Pecha Kucha

The term Pecha Kucha (pronounced pet-shah coot-shah) is Japanese for “the sound of conversation.” It’s also, I’ve recently learned, a place for designers to meet, network and show their work in public.

The idea is quite simple… each presenter gets 20 slides which are shown for 20 seconds each. This gives each designer a total of 6 minutes 20 seconds to present their ideas and, since the slideshow is controlled by the organizers, presenters can’t overrun their alloted time.

This sounds like a great idea for places like Congress, where participants tend to go on-and-on, sometimes even as a tactic to keep others from speaking.

YouTube, with its 10 minute limit on video uploads, has unknowingly adapted this idea to user-generated-videos. Say what you want… but keep it under ten minutes.

The DEMO conference, with their tightly controlled schedules and presentations, is a nice example of the usefulness of the concept outlined by Pecha-Kucha.org. In true Pecha Kucha tradition, each participant gets 6 minutes (I think) to present their ideas, followed by a couple of days to mingle and smooch with investors (and really explain what they’re about).

Have you seen any other implementations of Pecha Kucha? Any ideas of where it could be implemented?

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