Storytelling, is it a dying art?

Recently I was at a very powerful workshop where I presented a short session on storytelling. After my presentation, the response was overwhelming. The participants said that it was liberating, very informative, entertaining, helpful and very well delivered. However, what surprised me was that more than one person said to me that storytelling is a dying art.
To me it was strange because I grew up in a culture and family that was very rich in storytelling. That is how I knew my parents and grandparents and on top of it all, it was simply great entertainment. I can assure you that a good story could compete with TV anytime.
Storytelling is as old as the world itself. Humans started telling stories as soon as they could speak. How could they not?! The spoken word came much earlier than the written one, and people had to preserve and pass along information, knowledge, wisdom and entertainment.
So, do stories have a place in a business environment? If I asked you, are you a good storyteller? Would you say YES or NO? What are the characteristics of a good storyteller? What are the ingredients of a good story? Where do you find stories? How do we connect through our stories? How should you structure masterful stories? We will discuss these and other questions in the upcoming postings. Keep telling your stories, because only you can.