Before you sell your audience on your venture, you need to capture their attention.
If you’re the first speaker of the evening, most of your audience members are likely still settling in.
If you’re somewhere in the middle of the presentation order, there’s a good chance your audience is still pondering the content of a previous presentation.
If you’re up last, your audience is likely just plain tired.
That’s why you need to kick off your 60-second pitch with a powerful, 10-15 second opening: a staggering statistic, an interesting quote by an industry leader, a burning question, or even a rhetorical, yet attention-grabbing question. You could even start off with a silly gimmick like a costume or a prop.