Story Veteran at Pixar Matthew Luhn gave a presentation on The Art of Storytelling this morning, on day one of the Dublin Tech Summit .
Speaking at the Prism stage, Luhn said the essence of getting information across is to be able to accompany it with an impactful story.
"When you tell information with a story wrapped around it people remember it."
He went on to describe how these storytelling skills can be transferred to business skills while giving presentations.
"When you use stories to communicate information whether you're in a board meeting or giving a presentation, you're trying to get investors to believe in an idea you have, they're going to remember you if you wrap a story around the information."
Luhn found that working with entrepreneurs at Pixar like Steve Jobs gave him great experience and adopted some of his story telling methods.
"Great speakers and great leaders use the same techniques by going from the ordinary world to what things could be back to the ordinary world."
He recalled the launch of the iPhone, when Jobs used this technique to show people where technology is, and where Apple is bringing it.
"When he introduced the iPhone for the first time, he did this back-and-forth impacting the audience thing, sharing with them that he has something super extraordinary and takes you down and says 'but every Smartphone that's been created is stupid'".
Luhn admired how Jobs used storytelling as a means of progressing his companies which is at the core of Pixar.
"He was a storyteller, and when he would deliver information or talk about where we want to be as a company, he would always tie it in to the story."
The hook is the most important part of any story, says Luhn and the audience has to be drawn into the story from the first eight seconds.
Every one of these Pixar films I've worked on we always try to be able to create a hook that we can put visually on a poster or in a trailer that would get people attention in those first eight seconds.
Luhn's father, who owns a toy shop in San Francisco gave him his passion for annimation and storytelling causing him to make a career decision in his late teens.
"By the time I was done with high school I absolutely know I wanted to be a Disney animator."
Liam Ashton
