If you only have time to read to this point- here’s your Twitter take-away. Great presentations add a dash of caveman thinking.

The point being is that we all still essentially think, react and remember more like Fred and Barney than the evolved post-millennial beings we all think we are. Our mind battles with our brain, constantly sending signals to process thoughts, remember information and control our reactions. In the end, our brain typically wins the fight. We are programmed to be at our peak level of awareness when we perceive a threat or when a situation evokes a strong emotion. It’s fight or flight.

Think back to high school. If I could have remembered the information for my physics exams as easily as I could the lyrics to Bon Jovi, I might be mulling over black holes with Stephen Hawking instead. Why is that? The song lyrics connected with me (and my big hair) emotionally. Even though my mind told me the physics information was really important to remember for the exam, I didn’t have real reason to remember or connect with it- I wasn’t passionate about it.

The same goes for presentations – and really most of the other methods we use to communicate information. Apparently, our working memory can only retain 3-4 things at a time. If you want people to sit up and pay attention, reduce the number of bullet points per slide, use very short phrases and if possible accompany them with images and movement that evokes a strong emotion. Otherwise, you leave the audience to make the decision on what to remember instead of you helping to make that decision for them.

While some of the examples I saw on the panel were a bit over used (think puppies and babies), they did get a reaction out the crowd. Personally, I am not a fan of corny sound-effects or animated gifs but we all know that the right image paired with a key take-away can make your point a thousand times better. Now, put this thinking into action with another of the panels suggestions, story boarding your presentation, and you have the elements of a much more effective presentation. Everyone has an easier time with stories. The challenge is to find a way to weave a story among the many points you may need to get across. One way they suggested was to think of your presentation less in terms of the car manual and more in terms of the car ad instead.

Even though the topic was about presentations, I think much of this is actually relevant to other areas as well. I know we practice many of these same principles when it comes to content and call to action strategies for websites, emails, etc. Now I am looking forward to tackling that next presentation with all of this great info in mind which is great ‘cause I wasn’t so sure about pulling off ‘you’re eyes are getting heavy’ routine anyway.