Towards the end of each semester, the Honors Program sponsors the Honors Colloquium, a scholarly and celebratory program where honors students are given the opportunity to showcase their projects and papers to the Honors Board, faculty, honors peers, and the college community.    Participants in the Honors Colloquium include all student members of the Honors Program and all faculty teaching in the program, including mentors and advisors.

Each presenter at the Honors Colloquium is required to register for the Honors Colloquium by completing and returning an Honors Colloquium Registration Form beforehand.  Completed registration forms are distributed via email to honors students and honors faculty for completion.  All forms must be returned to the Honors Center at least two weeks prior to the Honors Colloquium. 

These forms may also be returned to any assigned Student Coordinator or any member of the Honors Student Advisory Council for submission to the Honors Center.  These students are available to assist in the distribution and collection of registration forms and other honors colloquium related activities. 

Use of Audio Visual Equipment

All presentations requiring audio/visual equipment must be forwarded to the Honors Center to be uploaded on the computer at least three days before the Honors Colloquium.  It is recommended that students test their presentations with Office 2007 before bringing it in to the Honors Center for upload.  Due to the file size of power point presentations, they should NOT be emnailed.  If there are special IT requirements (media, VCR, DVD, etc) this must be indicated on the Honors Colloquium Registration Form.

Presentations MUST be recevied in the Honoros Center prior to the event.  No student will be permitted to make a presentaiton without a prioir submission.  Presentations will NOT be installed into the computers at the venue, nor will students be allowed to connect their own laptop to the projector equipment.   

Arrival at the venue

All presenters should arrive at the venue no later than 10 minutes prior to the scheduled starting time of the Colloquium.  Upon arrival, students must identify themselves to the colloquium organizers prior to taking their seats.

Time Management - Length of Presentations

All individual presentations will be 7 to 10 minutes in length, to be immediately followed by 3 minutes of questions and answers.  In order to facilitate time management, a set of orange and red cards will be displayed to presenters during their contributions.  The orange card will be shown when 7 minutes expire, and the red card will be shown at the end of 10 minutes.  When the red card is shown the presenter must stop and invite questions from the audience.

Group Presentations will be 10 to 13 minutes in length, to be immediately followed by 3 minutes of questions and answers.  For time management purposes, an orange card will be shown when 10 minutes expire, and a red card will be shown at the end of 13 minutes.  When the red card is shown, presenters must stop and invite questions from the audience.

Professional outlook

Mking presentations is likely to be a part of a student's job responsibility in the business work world.  As a result, presenters are recommended to create a favorable impression by dressing professionally.

Appearance of slides

Power Point is designed to enhance a presentation and not be a presentation.  The presenter and the content must be the focus and not the slides.  Below are some guideleines to making a more effective PowerPoint presentations.

Use of Fonts

• Keep your words large enough - at least size 24
• Use simple fonts - e.g. Sans Serif
• For titles (e.g. Ariel, Verdana, Tahoma, etc.)
• For bullets or body text (e.g. Times New Roman, Garamond, Georgia, etc.)
• Avoid all CAPS. It gives the impression that you are shouting.

Remember, less is more

• Limit the number of words you put on a page / Use headings where necessary
• Avoid paragraphs - try using excerpts or brief phrases instead.
• Use bullet points
• Limit each slide to approx. 6 bullet points
• Avoid Title Capitalization in bullet points, use sentence case instead. For example, "Sales are up 100% in the southeast region" instead of "Sales Are Up 100% In the Southeast Region."
• Use Graphics to illustrate points and explain details

Use of Effects

• Avoid fancy slide transitions, fly-ins, and sound effects for bullets. These are distractive and you may lose the attention of your audience in the process.

Backgrounds

• Avoid busy backgrounds that would make text hard to read
• Should usually be one color
• Use contrasting colors between text and background - either a dark background with light text or a light background with dark text
• Avoid using Gray and Green in texts and backgrounds

In recognition of high quality presentations at the Honors Colloquium, judges will award prizes based on to the following categories:

• Best Overall
• Individual
• Group
• Most Interactive
• Best Researched (for this category, the paper must be submitted along with the presentation)

The overall winner may also qualify to represent the college at one of the Honors Conferences hosted by the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) or the Northeast Regional Honors Council (NRHC).  The NRHC is a regional affiliate of the NCHC.