It wasn't so long ago that presentations were made from a lecture or the front of the room only, and the only hardware that was available was a blackboard and a piece of white chalk. The only software required was a soft cloth to wipe the blackboard clean after the presentation was completed. It is fair to say that things have changed a little since then. Digital presentations The first breakthroughs in computer driven presentations began over the last ten years. They came with the advent of the laptop or portable computer along with the launch of the first piece of software especially developed for the purpose; Microsoft PowerPoint. Still a market leader in its niche today, PowerPoint in its early days began as a simple slide show presenter, and lacked almost all the additional features that it has at its disposal today. However in those early days, someone coming to making a presentation using this technology was automatically placed on a higher plain than the blackboard and magic marker brigade.Today, presentations and presentation technology have come on in strides, Organizations have long since realized that to send a speaker to make a presentation in front of a live audience of fellow researchers and possible donors can no longer rely on their colleague's good will and understanding if they make a presentation fraught with technical problems and amateurish effects. These days are long gone. Even the most financially pressed research Organization will not allow them to make presentations without having invested a lot of time and as little money as possible in creating an effective presentation. One of the major benefits of PowerPoint is that, although it has developed along the way while retaining it status as being probably the number one presentation program software in the World, it is still very user friendly and relatively inexpensive. This why probably more that 90% of presentations made in the World, whether in a business or a professional setting is made through PowerPoint. High power presentations need high power technology As presentation technology developed the demand increased for more effective and hard hitting presentations, tailored more towards the business world. Companies who are prepared to invest a large proportion of the advertising budgets on point of sale presentations increasingly embrace the concept of presentation technology. As newer and more powerful software came on the market, companies who ran their own in-house marketing departments, rushed to add it to their artillery of software programs. Smaller companies handed out huge commissions to design agencies to design and produce audio/visual presentations that would pop the eyes out of the heads of potential customers, either consumer and business. However something was missing, and nobody knew what to call it. It was an effective platform for these presentations. A cross between a screen, a monitor and a television, the experts said.Let's give them something to look at And then one day it came, And boy, was it expensive. The first flat screen plasma high density television monitors cost what some people would pay for a good second hand car. However there has been nothing quite like them before or since in providing a platform for presenting audio/visual presentations. The high density resolution that they are capable of providing cannot fail to impress even the most hard-hearted of buyers. Since they came on the scene, prices have come down considerably and they are in the reach of most marketing Organizations. There are even companies who will rent them out for the duration of a trade show or exhibition. So the technology is within everyone's reach.For consumer point of sale presentations, LCD monitors are also becoming highly effective as marketing presentation platforms. Usually smaller, with lower density definition these monitors can usually be found in banks or customer service departments. While the customer is waiting in line, they can read and learn all the latest developments and offers that the company has to offer. This is a classic example of taking full advantage of a captive audience.Presentation technology is a fast paced industry, and has made a successful transition into online applications also. The sky is the limit and who knows where the technology will lead us to next.