Report on the 11th Annual British Liquid Crystal Society Meeting, 1-3 April 1996 

This year's meeting was held at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and was attended by 185 delegates. The meeting was organized jointly by Professor Mike Holmes and Dr Richard McCabe and took place in the recently completed Harrington conference facilities. It provided a lively interchange of information on a wide variety of topics, led by the invited speakers who covered four important areas of interest. The Ben Sturgeon Memorial Lecture was delivered Professor Bill Doane from Kent State University. His up-to-the-minute presentation dealt with reflective cholesteric liquid crystal displays and the progress that has been made in developing low cost, low power and high-resolution displays capable of delivering the type of switching rates that will make them serious rivals to the printed page. He provided his audience with both the scientific background and the challenges remaining before commercial displays of this type are available.