You may be wondering, what the hell does Pecha Kucha mean? What’s it all about?In a nutshell it’s a presentation that consists of 20 slides and you have 20 seconds per slide and it lasts a total of, well you work out the maths!
Most of us have heard the phrase “death by powerpoint”, yes? Most presentations are dull, too long or both. So a couple of Architects came up with a new format, as in their own words “architects talk too much! Give a microphone and some images to an architect – or most creative people for that matter – and they’ll go on forever! Give powerpoint to anyone else and they have the same problem”
I was given the topic of PASSION by our Birmingham PKN organiser, Jo Hardy and thats all i had. A topic. What i would talk about and the content on my slides was entirely up to myself.
Aswell as myself presenting there was also, James Rock, Kerry Murdock, Marverine Cole, Stuart Garlick, John Kirriemuir, Simon Jesson and Ben Waddington. All of them had great presentations on their take on Passion and presented with passion.
If you are thinking of presenting at a Pecha Kucha there might be a few tips from a beginner as myself:
1. Keep content on each slide brief. You only have 20 seconds. Too much text, images, graphs may be too much to take in for your audience or for you to talk for just 20 seconds.
2. Use images. A picture is worth a 1,000 words. Need i say more?
3. Try and make the slides follow on from each other either by the images, text or words you use to present.
4. Practice, practice, practice. Did i say practice? If you can just turn up with no preparation and have a really good presentation, then maybe you should present on live TV?
5. While presenting, remain focused. Deviating from your notes or waffling will mean your presentation will overrun the 20 seconds as each slide automatically moves on.
6. Have notes on cards. For me it was easy to have 20 cards and move to new card as each slide changed. As with the slides, not too much notes as you don’t just want to read, they should be more as key point(s) to get you to talk on slide being shown. Having notes on one sheet of paper maybe harder to follow as each slide changes.
Going back to what is “death by powerpoint”, maybe if we applied these principles to all presentation, they could be more fun for the presenter and enjoyed more by the audience?
It was a great night and a BIG thank you to Jo Hardy and all the organisers and sponsors. I’m looking forward to the next PKN Birmingham.
Below is my presentation, which was recorded and produced by Jon Randle of Mind Riot Productions.
I hope you enjoy the presentation at least half as much as i enjoyed giving it!
Pecha Kucha Nights | Donato Esposito | Birmingham, UK Vol.2 from MINDRIOT PRODUCTIONS on Vimeo.