Are we done with slide presentations yet?

Back in the day, the mention of watching a slideshow of so-and-so's vacation sent the masses scrambling. What does that tell us about the nature of slide-shows?

I'm not sure about other industries, but the "Power Point" presentation is getting VERY old in my world.

Back in the mid-90's when I was in college, using a newfangled slide presentation was the coolest thing ever! Those spoiled rich kids with the fancy 486 laptop's made my overhead projection presentation look really bad.

Fast-forward about 13 years. I've sat through so many slide presentations that I don't even listen to them anymore. For years now, whenever I've gone to a meeting where slides are used, I look around and everyone has brought their laptop so they can goof around during the boring presentation.

Now the trend is to have meetings that are "closed-laptop", and now, interestingly, people look for any and every reason not to show up. If a conference call line is available, or if the meeting will be "webcast" then forget about people showing up.

I don't know what's next, what will overtake these boring slide presentations, but I'll probably be asleep during the meeting that announces it.