with no technical support in sight.
After two minutes, I just pulled the plug and switched to telling the story completely from memory.
I described things in more detail because normally they would have been on the slide. Now I had to make those pictures come alive in the audience’s head.
That is experience.
If that had happened to me in the beginning, I might have been lost.
But over time, you learn that the room does not need perfect technology.
The room needs you to stay present.
The first slide is the ribbon on the present
I usually use a title slide with the session title, my name, job title, and who I work for.
For me, that title slide is the ribbon on the present we are about to unpack.
It is there.
It sets the context.
But it is not the gift.
The next slide is often more important.
A question.
A statement.
A picture.
Something that sets the scene.
The first slide should support the opening, not replace it.
If your first slide does all the work, you are already behind.
You are the presenter.
The slide is support.
Trust starts with being genuine
People often start trusting me early because I try to be genuine.
I share small bits and pieces of my personal life.
I bring energy.
I use humor.
I show confidence.
I show curiosity.
And then I build technical credibility.
Trust is earned, not given.
In the first minute, trust starts with authenticity. People want to feel that you are real.
Then comes relevance. They want to know you understand why they are there.
Then comes credibility. They want to know you can actually deliver.
That credibility can come through experience, technical depth, customer examples, strong answers, or simply showing that you understand their world.
Sometimes I build that by asking questions. Not to test the audience, but to show that I want to understand them. When people feel understood, they open up.
The Mission Impossible opening
One opening that worked extremely well involved a little bit of controlled rebellion.
The event organizer was very strict about what was allowed and what was not. She did not like surprises.
Challenge accepted.
The venue was a full studio with lasers hanging from the ceiling and fantastic subwoofers. I asked the technical team why they were not using them.
They told me they were not allowed.
So I asked them to use them for my session.
On my cue, they turned off the lights, started the lasers bouncing through the room, and played the Mission Impossible theme song because it fitted perfectly with my session.
We used about sixty seconds for that opening.
The crowd loved it.
The event organizer lost it at first.
The technical team was smiling brightly from eighty meters away. I can still see their faces.
I entered the stage, smirked, and had fun.
Later, I apologized to the event lady in charge.
Her response was brilliant.
She said something like:
“I wanted to kill you in that moment, until I saw all those faces in the crowd. Then I understood your request. Apology accepted. Let’s work together next time to go even more over the top.”
That opening worked because it matched the topic, the room, and the energy.
It was not random.
It created attention.
It created emotion.
It made people ready.
But there is a lesson here too.
If you do something bold, make sure it serves the session.
Do not create spectacle just for spectacle.
The opening should amplify the message, not distract from it.
The hacker opening
Another opening I used was about being attacked by a hacker.
It looked like my screen was being taken over, and then everything went dark.
That kind of opening can work very well when the topic fits. It creates tension. It surprises people. It wakes up the room.
But again, it needs to connect to the story.
If the rest of the session does not live up to that opening, it becomes a trick.
And tricks fade fast.
A powerful opening must lead somewhere.
When an opening fails
I have also had openings fail.
One time, I started a session and had not checked the presentation deck properly before going on stage.
My deck had been copied into a master deck, and when the session started, the text and images were all broken, messy, and barely readable.
That was my fault.
I should have checked.
That moment taught me something simple but important:
Always check the final deck.
Not your version.
The final version.
The version that will actually be used in the room.
Do not assume it is fine because it worked yesterday.
Do not assume it is fine because someone copied it.
Do not assume the fonts, images, animations, videos, or formatting survived.
Check it.
Because if the opening breaks because of something you could have verified, that is on you.
Transitioning into the content
After the hook, the joke, the story, the question, or the first interaction, you need to move into the actual content without losing the energy.
That transition matters.
The trick is to connect the opening back to the journey.
If you opened with a lunch joke, connect it to keeping energy high.
If you opened with a resilience story, connect it to why resilience matters.
If you opened with a question, tell them you will come back to that question at the end.
If you opened with a bold statement, show them how the session will prove or explore it.
The opening should not be a separate island.
It should be the first step of the path.
Sometimes I deliberately come back to the opening at the end. That gives the session a nice circle. It makes the audience feel that the story was intentional.
Sometimes I do not fully close it in the session because I want the conversation to continue later.
Then I mention that my colleagues and I will be at the booth, and that people are welcome to drop by with questions.
That keeps the journey alive after the session ends.
Advice for beginners
If you are presenting for the first time, prepare your first minute very carefully.
Prepare several possible openings.
Watch speakers you enjoy.
Go to events.
Look at how people start.
Ask yourself why an opening works for you.
- Is it the energy?
- The question?
- The story?
- The silence?
- The humor?
- The confidence?
Then try it in your own way.
Practice out loud.
Practice where you stand.
Practice how you breathe.
Practice your first sentence.
Practice your pause.
Do not start speaking before you are ready.
And remember:
The stage is yours for that moment. Take it. Own it.
You do not need to be perfect. But you need to be present.
The key lesson
If readers remember only one thing from this part, I would say this:
Your opening is not an introduction. It is an invitation.
It is the moment where you invite the audience into the journey. So do not waste it by reading the title slide.
Create a moment.
Read the room.
Use your voice.
Use your body.
Use silence.
Be genuine.
Build trust.
Connect the opening to the story.
And then take the audience with you, because if you open strong, you do not just start the session.
You start owning the room.
