Titles are important. My Dad was an editor and sometime in the 1950s a manuscript crossed his desk entitled, “Big Yeller Dog.” He liked the book and decided to publish it, but he asked the author if he could change the title to “Old Yeller.” The author agreed, and the name has lodged itself in our collective psyches.
Titles sell. “Gone with the Wind.” “From Here to Eternity.” “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.” These are all great titles for presentations too.
“The Budget Surplus and the Bush Administration: or Gone with the Wind.”
“Occasioning Customer Loyalty: From Here to Eternity.”
“On-line Dating ROI: or The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.”
Can we use good titles to set a tone for our presentations, without losing our buttoned-up professionalism? I think so.
I gave a talk once called “How to Get Brand Teams to Get Down on their Knees and Beg for More.” I used the excuse that the meeting was in Nashville, and my talk needed to sound like a country and western song.
We can afford to jazz our titles up a bit. A good title sets the audience abuzz as they anticipate being entertained, or intrigued. And the speaker can come back to the title throughout the talk if it serves as a theme. People may not leave humming the melody, but they might leave remembering the theme–which is quite an accomplishment for a speaker.
And at the start, I like it when the speaker leaves the title slide up and delivers her opening so there’s no new visual to distract me from my enjoyment of her beginning–that is, if she’s done her homework and crafted a beginning designed to capture the attention of an audience.
The title of your talk should make people want to come hear it. If someone stops you in the proverbial elevator and asks you, “What is your talk about?” you could say, “It’s about competition in the pest control industry and it’s called Rat Finks on the Rise. I hope to see you there.”
And then, as you leave the elevator, you should turn and wink just as the door closes.