When we think about all the reasons that conference presentations are difficult to deliver, difficult to enjoy as an audience, and difficult to remember, it's amazing that we hold conferences at all.
Sure, the idea of gathering like-minded people for one or more days of great conversation is appealing.
But what really happens even at good conferences is that the stream of information presented is mostly just background noise.
The real value of the conference often happens between individuals who are between presentations.
If you are presenting at a conference, you would probably like your presentation to make a real contribution to the way your audience thinks and makes choices.
You would probably like to provide something more than background noise.
The trick is to acknowledge that the conference setting provides a particular set of challenges.
Then you can consider how to change what you say so that your presentation is both useful and memorable.
Conference presenters face a special set of challenges as speakers.
A conference is a place where many people gather to hear many speakers in a short time.
The speakers address similar topics, some of which are of more interest to the gathered audience than others.
Most of the topics are not directly connected to the audience's ability to complete projects in their work or lives.
The speakers will not reconnect with the audience members until (unless) they find themselves at a similar conference in the future.
To think of it from the point of view of the audience, conference presentations are part of a stream of too much information that is often difficult to distinguish, difficult to imagine vividly, and difficult to remember.
The most straight-forward way to address these challenges is to remove some of the explanations and analysis from your conference presentation.
Fill your presentation, instead, with short stories.
Stories have beginnings and endings that separate them from the flow of information.
They are easy to imagine vividly, especially when told well.
And they represent a natural way to memorize information so that it can be remembered.
Storytelling connects with the audience in a way that is direct, powerful, and memorable.
How will you add stories to your next conference presentation? The first way is to think of the whole presentation as a story you will tell.
Ask yourself these questions:

• If my presentation is a story, who is it about? Who is the hero? Is there a villain or a sidekick or a love interest?
• If my presentation is a story, what happens in it? Stories are about events; stuff happens.
  What events are part of the story I am telling?
• If my presentation is a story, what pattern does it follow? Is it a buddy story, a sports story, a tragedy, a comedy, a love story or the story of a treasure hunt? You already know dozens of patterns for stories.
  Choose a model that fits your material.
  

Within your presentation, you can use shorter stories to do two things: change the mood of your audience (their state or energy level) or make your points more memorable (by illustrating or emphasizing them).
These shorter stories fit within your whole structure in the way that chapters fit inside a novel, or in the way the bits between the commercials fit into a television program.
The key to using stories effectively is simply to remember the principle that guides the best storytellers: it's not about you, it's about the story.
Let the story be the star by imagining it vividly and then describing what you imagine in simple words and sentences.
You don't need to be a great performer: you can let the stories do the work for you.
Think about the last three conferences you attended as a participant.
What do you remember now? It's likely that you either think of what you remember as a story (I remember the problems with the computer and how that presenter managed) or you remember stories you heard.
As a presenter, if you want to add value to your presentation at a conference, just add stories.