I volunteered to give a 45 minute lecture on safety. Since I knew the material, I made a few notes to hit the highlights, and took along a couple of props. The mandatory lecture was in the post theater, so I spoke without slides or powerpoint and kept the lights on.
People called those who scheduled the events with comments like: He gave an entire 45 minute lecture without slides!
the audience thought I was incredible (almost all other presentations were powerpoint in a theater with the lights out).
Not really exceptional. Just old school and knew the audience.
Exactly. There was a presentation I attended on understanding what is your clients' perspective. A big part of that presentation rested on this picture, and an ensuing 12-min discussion about "what questions would you ask to uncover of what is this a picture?"
What became clear, was that while most people ultimately considered this a satellite image of North Korea at night, many people thought it was a picture of the Earth, a picture of China, a picture of South Korea, or a picture of the ocean.
The drawing in of the audience, the engagement, and the real-time learning didn't come from great software. It came from the presenter.