Be simple and personal

What is the retention of a lecture? The framework of my eight hour lecture consisted of me asking questions, telling stories from my work to answer questions, assign group work, do games, make drawings on a flipover and jointly draw conclusions. I avoided any use of PP and handouts on paper. I wanted to walk the talk of 'effective communication is being simple and personal'. The students seemed to like it. What they learned I will know when they send in their assignment. But at the end of the day I already was quite satisfied when the over 20 Klagenfurt University students of the International MSc Course in protected area management listed their main principles for effective communication and public participation in the early stages of planning a protected area:
Be humble.
Respect views of others.
The stakeholder 'is always right'.
Improve your empathy.
Invest in building mutual trust.
Avoid assumptions.
Invest in assessing prior knowledge.
Communication is a two way process.
Identify leaders.
Create positive word of mouth.
Participatory planning and management equals dealing with change.
Change is painful, focus communication on overcoming resistance.
Learn how to deal with uncertainties.
People are more concerned about 5 Euros loss than about 5 Euros gain.
Sometimes money can be a disincentive.