Speech titles are important. They give your speech a setup that will tweak interest, prompt curiosity, and build anticipation.
Your title will appear in promotional mailings, newsletters, and websites. It will show up on event programs and posters. It's how you will be introduced.
Think of your title as a key part of the mini-marketing campaign for your speech. Make no mistake. You're doing more than announcing a topic. You're asking potential audience members to ante up their scarcest resource -- time.
An effective title needs to do two things. The first is really straightforward -- it lets the audience know what you're going to talk about. The second is trickier. Strong titles twang the reader. The twang works because it's unexpected, intriguing, and a little mysterious.
"Wrestling the Cost-Price Alligator" was a speech on margin improvement -- given at the annual management meeting in Florida. Division general managers were asked to visualize alligator wrestling -- with the jaws as cost and price. The GM's job is to wedge a log into the gator’s jaws. Open jaws = good margins. Jaws that snap shut = lousy margins.
"Think Like a Barbarian" was a speech to a hundred or so IT managers in a Fortune 50 company. The speaker compared the company's IT systems to fortified castles -- constantly attacked by hacker barbarians. The best way to protect the company's IT systems was for each IT manager to step outside his or her usual role and "think like a barbarian."
Use a strong title to ramp up audience interest and expectation. An intriguing, unexpected title can pull people into your audience.
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