Although I realize that the bulk of the heavy lifting in making a presentation interesting is in the presenter's own skills, visual effects can go a long way to enhancing those abilities and making the audience pay attention, and retain information. During our 5 weeks of class, it has been mentioned that over-using graphics and making presentations too busy can have a negative effect on the audience. Holographic technology however, is currently so new, impressive, and eye-catching that I believe it would tip the scales and make the audience sit up and notice.
The idea of having holographic images displayed as part of a presentation is becoming reality. It is still frightfully expensive, but new technologies like this eventually become mainstream. The first LCD projectors for presentations were also frightfully expensive, and now they are very affordable and better quality than the originals. Holographic projectors will eventually be just as obtainable.
You are starting to see these displays at trade shows, and they are getting more impressive every year. The advantages are great, other than the gee whiz effect itself. When talking about mechanical things, the ability to show an item in 3D is much better than trying to get the audience to imagine an object in a real application. Also, you can project over your audience, bringing the image closer to people in a large presentation. It also makes for some really entertaining interaction with the speaker.
This isn't science fiction anymore. Don't believe me? Hop in a time machine and show someone from 20 years ago an iPhone.
There is a nice collection of posts, and tradeshow pictures at the Holographic Trade Show Exhibits Blog.
