You ever find yourself getting bored by a lecture about interesting things? Or had an interesting lecture about things that should be boring?
Often the difference between the two is story.
Our minds are designed to follow stories, and anecdotes. That is why more people read People than the Wall Street Journal(That and many people who should be interested in economics aren’t, but that’s another story). People presents its information as stories. Even the paparazzi picture captions have some elements of story. Compare this to typical dry economic articles and you see what I mean.
But, that is not a fair comparison. Economics can be a very compelling subject when it is presented properly. Freakonomics is a good example. It presents strange uses of economic principles to examine society. What’s cool about it though, is that it threads the data and analysis into short stories that are much more readable than an article in an economic journal.
Story, compelling story especially can be hard to develop from bare facts. But, if you can do it, your audience might remember some of your ideas.
See Garr Reynolds Presentation Zen Blog post for more info.