A Sunday out at MVP Day / Openness Days 2016

For the first version of Openness Days which replaces MVP Open Days, Microsoft invited active MVPs as well as alumni to a 3-day event at Marriott Hotel, Hyderabad. As it started on a Sunday (March 20th), I had the good fortune of attending it just for that one day and meeting many current MVPs and alumni I knew from the time I was an ASP.NET MVP (from 2005-2010).

One of the takeaways for me from that meeting was the session by expert presenter, PowerPoint MVP & author, Geetesh Bajaj (one of the first from India to be awarded the yearly MVP award and for most number of times) on the importance of story telling in business communications. Excerpts:

Stories
..evoke emotions
..establish human connect quickly
..have fluctuations

Storytellers:
understand audiences
leave remembrances
are first convinced

Give them ..and also -
Conflict & resolution
Problem & Solution
Villain & Hero
Hopelessness & Hope

Stories need to be -
Small - easy to tell
Simple - to remember
Focused - easy to message

..spotted this lion in a painting at the Marriott