The first and second days of colour in India

We held the first Day of Colour in India at KCT in Coimbatore. We were honoured to meet the principal Dr Joseph Thanikal as well as Professors and HOD of Fashion Technology, DR Ramachandralu, as well as Dr D'Souza. Professor and HOD Textile Technology. Mr Sankaran Professor and Head coordinator made sure our tour of the facilities were successful. Siva arranged the event and I gave a talk on colour perception, best practice , Ramya Kandiyoor from International Colour Solutions presented about how important it is to have the right colour standards and Llaxmi Natarajan an inspirational designer based in Australia encouraged the students to share the design concepts.

I need to mention here how impressive the main building was it looked like a palace and you can see it in the back drop of one of the pictures.

We held the second Day of Colour at PSG in Coumbatore, unfortunately I don't have any photographs but the same event was held with the same speakers. Dr T Ramachandran hosted the event very well. It was here that we saw the most amazing sari design with 164,000 hues.

'Global Textile Opportunities – Vision India'

I attended the TAI conference in Mumbai on 16 to 17 January and presented a lecture on Best Practice and Innovation in Colour Assessment and Communication on the morning of 17th. I attended the SDC EC trustee meeting on 16th and we discussed the forthcoming training courses and the conference in Goa. It was good to meet the trustees and many of my old friends at the conference. Please see Vilas Gupte who invited me to speak at the TAI conference on the right,

The first Colour Management for Textiles Diploma modules were held in December at Verivide in Leicester. The attendees came fro Next, Panache and John Lewis. The courses were highly successful and all attendees achieved a pass of over 75%. Well done to everyone. The comments were that the courses were excellent and wished they had been held before. They did want to spend a longer time with each modules as they had so many questions! We will address these on Modules 3 and 4 when we repeat some of the content again. in more detail and these and more questions will be answered. The chief tutors were myself and Janet Best.

Bangladesh and Hong Kong

This was a very important and interesting visit, the first region in Bangladesh, the second female President and the first female CEO of the SDC. We visited the College of Textile Engineering and Technology in Dhaka and four other companies BDL, Bextex, Pertex and Dird Composite where we got an overview of good fabric production. The traffic made us late on several occasions. We had an inauguration seminar where both I and Arthur Whelan, previous President, spoke about best practice and getting it right first time. There were about 200 attendees. I would like to thank Mr Barmma for both making us welcome and organising an excellent seminar and series of visits.

Afterwards we travelled to Hong Kong for their AGM and to visit several key educational establishments and retailers. The Hong Kong region now 36 years old and is crucial to our links to China. There were several key awards with the top one being John Xin who won a silver medal and the ultimate Fellowship award. There are very key opportunities here in HK and China for our Diploma Courses and consultancy. I would like to thank the committee and the friends of Hong Kong who have made this a very successful region.

I would like to say that or new CEO, Susie Hargreaves, was an excellent ambassador for our company as well as learning about our membership and regional requirements. I am sure she will ensure all membership and regional needs are met in the UK and abroad.

North of England Lecture

I never reported on my lecture to the North of England, Education Education Education. My theme for my Presidency is education and as this is a key theme of the Society as an Educational Charity, the lecture was appropriate. I not only talked about the traditional qualifications but the Colour Experience, and the new Colour Management Diploma Courses. Education is a wide topic if you take Training and Skills into account. The SDC provides publications, electronic news letters and the Colourist to provide news items which can also be called educational. Due to feedback every member should see a new styled Colourist which was announced at the North of England Region. It was great to see a lot of familiar faces

Czech Republic visit 16th 17th October

I attended and gave two lectures at the centenary of the Czech Association of Textile Chemists and Colourist in Dvore Kralove nad Labem, about two hours drive east of Prague. One lecture was about the Society the other was how we can improve efficiency and colour communication through best practice. The Association is part of IFATCC, International Federation of Associations of Textile Chemists and Colorists and there were the Presidents of the Polish, German and Italian Associations also present at this event. I was invited to give a paper at the next International meeting in Italy in 2010. The events showed there is a keen interest for the remaining industries within Europe to share know how and improve the efficiencies of the remaining factories. We also visited where there was a plaque commemorating the start of the Association and a 16th century castle where the current family was also celebrating their centenary of ownership.

Visits this week

This week I attended the second RITE conference in London. (RITE is Reduced Impact of Textiles on the Environment). The SDC sponsored students to attend this conference and had a table at the exhibition manned by Anika and Quentin. The speakers varied from politicians, journalists, world wildlife fund and retailers to suppliers of genetically modified crops. The question and answer session was very stimulating and at times contentious. On Wednesday night I attended the Swan Dinner, invited by the Dyers Company. The dinner was held at the Cloth Workers Hall, another magnificent building in the City of London. I was made very welcome at this dinner in celebration of the Swan Uppings carried out in July. I sat next to my friend and ex President David Blackburn and a major in the Royal Signals whose regiment is sponsored by the Dyers Company. Please visit the Dyers Company Website for more of the history.