Presentation Zen: Storytelling lessons from Bill Cosby

Good points. Storytelling is so important in delivering a message and having people successfully learn and remember it. I would say a key point is to keep in mind what you want the audience to actually remember from the story -- it's easier to tell a story and have people remember the interesting bits, but more difficult to structure the story in such a way that places the focus on the bits you would like the audience to remember. Daniel Willingham in his book "Why Students Don't like School" spends a decent amount of time talking about the value of good storytelling.

On another note, the Presentation Zen blogger and author, Garr Reynolds, was a professor in a course I took a few years ago. Although the class he was teaching at the time had nothing to do with giving presentations or speeches, he was so passionate about the topic that peripherally* I ended up learning more about giving great presentations from his class than any other class I've ever had (including Speech in college). His blog is a great source for improving too.

*The topic constantly came up and Garr constantly organized related events outside of class