First impressions are unavoidable.
The first impression is important when giving a speech, especially in this day and age. In our pop-culture society, if something is not interesting on television in the first few seconds, we just flip the channel. If it is not exciting, interesting, or something new, we as a culture do not want to watch. You may have spent all the time in the world putting your speech together, documenting facts, cross referencing sources, writing script, practicing, and worrying about making the presentation, but if you do not have a good attention getter, everything is lost. It is essential to be innovative and demonstrate your creativity in the beginning to show the audience that it is in their best interest to listen.