We were working with a speaker the other day who’d written a fairly long “Thank You” introduction. It slowed him down and frankly we started to lose interest.
If you want to thank your audience at the beginning of your speech you need to be more original and creative.
Here’s what the late comedian Bob Monkhouse said in opening a speech:
“May I begin by thanking you for the three great human qualities – faith, hope and charity.
Your applause before I speak, that’s faith. Applause during my speech, that’s hope. Applause after I’ve spoken, that’ll be charity