WELU Presenter's Tip Sheet
This WELU Presenter's Tip Sheet provides site-specific and audience-specific suggestions for consideration in preparing presentations for our audience of seniors.
Introduction and Background to WELU’s mornings
WELU (West End Learning Unlimited) is a Kanata-based volunteer organization of senior citizens begun in 2001. Our members, mostly retired and well-educated, come from a broad cross-section of experience and interests.
Our Mission is "to present, to mature adults of west-end Ottawa, daytime lectures which provide intellectual stimulation and a better understanding of the world we live in and its history."
Our Website, www.welu.ca, provides the history of WELU and a listing of lecture series held to date.
How WELU mornings unfold
Lectures are held on Tuesday mornings from 9:30 -11:30 am. Presenters are requested to arrive not later than 9:00 am, to allow sufficient time to set up for their presentations. Presenters should note that, in inclement weather especially, traffic on Highway 417 approaching Kanata and along March Road is frequently very congested. In such cases, extra travel time is advised.
By about 8:45 am, coffee, prepared by Legion volunteers, is available. The morning typically unfolds as follows:
8:30 Chair and A/V set up begins.
9:00 Speaker’s suggested arrival time for microphone and computer connection to our AV system.
9:25 Announcements followed by introduction of speaker(s).
9:30 Lecture/presentation begins.
10:30 Refreshment break (coffee, tea, and cookies supplied).
10:50 Q&A time with presenter
11:25 Thanks to presenter(s).
11:30 Chair and A/V system put away.
WELU’s Venue and A/V set-up
WELU uses the Kanata Legion Hall, at 70 Hines Road, for lectures. We typically have about 150 people attend our lectures. Free parking is available in the Legion Hall’s parking lot (at the rear of the building). A map and detailed directions to the venue can be found on WELU’s website: http://welu.ca/Contact Us.html
Speakers are provided with up-to-date A/V equipment capable of handling electronic presentations including embedded sound and videos. We provide a plasma projector and a laser pointer, to advance slides. We also provide a wearable microphone, a second hand-held microphone for additional presenters.
We recommend that speakers bring their own computer. If this is not practical, then you can bring a memory stick containing a PC-formatted PowerPoint presentation for use on our PC computer which has "Powerpoint Viewer" installed, but advance notice is required for this option.
Our plasma projector has ports to accept VGA USB and HDMI signals. We have adapters for Apple computers, and will be acquiring a special set of adapters for presenters using Macbook Air. Speakers wishing to use the latter equipment are requested to advise us early.
WELU’s front-of-the room projection screen is large (measuring six feet wide by 4 feet in height). Most presenters talk from the front of the audience, but with the wearable microphone presenters can freely move about the auditorium while talking. A lectern is available for those wanting one.
Audience seating is in 10 rows with a centre aisle.
People in the furthest row from the projection screen are about 30 feet from the screen and, for them, viewing text placed below images is often obstructed by those sitting in front of them.
Please consider the Digital Presentation Tips below to ensure that your slides can be read and understood by all.
Four tripod-mounted speakers (two at the front and two midway along the side wall of the room) provide the audience with excellent audio volume and clarity. A few hearing-impaired audience members, using personal headsets, utilize our wireless audio system to assist them in hearing presentations and participating in the question period.
Digital Presentation Tips for our WELU Audience
In crafting A/V presentations for our audience, please consider the distance between the screen and those sitting in the back of the hall. In our experience, for our audience:
* 24 Point font size is suggested as a minimum for text to be read by those seated in back rows. Sans serif fonts (such as Arial) is easier to read than serif text.
* Colored text on coloured backgrounds are difficult to view for many people. Black text on white backgrounds gives the best text clarity.
* Image description text is best seen, by those seated at the back of the hall, if placed at the top of slides.
* Slides with no more than six lines of text are the most effective.
* Slides with multiple images, due to their reduced size, lose their detail and impact on those seated distant from the screen: single images per slide are better received.
* Action slide advancements (e.g. spinning, turntable, etc.) can be distracting rather than helpful/entertaining.
Are you willing to have your digital presentation uploaded to our website?
Many presenters provide WELU with a copy of their digital presentation to be uploaded to a password-protected portion of our website to which members have access for review purposes or viewing by those unable to attend your presentation. Is this something that you are willing to do too?
Thank you for coming to WELU with your story and experience.
Customarily our token of thanks for the presentation is a work of art by a talented local artist. For those who prefer to not accept personal gifts, arrangements can be made to make a donation, made in the speaker’s name, to a charity or non-profit organization.