Location-based memory

The brain works in funny ways. Recently, I snapped a picture with my mobile phone of a busy and messy whiteboard after a long team discussion. It didn't matter to me that I will not be able to read most of the text (poor handwriting, poor phone camera). Because of the location of the scribbles on the board I was perfectly able to recall the entire discussion without reading a single word.
What happened? The brain had assigned its memory of the entire rich discussion we had to locations on the whiteboard. "Going to a place" is enough to unlock the memory.
Presentation lesson? Credit to management consultants. Sometimes it is good to have that busy chart with all strategic options on one page, it does not have to be pretty, the axes you use to define that 2x2 framework do not really matter. The chart will become the mental map of the discussion. Even when you improve it later on, chances are that your audience will ask you: "hey, that's the fat-cow option in the top right in our previous diagram isn't it?"