Last month I attended a Colour Consultant Seminar hosted by Benjamin Moore. The invitation made me believe that I was going to learn more about colour. You probably know by now, especially if you’ve read my bio, that I love colour. Colour fascinates me, it consumes my life, and because the husband and I met in a paint store, he loves colour equally as much as I do. We can be pretty pathetic sometimes. We are always playing the colour game. Always trying to guess which Benjamin Moore colour was chosen whether we are in Starbucks, Chapter’s, or somebody’s home. But then I received further information on this seminar: “all attendees will have the opportunity to present in front of the group a number of times and will be given feedback by the facilitators, which will assist them in developing and building on their presentation skills.” SAY WHAT?! PRESENT IN FRONT OF A GROUP?!? THAT’S NOT WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR! But it was too late to back out now…

To say I was super nervie on day one of two is an understatement. Thankfully it was just a small group. Our first exercise was to go through a magazine and cut and paste anything that represented us. We shared our board with a partner then presented each other’s to the group. Here’s how my board turned out:

What can I say about this? I’m simple, I love stripes, I have a chair addiction, Christmas is my favourite season, I love gold, I like my Starbucks and Banana Republic, and I dig strollers. You read it, I dig strollers…WEIRDO! I remember as a little girl when the SEARS catalogue arrived in the mail, the first page I turned to were the strollers. I would analyze each one and compare all the features. I still do it. I just don’t go through the SEARS catalogue. Now you know my dark hidden secret…

So presenting each others boards wasn’t bad. It wasn’t great either. Who knew that getting up in front of a small group for 20 seconds would be so nerve-wracking?!

So I made it through the presentation. Oh but wait, that was just the start of them….

Our next task/presentation was to create a board with a common thread. I decided to go with the DIY/handmade/ETSY look:

That completes Day 1. Phew! Survived that one.

Day 2 – WE HAVE TO WHAT?! GIVE A 3 MINUTE PRESENTATION?! DID YOU JUST SAY THREE MINUTES?!

This was a how-to presentation. We could present whatever we wanted. Someone taught us how to create a Christmas wreath and someone else taught us how to care for a pet lizard. I taught the class how to create sparkly Christmas art. We had overnight to prepare for this one so that went without a hitch…I think…

We were put on the spot for our last presentation. We were given a photo from a Benjamin Moore brochure, such as the one below, then had to describe why certain colours were chosen for certain walls and why this space works.

So what I thought was going to be a “colour seminar” actually turned out to be a public-speaking seminar. I can’t say I was fully on board with the idea before day one but after the second day I walked out of there with a lot more confidence and was very glad I attended.

The whole reasoning behind this seminar and exercise was to train us how to host our own colour event at the store to teach our customers about colour and decor and Benjamin Moore paint.

Who’s interested in an evening of wine, cheese, colour, and paint?! Sign me up!