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GUIDE TO SPEAKERS
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Guidance for presentations
to the "colourblind"
Guide to Speakers
The Colour Group is an
interdisciplinary society that draws together those who are concerned
with colour in many different disciplines. Some members come from
university research laboratories, some from industry, and some from the
fine and applied arts. So the task of the speaker is an especially
difficult one, in that he or she cannot assume an expertise common to
all members of the audience. It is certainly safe to assume a basic
knowledge of the physical nature of colour and of the more common ways
of specifying colour; but the average audience will not have a detailed
grasp of the speaker's own professional area. So the Group's Committee
asks speakers to take, say, five minutes at the beginning of their talk
to introduce systematically the fundamental concepts or facts in their
field of expertise. In return. we hope that speakers will then find it
rewarding to draw feedback from those who are concerned with colour in
other disciplines.
One of the attractive features
of The Colour Group is the great age range and loyalty of the members.
Some of those who have been attending meetings for decades are now a
little hard of hearing. Some young members travel to meetings from
Europe and are not native English speakers. So please speak clearly and
firmly with these members in mind - and other members of the audience
are sure to be grateful to you too.
The most successful talks to
the Group - as in the case of all societies - are those that are not
read from a script, but yet follow a structure that has been prepared
and timed in detail beforehand.
You will probably wish to
illustrate your lecture with slides. Nowadays, most venues have
projection equipment capable of displaying PowerPoint presentations but
the resolution and available alphabets and symbols will probably not be
the same as those of the computer on which the slides were made.
It is often best to come with your presentation not just on a memory
stick, but also to bring your own lap top computer, or ensure that
somebody else will have one that runs your presentation. If in
doubt, contact the meeting organiser. It is not safe to assume
venues will have facilities for 35 mm transparencies or even overhead
projectors. Again, if you have other audio-visual requirements,
please let the meeting organiser know in advance so that we can make
the necessary arrangements. Remember that serif typefaces, e.g.
Times Roman, are not as legible on slides as sans serif ones, e.g.
Arial. A table that is clear enough on the printed page will
almost certainly prove too detailed and illegible when projected.
Please try to follow the advice on presenting graphics for those who
have colour vision deficits (“colourblind”).
If you wish to use a Colour
Group logo, e.g. for a PowerPoint presentation at a meeting of the
Group, a suitable file is available from the Web Master: apply to him
at the email address below.
Email: 
The Colour Group of Great Britain - Homepage
Last Updated 9 September 2008
http://www.colour.org.uk/speakers.html