Flipchart

I have been using Magic Chart at interactive workshops since 2004 and it is enormously useful. Travels easily in luggage, and can be instantly put up on any smooth wall in the workshop. You can apply strips several pages long (or wide) to the wall - ideal for project planning and other charts/outputs that need a large area. (After a while I even mastered the art of applying a long strip to the wall unaided) You can stick post-its on it, write on it with whiteboard marker pens, and even wipe off what you've just written if you need to correct it. It's very useful for syndicate group work because it's very easy to reposition on the wall, e.g. to show the outputs of several groups together.Virtually every time I have used it, workshop attendees have clamoured to find out where they can get some.While it is more expensive page-per-page than flipchart paper, buying from the web is cheaper than trying to purchase retail; and what you find retail is probably the 'look-alike' product that appeared on Dragons' Den. Peter Jones didn't see the point but then he's never been in one of my workshops. Theo Paphitis promised to commit provided he had exclusive rights - don't know if anyone has told him he doesn't have the only magic chart, but his shops stock the look-alike and much more expensive product.Minor downside - in a dusty tropical environment you may find you need masking tape after a while to support bigger charts.Recent disappointment - it is recently being supplied in triangular prism boxes (why?) rather than the useful cuboid boxes with a dispensing slot (like clingfilm) which it has always been supplied in before. I am hoping this is a temporary blip.But I would still be wanting to have some of this with me whenever I run an interactive workshop that is aiming to produce some outputs. Everyone loves using it.

What did we do with out this????If you regularly train or speak in different venues and, do not always know exactly what to expect in regard to resources, this is invaluable. I always enquire (via a Resources Required Sheet) what will be supplied at a venue. Then I arrive and yes there's a flip chart but no paper. Or, the whiteboard has been covered in scrawl with a permanent marker! Or, the smart board isn't working.With this wonderful material you are never without a white board or something for your delegates/students/audience to work though activities on. Afterwards you can keep it or throw it away. The sheets will cling to most surfaces. I have put them walls, doors, windows and even plastic screens/signs. I used this on painted walls, Artex, fabric wall coverings, wood and felt covered Nobo boards. The static cling allows them to be easily pulled off with no damage at all to the underlying surface - yes no more being reprimanded or charge for blue tack/ sellotape damage... Brilliant!!!!I personally use this for delegates to perform activities on. As such I tend to throw away the sheets with one use. I use about 8 sheets per course. So I am not sure what it's like to either wipe clean or to repeatedly take up and down. For wiping clean I think dry wipe cleaning sheets would clean the sheets with no problem (providing dry wipe markers used). But as the sheets are thin, I doubt they would stand too many clean downs.As for the static effect wearing off in time, I have taken these down and moved them around without problems. If the static effect did wear off, I'd just revert to the usual method; blue tack. So not sure why some other reviews are whinging about this.If you think this product would serve you, my guess is you'd be absolutely right. I would never be without it.

I found that this product works really well to create an instant whiteboard, e.g. turning up for a meeting where you don't know if you'll have something to write on.First of all, most important, they really do stick. I have had some whiteboards up on the wall now which haven't fallen down for almost a year, and still going strong. I've stuck these to wood, painted wall, glass, and even bare bricks.If you keep taking them down and moving them somewhere else, eventually they will lose their static charge. It is possible to build this back up again by rubbing the sheets over vigorously e.g. with a microfibre cloth, but this won't ever quite restore their original stickiness. So my advice is to use these to create instant whiteboards, not whiteboards you can keep moving from place to place.They are erasable if you act quickly. Once a whiteboard pen has dried, you will now need a little spray of window cleaner and a microfibre cloth, and you'll be able to get it clean again. I find this works really well to keep reusing the board (but, as above, don't make it your plan to keep moving them around and cleaning them in between uses).The good news is that they are made of regular plastic so when a sheet has given up the ghost or become too dirty, it should be safe to recycle.Last tip, be careful about how you separate sheets as they will tear. Unroll until the perforation is only just off the roll. Pull away without any sideways motion. Pull firmly, with just enough force, and work from one edge to another. They really are this flimsy (if they were more durable they'd be heavier and so wouldn't stick). So, just be careful about how you separate the sheets and everything else is great.