Death to PowerPoint?

There's been a lot of discussion about whether the press release has outlived its usefulness.

I don't think the press release is dead yet. Well, the old fashioned, text-only release from a decade ago isn't doing too well, but web-enabled, multimedia press releases are doing fine.

I also read that blogging is dead.

And certainly print newspapers are dead.

Now, the Wall St. Journal, in an article entitled, "Speaking Truth to PowerPoint," suggests that PowerPoint is past its prime.

That's one item I would like to believe is past its prime.

While PowerPoint is a significant improvement over slide shows -- cheaper, more resilient (no broken glass slides), more portable (can fit on a flash drive instead of having to lug a carousel and a slide projector), and easier to update. We've all been through too many boring presentations known as death by PowerPoint.

As it is, the highly regarded tech conference DEMO has a number of rules for presenting companies, but one of the more challenging rule is "No PowerPoint." Why, Neal Silverman, a DEMO exec, is quoted in the Sept. Fast Company, "We're looking for real products, not canned presentations." So they don't want presenters relying on PowerPoint as a crutch.

The only question: what replaces PowerPoint?