Often, I have to explain highly technical concepts to people who are unfamiliar even with the basics. It's hard to educate them in a short time prior to getting to the actual subject. It might not even worth the effort as they don't need to understand the underlying details to grasp the core of what I'm trying to tell them.
It's easier to try to relate them with something they are more familiar with. Using analogues to more mundane things can get the message through more easily. In the end, they will only end up using the systems we build. I just need to convince them the solution we are proposing is suitable for their use case.
So, instead of trying to tell them all the technical details I try to find a suitable metaphors of the architecture from the real world. Explaining the intended logic with things they already know so that I can skip straight to the point.
After all, it's all not that different. The technology is just a mean to deliver something. Ot doesn't matter how it works under the hood as long as you can understand the basic concepts of how things come together. And people love stories.