Pecha Kucha: Get to the PowerPoint in 20 Slides

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Let us now bullet-point our praise for Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein, two Tokyo-based architects who have turned PowerPoint, that fixture of cubicle life, into both art form and competitive sport. Their innovation, dubbed pecha-kucha (Japanese for "chatter"), applies a simple set of rules to presentations: exactly 20 slides displayed for 20 seconds each. That's it. Say what you need to say in six minutes and 40 seconds of exquisitely matched words and images and then sit the hell down. The result, in the hands of masters of the form, combines business meeting and poetry slam to transform corporate clich into surprisingly compelling beat-the-clock performance art.

The duo — Dytham is British, Klein Italian — invented pecha-kucha four years ago to help revive a struggling performance space they owned. The first presentations were such a hit that they began hosting monthly pecha-kucha events, boozy affairs at which Tokyo architects and designers showcased their streamlined offerings to crowds of hundreds. Now there are pecha-nights in 80 cities, from Amsterdam and Atlanta to San Francisco and Shanghai. Why? Dytham believes that the rules have a liberating effect. "Suddenly," he says, "there's no preciousness in people's presentations." Just poetry.

By Dan Pink | Wired Magazine Issue 15.09

Channel: Entertainment
Uploaded: August 29, 2007 at 2:18 am
Author: wirednews

Length: 00:07:01
Rating: 4.40
Views: 94164

Tags: Wired Pecha Kucha

Video Comments:
54Plasma (October 28, 2008 at 10:25 pm)
Hey there
I'm currently across from the UK working in DC for a month, and was interested to learn you are also here. Do some presentation work myself and loved both your talk and content.
Thanks
David
vanchunyin (October 12, 2008 at 9:22 am)
Thank you very much, that gave me an idea how I'm going to prepare and what I should put into my Pecha Kucha presentation.
bradiscool500 (June 25, 2008 at 1:07 am)
remember there were 8 minute abs, then 7 minute abs? well, i've invented 18 slides shown for 18 seconds each. go fuck yourselves, 20 slides for 20 seconds! haha
WealthyLiving (March 26, 2008 at 10:01 pm)
This was my introduction to Pecha Kucha and I loved it. The subject matter had a lot to do with that though. Great job!
On another note, my vid titled "Reading is Fundemental" clearly isn't Pecha Kucha. Since I'm not familiar with this topic, does anyone know if that particular video falls into any presentation classification?
jdm1051 (May 22, 2008 at 9:06 pm)
Is "Fundamental" supposed to be misspelled?
WealthyLiving (May 22, 2008 at 9:15 pm)
no. thank you for pointing that out
spiraltraining (January 24, 2008 at 6:32 am)
Just posted a video response ... you say towards the start of your video, Daniel, that doing a PK on PK is too post-modern for you...... so I got all post modern and did it instead! Thanks for inspiring me!
tehblunderbuss (December 13, 2007 at 10:14 am)
Exactly what it should be.
It isn't: blah blah blah about this slide. Ok next slide. Blah blah blah about this slide. Next slide.

Pecha-kucha is like speed golf of presentation, I gather.
practicaleq (January 21, 2008 at 7:04 pm)
Ahem! "exquisitely matched words and images"
practicaleq (January 21, 2008 at 7:06 pm)
Sorry - that was supposed to be a reply to 'tehblunderbuss's comment but came out in the wrong place for some reason...