Pecha Kucha, what is it?

Last night I attended my first Pecha Kucha Night, held here in Hamilton. I dragged my darling hubby along and he too enjoyed the interesting speakers and the quick fire talks that didn’t drag on like your usual speeches tend to do! We learnt about what some companies do, how people met, the concepts behind an artist’s work that made it even more fascinating and odd stuff like how not to design a submarine in wartime!

I hear you asking now, what is Pecha Kucha? Well Pecha Kucha Night first started in Tokyo way back in February 2003. It is as an event that was originally for young designers to meet, network, and show their work to the public. The name Pecha Kucha comes from the Japanese term for the sound of conversation  as in ‘chit chat’, the concept is that it is based on a presentation format of  20 images at 20 seconds each meaning the speaker of each segment only has so many minutes to present their presentation.
It's means too that each presentation needs to be concise in that presenters cannot get carried away talking so it keeps things moving at a rapid pace. Pecha Kucha Nights are informal and fun gatherings with a chance to network before and after and in the break in-between for creative types to get together and share ideas, show their artworks or work, give their thoughts on things like at last nights event where they talked about anything from their personal likes and interests to what doesn’t work in design or how not to design a submarine in wartime and so on! In fact you can literally talk about anything at all really, as long as it’s in the Pecha Kucha’s 20 by 20 format.

If you want to learn more about these events have a read of this site http://www.pecha-kucha.org/what

This event has turned into a massive celebration, with Pecha Kucha Nights happening in hundreds of cities around the world including dear old Hamilton who just celebrated it’s 3^rd birthday of the event. With people leading such busy lives it’s a great way to find out interesting information, hear people talk, have a couple drinks and meet like minded people in a short time span. We heard about 10 speakers last night and all in less than 3 hours with networking time in-between and travel time! I highly recommend going along and can’t wait until the next one now!