Carmen Simon at the Presentation Summit 2015

On Monday afternoon, after most attendees had finished a heavy conference lunch, it was time for Carmen Simon to deliver her keynote. Of course, some attendees also found time to make a small detour to New Orleans' famous Bourbon Street before her keynote! You'll agree that this audience was the same, yet so different than the ones who attended Nigel Holmes' keynote that very morning!

OK, so how would Carmen hold their interest? And what was her topic?



Carmen started, "For the past few years, I am asking this question from a neuro-scientific angle. Is your content remembered?"

She then elaborated further:

We hear a lot, keep a lot, and forget a lot.

We see things that we have seen before and wonder if we have forgotten this before!

After two days you may remember too little. And that little is something you remember for a longer time.

At this point of time, Carmen had successfully captured the attention of everyone in the room! She had spoken about something that was important to every single person in the room.

She then observed that "You may wonder how students remember everything they write in their exams. Why does it not happen that way in business? Is that because students make more effort than businessmen?"

Carmen then added that sleep is what differentiates students from businessmen. She added, "If you haven't slept a lot and are under stress -- you will remember less. So if you are talking to sleep deprived audiences who are in a state of partial attention, how can you even imagine that they will remember".

"Ultimately people take away 10% of what you speak -- so how can you make sure that you are in control of that 10%. What would you like them to remember? Are you in charge of that 10% -- are your audiences remembering that same 10%".



What did this mean? This means that we need to accept that the audience will only remember 10% of what we speak! And we have to make peace with that much attention. But we can still exert some influence on that 10% that the audience will remember. As a counterpoint example, Carmen said that she had lately attended a 45-minute session in Italy, and the only part she remembered was that it is OK to have sex and text messages at the same time. Certainly the presenter only made that reference in jest and did not want us to remember that info as the 10% we will never forget?



That's why it is important that we learn how to appeal to our audiences in ways that leave behind a trail of 10% remembrance.

Carmen then said that our IQ lowers by at least 10% when we are multi-tasking. Smoking marijuana, on the other hand, lowers only 4%. Multitasking does result in less remembrance. People ultimately make decisions based on what they remember, not what they forget.

Carmen then explored how Memory itself is just one of the three sequential characteristics in play here -- the other two being Attention and Decision.

Attention: Are they attentive?

Memory: The right 10% should stay in the audience's mind

Decision: They then take action -- the decision!

Ultimately, what would you like them to remember? What is the most important message?

As an example, Carmen discussed Michael Pollan's book, In Defense of Food. In this book, Michael quickly puts forth three supporting points:

1. Eat Food
2. Not too much
3. Mostly plants

These three supporting points are part of his 10% that you will remember.



Similarly, you have to think about your 10% -- constantly look for your 10%!

Focus on attention -- attention paves the way to memory. If you hold their attention, you have found a way to their memory.

So what is it that results in loss of attention? It is Habituation, such as music in the background, meetings happening, the phone ringing, or anything that is routine.

Carmen explained habituation further with a humorous example. There was this person whose job was to jump from an airplane all the time. He got so habituated to this task that he would often think about what he would eat for dinner while he was actually jumping, in mid-air!

Habituation kills attention.

Humans habituate very quickly.

What is something that you're habituated to in your office?

What is something that you used to consider a treat, and now it's mundane (a norm)?

You set a level high -- and then bring it down. Then God save you!

The brain habituates very fast.

Habituation is influenced by 2 factors:

1. Stimulus Internal Variation: Degree of change over time
2. Subjective Arousal Perceived novelty and familiarity

Even in the movies, shorter shots increase viewer response. In the 1930s and the 1940s, shot lengths were around 10 seconds. From 2000 onwards, they are below 4 seconds, and they also have- more motion and movement.

Why? Because a "cut" holds attention. Are you making it possible for people to go away? How often do you provide a "cut"?

Essentially, you need to change the stimulus to get attention:

From Text to Graphics

From Formal to Informal

From Static to Dynamic

From Monologue To Dialogue

From Facts To Stories

From Complexity To Simplicity

Carmen shared more thoughts:

The brain is looking to conserve energy -- that is why people may fall asleep during presentations.

And so we need to create memory traces. If you create Zen-like presentations with pictures, will people remember it at all after 2 days?

Use change to draw attention but keep your "10%" constant. Determine the 10%.

Carmen then asked us to think about what happens in the brain when we habituate? She then spoke about dopamine.

Is dopamine all about pleasure? Not necessary about pleasure, but as a way to get the craving and get a reward. Dopamine adds drive. Dopamine is related to reward. Anticipation of the reward is as strong as the reward itself. That's how Las Vegas makes a lot of money.

When you kill dopamine, you kill the behavior?

Related to this dopamine behavior is a question: how do you provide these elements in your marketing?

1. Reward
2. Anticipation
3. Uncertainty + Alternatives + Suspense + Discovery

Carmen then asked everyone to photograph their shoes and send her an email with the picture and a small description.



So why this activity to show pictures of shoes? Here are some reasons that Carmen provided:

• Appeal to what they already know.
• Attention depends on what they know.
• Give them something they expect and something they did not expect.

Carmen recommended J Ruth Gendler's The Book of Qualities.

The end was a little abrupt -- but that may be because Carmen had many "cuts" in her keynote. A little more time may have helped but in spite of all these limitations, Carmen did show her skills delivering an awesome keynote. And she did hold the attention of the audience throughout her session!

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Dr. Carmen Simon's presentations and workshops help business professionals to use communication and presentation skills to increase revenue, train or motivate others, and overall to stand out from too much sameness in the industry. A published author, Dr. Simon is frequently invited as a keynote speaker at various conferences. She is co-founder of Rexi Media, a company that helps business professionals from all fields improve their presentation skills, whether they deliver content face-to-face, online, or create on demand presentations.

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