Introducing a speaker, especially a high profile one, can be a harder task than what you might think. You might feel “well, the introduction is only a minute or two long and no one will remember me anyhow. I don’t need to put much into this.” In my opinion, this is a trap. Breaking down a given communication message to a concise 1, 2 or even 5 minutes can be a tricky and time consuming task. The risk of running over, and of taking valuable time from the main speaker (who the audience came to see) is very real. And as far as remembering (or not remembering) the person who introduces the speaker, I do remember those unfortunate speakers who have experienced an unfortunate gaffe or have gone well over the allotted time. And yes, I even recall a few especially good speaker introductions.

When I introduce speakers, I normally try to forge a connection with both the speaker and the audience. This may be via a story or example, or something that is personal. If the speaker is not someone who I know well, I try to read up in advance on the speaker and use some of his/her book (or other) material in my introduction.

The bottom line: Be well prepared and have a very clear idea of the time expectations of your introduction. Be concise and time yourself several times as you rehearse. Time yourself with the clock going up and the clock going down. In the speaker introduction video highlighted below, I needed to achieve multiple purposes and was given a very specific, set amount of time. I also had numerous names and facts that I needed to get right. As such, I used my notes more than I normally do, but I still worked very hard to connect with the speaker (General McChrystal) and the audience.