11:55 May 13, 2011 

I remember my primary school teacher would paint the blackboard (with a special paint as you mention) on the last day of the summer term every year whilst we played board games.....

11:28 May 13, 2011 

Now that does sound a good idea. I've been holding off commenting further, not because I was any longer convinced by my version, but because neither was I convinced by the other options!

11:23 May 13, 2011 

Another possibility might be "manual presentations". Crops up quite a lot in relation to conferences. I would guess "manuales" implies "as opposed to PowerPoint presentations".

11:12 May 13, 2011 

"Pintura pizarra" can be all sorts of colours. These people offer ten different ones, designed for kids' rooms:
http://www.cuartocolor.es/tienda-online/pintura-pizarra?vmcc...
Admittedly "rosa mariposa" would be a bold choice for a conference venue, but at least it shows it doesn't have to be black.

But if I were organising a conference I'd definitely go for the whiteboard paint, so that people can use dry markers. Chalkboards are pretty old-fashioned nowadays, even in schools. Speakers won't want to get chalk dust on their nice suits.

They might be talking about IdeaPaint:
http://www.milideas.net/ideapaint-una-pizarra-de-grande-como...

10:47 May 13, 2011 

From what I saw in Internet sites for MAG, it was classic black, but the might have options. As for the "trabajos manuales", I'd say that it could be rendered "making annotations and giving demonstrations", as that's what people do with them at trade shows.

10:13 May 13, 2011 

Sounds like an excellent idea and more suitable for a conference, and it does exist in Spain:
"Ya hablamos hace tiempo de la pintura imán y de la pintura pizarra, y hoy te presentamos la pintura de pizarra blanca, sobre la que podemos dibujar con rotuladores y borrar con un trapo.
La pintura que imita este efecto se llama Ideapaint, y convierte cualquier superficie lisa en un lugar donde dibujar y borrar todas las veces que queramos con los rotuladores especiales."
"http://blog.tenders.es/pintura-pizarra-blanca/

However, I suppose if it just says "pintura pizarra" you have to assume they mean ordinary blackboard/chalkboard paint.

10:03 May 13, 2011 

And by the way I think "blackboard paint" is right (or "chalkboard paint", which sounds more American to my ear). People paint walls in children's bedrooms with it, as well as actual blackboards. It provides a surface on which you can write and then erase it afterwards. I've seen DIY references to painting a wall with magnetic paint and then a coat of blackboard paint on top.

Unless of course it means whiteboard or dry-erase paint:
"While we’d recommend whiteboard paint over blackboard paint for a conference room due to ease of use and clean-up advantages, there are an endless array of uses for chalkboard paint in commercial settings"
http://patrioticpainting.com/blog/chalkboard-paint
On dry-erase whiteboard paint, see http://patrioticpainting.com/blog/dry-erase-whiteboard-paint

09:53 May 13, 2011 

Not sure if this will be in time for you, Lisa, but I think "manual demonstrations" might do the trick:
"Will there be question and answer portions, manual demonstrations, and audience participation? The answers to these questions will guide you and the venue"
http://www.howtodothings.com/business/how-to-arrange-seating...

08:46 May 13, 2011 

In the days when we had blackboards in the school where I taught, we used to repaint them every so often with special paint, which was particularly resistant to chalk and being rubbed! Quite probably what we're after...