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You Want a Keen Audience

You have one minute to win the audience over so they will be keen to listen to you for the remainder of your presentation.

Depending on the event, the person making the introduction should have already helped an audience to settle in which means your cheery hello, sincere smile, and eye contact with the audience is all you need before you launch into your first all important minute.

In any crowd, with no introduction, you too can use an ice-breaker question to get an audience to get comfortable with you.  Use a question that is brief, attention grabbing, and relevant to your topic.  The beauty of an icebreaker question is that it has a way of giving your listeners an energy boost, be it fun, silly or thought-provoking.

Here are five tips for asking good icebreaker questions:

  1. Choose icebreaker questions that allow for self-expression, don’t have a wrong answer, and anyone can answer.
  2. Choose a question that is either relevant to your topic or a good lead in to what you will be presenting. 
  3. Answer your own icebreaker question first to create a psychologically safe space.
  4. Keep it simple because you need to keep the conversation moving.
  5. Have fun so you can build better and stronger relationships.

All these questions below are inclusive, reveal valuable insights, and encourage self-expression. None of them have right or wrong answers or are likely to make anyone feel inadequate.

Let's look at quesions that are fun:

  1. What’s the weirdest thing in your fridge right now?
  2. If you were setting off to Mars and could take only one luxury item with you, what would it be?
  3. If your home was packed full of golf balls, how would you remove them?
  4. What’s the worst haircut you ever had?
  5. If you could be famous for one silly thing, what would it be?
  6. It’s your first day on the job as an evil villain. What’s the first piece of mischief you commit?
  7. What would you do if you came home and found a penguin in your freezer?

Here are some that give audience members pause for thought:

  1. What is your greatest skill?
  2. What is your deepest fear?
  3. If you could be a superhero what superpower would you choose?
  4. What’s the title of your biography
  5. If you could time travel, what period would you visit?
  6. If you could play one instrument perfectly, which would it be?
  7. What is one superstition you have?
  8. What is your dream job?
  9. What’s a cause or purpose you deeply believe in?
  10. What are you excited about this week?
  11. What’s got your attention today and why?
  12. You’ve been chosen to represent your country in a global competition. What sport or activity are you doing?
  13. What’s a book that affected you so profoundly (emotionally or intellectually) that you still regularly think about it?
  14. What’s something that doesn’t deserve the hate it gets?
  15. What’s a piece of advice that has stuck with you?
  16. What is a small act of kindness you were once shown that you’ll never forget?
  17. What’s something you wish you’d learned earlier in life?
  18. What was the last thing you did that gave you child-like joy?
  19. What’s one activity that grants you pure escapism?
  20. What’s a food that always reminds you of childhood?
  21. What is one thing you wish you’d been taught in school?
  22. What’s an adult problem nobody prepared you for?
  23. What is a lesson you feel you learned too late in life?
  24. Tell us about a stranger you still remember. What made them memorable?
  25. What’s a personal side project you’re working on or want to work on?
  26. What’s something you wish you understood better?
  27. Look at the person to your left…what is his or her dream job?
  28. In one word, how do you feel about today's event?
  29. How would you go about tackling the climate crisis?
  30. What’s one thing you are unbeatable at?
  31. What’s something new you’ve learned about yourself in the last three months?
  32. What would happen if the internet ceased to exist?
  33. What’s something on your desk, a nearby wall, or out the window that cheers you up during the day?
  34. You’ve been teleported to the Middle Ages. How do you make a living there?
  35. If you could go back in time 10,000 years ago and make a cave painting to confuse everyone in the future, what would you draw?
  36. What is your proudest achievement?
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