do you pecha kucha?

It sounds like a bad latin dance-floor move.  Pecha Kucha (pronounced “peh-cha koo-cha”).  But it seems to be all the rage in presentation styles these days: 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide.  Or, for those in the know: “20×20″.  Yup, 6 minutes and 40 seconds to get your point across.  It ties in nicely with some guidance I was given a long time ago regarding making presentations:  be brief. be brilliant. be done.  But why now?  Why this?

Why Pecha Kucha?

Pecha Kucha Night started in Japan in 2003 as a way to attract people to an event space.  Initially it was for young designers to meet, network and show their work - quickly.  Of course, all things cool emanate out of creative fields and the masses followed.  These days people talk about travels, research projects, hobbies, collections, well, just about anything really.  It’s a real social environment, not just a bunch of presentations, and can be found in most cities.

Pecha Kucha has made its way into business because internal meetings are increasingly becoming a time suck without really getting anything done.  By implementing the 20×20 format the hope is to force presenters to focus their message, reduce interruptions and avoid “death by Powerpoint”.

I can’t help but wonder: is this the new Toastmasters?  I mean in a world of Twitter and no one able to concentrate on a thought for more than 10 minutes, it seems, is this how we become great speakers?  leaders?  concise and to the point?  Toastmasters-lite?  Or is this the evolution/expansion of the “elevator pitch”? - conveying your idea in the time span of an elevator ride: approximately thirty seconds to two minutes.

Regardless of the presentation style the underlying theme is certainly the same:

get your point across concisely in a way that will stimulate thoughts and further discussion.

And if you don’t - solicit feedback after your presentation to help you hone those skills.  Good luck!