Last year I facilitated a national conference for a major UK IT company.  On the day, one of my roles was to introduce each of the guest speakers to the stage, but I decided to attend rehearsals so that I could meet them beforehand and take a look at their presentations.  Boy, am I glad that I did!  The CEO (let's call him George) was planning to present 80 slides during his 20 minute slot…that's a rate of one slide every 15 seconds!  There's no doubt that he was heading for disaster so I politely introduced him to The Rule of Three…

Put simply, this is the rule that states that people will only remember three things at a time.  So, George and I quickly set about "re-working" his presentation with this rule in mind.

Firstly, George had to decide what his three key messages would be and then structure the main part of his presentation around them.

Next, he took a look at the beginning, middle and end and planned what he would do in these three parts.  The beginning is ideal for grabbing the audiences attention, and at the end George finished by briefly re-capping the three key points from the main part of his presentation.

Finally, George recalled that many of the most memorable lines from history, politics and advertising also used The Rule of Three ('I Came, I Saw, I Conquered', 'Education, Education, Education', 'Snap, Crackle and Pop') and so he came up with one of his own (Take Action Now) and weaved it in to his talk.  And, just for good measure, he used three 'visual props' to illustrate his points and make them even more memorable (a desk diary, a Yucca plant and a teddy bear…don't ask!)

Success!  Not only did George cut the number of slides from 80 to just three (one for each of his key messages) he also got a huge round of applause when he left the stage.  Not only that, when delegates were later asked to remember what he had spoken about, over 95% recalled his three important messages.  George was understandably delighted!

So there you have it, an easy way to make your presentation memorable using The Rule of Three.  Why not TRY-IT-TODAY!