A conversation opener is an introduction used to begin a conversation. They are frequently the subject of guides and seminars on how to make friends and/or meet people. Different situations may call for different openers (e.g. approaching a stranger on the street versus meeting them at a more structured gathering of people with like interests).
An opener often takes the form of an open-ended question, which can lead to further comments or conversation as well as creating topics for future conversations (e.g. "How's your mandrill doing?").
A closed-ended question (e.g. "Nice weather today, isn't it?") is regarded as potentially less effective because it can be answered with a simple "Mm-hmm," which is essentially a conversational dead end, requiring the initiator of the conversation to start from scratch.[1]
How to Start a Conversation notes that in conversation openers, "There really are only two topics to choose from – The situation [or] the other person. Secondly, there are only two ways to begin a conversation: State a fact [or] ask a question/opinion".[2] Accordingly, openers are often linked to props, e.g. "Do you have a cigarette?" "Wow, you're reading Crime and Punishment, that's one of my favorite books..." "I like your skirt, where did you get it?" etc. Many venues, such as singles tennis events, etc. are geared toward prop-based conversation openers. Some people keep conversation pieces for this purpose.
Judy Ringer's We Have to Talk: A Step-By-Step Checklist for Difficult Conversations points out that an entirely different set of openers may be used for sensitive conversations, e.g. about employee performance, in which a main goal may be to avoid putting the person on the defensive. These openers often take the form of simple direct statements such as "I have something I’d like to discuss with you that I think will help us work together more effectively".[3]