The Power of Humor in Business Presentations

Imagine this: you’re sitting in a stuffy conference room filled with a large number of people who are bored out of their trees with the presentations and speeches to date.

A new speaker comes on stage, and just as your eyelids begin to droop, a spark of humor brightens the room. You sit up, laughing along as the speaker shares a funny personal story to reinforce her message and just like that, the atmosphere shifts and the audience is suddenly more engaged.

Laughter not only engages an audience but can significantly enhance message retention. My experience as a keynote speaker suggests that humor can increase audience engagement substantially and improve audience retention of your message.

You Don’t Have to be Funny to be Funny!

Adding humor to your presentations might seem like a daunting task, but a core belief of mine is that you don’t have to be funny to be funny.  In my program on Adding Humor to your Presentation, I highlight that the answer lies in recognizing moments of levity in everyday interactions and harnessing them to reinforce your message.

Find Humor in Everyday Life

The first step in adding humor to your presentations is to notice the amusing moments that occur around you. Often, these funny anecdotes are just waiting to be noted down. In this video, you will see how I took a simple, small anecdote about my beautiful grand daughter Maggie and use it in a relevant way to support a core message of mine. This video clip is part of a wonderful chat I had with Leading with Integrity Podcast host David Hatch 

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Includes funny quotes from Mark Twain, Mayor Richard J. Daley “”The policeman is not here to create disorder. The policeman is here to preserve disorder,” Mother Teresa (honest), George Bernard Shaw, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama and many more.

IrishmanSpeaks – Conor Cunneen (left) is a Chicago-based motivational, humorous business speaker who delights in adding humor in his presentations and helping others to do the same.