This scene above is from the movie Adaptation with Nicholas Cage who plays a screen writer. Here Brian Cox is playing Robert McKee who wrote a wonderful book called "Story" and runs very popular seminars. This scene -- besides showing great acting -- captures something that I can't quite put my finger on, but it's always resonated with me deeply. The McKee character's frustration reminds me of how I sometimes feel when people tell me that there presentation (about business, profits, technology, research, finance, etc.) is just data or information so it's not possible to make the talk engaging with the audience, they say. They tell me that presentations in their field are just something you have to do and they are something to be endured, not engaged with. "I just present the information," they tell me. 'I got lots of information to get through," the say. But information does not equal story. At the very least you can show and tell people why and how your content is important...to them (to life, the universe, humanity, whatever). If you can't do that, then call off the presentation and write an email or send a pdf. I'm not talking about a meeting around a table, I'm talking about a presentation in front of a group who have come to hear someone speak. The question is always what is the story here? What is the meaning?

Robert McKee on the power of story http://snipurl.com/lok8p