Icebreaker Speeches

The Icebreaker is your first speech in your Pathways path.

Here are some suggestions to help you prepare and deliver it.

General points

You only have 6 minutes - pick an interesting feature of your life, not your whole life story.

Write some notes about what you will say. You can read from notes in your early speeches.

Practice giving your speech out aloud in front of a mirror or to your partner or friends and make sure it fits in the time.

Planning the start of your speech

Start your speech with about half a minute introduction to what you are going to talk about.

Don't waste time explaining that this is your Icebreaker, why you decided to talk about this topic etc. Just start!

Don't start with an apology I'm not very good at this, I haven't had time to prepare this.

Try to start with a big statement. For example, if there is one thing I love, it's parties. Then go on to tell about your life as a partygoer

Preparing the middle part or body of your speech
Pick about three main points for the body of your speech. For example if you are a party person, tell three favourite party stories.

Concluding your speech

Spend about half a minute on the conclusion, summarising what you talked about in your speech.

Link your final sentences to the start of your speech. For example, So that is why I love parties.

Don't say Thank You at the end. The audience should thank you for speaking.

 

 

 

Help notes prepared by Mike Helm, DTM, 2007/08 District 73 Governor