Say it Simply

Because of my interest and studies in computer engineering, I learnt from a young age, that if I wanted people to engage with me I had to talk about my interests simply and in a language that people understand.

Having studied in a field that is full of technical terms, jargon and acronyms, I know how difficult this can sometimes be. The way that universities studies are structured actually makes this worse, since you always have to write using all the possible terms and in a language that is not easy to understand. As one of my old lecturers told me a few days ago "Academics write for academics". As a result, when the time comes for us to talk to people about our passion, invention, innovation or product we start using terms that people don't understand.

Of course using terms and jargon when speaking to your peer group and people in your field is fine, as they will understand you. However, when you speak to the general public and people outside your field you need to be able to express your knowledge in common language and terms. If you do this, you will have people's attention and they will engage with you.

Here is an example that I came across on Apple's website:

Integrated memory controller.
With faster access to memory, each core can get straight to work on your data, rather than waiting for it to arrive. That’s why the new Intel Core architecture uses an integrated memory controller to connect fast 1333MHz memory directly to the processor. Together with up to 8MB of shared L3 cache, the integrated memory controller helps your applications run at peak performance.

Here is how the same controller is described on Intel's website:

Feed more data to the processor with the integrated memory controller
The Intel® Core™ i7 processors incorporate an integrated memory controller which handles the data flow between main memory and the execution engine. This means faster access time to memory and less latency for requests. Now applications can feed more data to the processor and you can spend less time waiting for results.

Do you see the difference? The first explains the technology as simply as possible, so people can understand why this makes a difference. In the second example, and because the intel website is not consumer focused the technology is explained in more technical terms.

We know you have the knowledge and that you are good at your job, but you need to be able to communicate this to your audience. The only way that you can grab people's attention and engage them is by speaking to them in a language that they understand. Speak as simply as possible and people will listen.