Pecha Kucha

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Pecha Kucha is a presentation format for creative work originally devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Kein-Dytham Architecture (KDa) in Tokyo in 2003. The format has spread to many cities across the world.

1 Overview
2 Business Application
3 See also
4 References
5 Related links

[edit] Overview

Pecha Kucha (pronounced peh-chak-cha) was started in Tokyo, Japan in 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham Architecture, as a way to attract people to SuperDeluxe, an event space they had set up in Roppongi.^[1]

A Pecha Kucha night is an event format in which presenters show a slideshow of 20 images, each of which is shown for 20 seconds — giving a total presentation time of 6 minutes 40 seconds. Each event usually has 14 presenters. Presenters (and much of the audience) are usually from the design, architecture, photography, art and creative fields.

The event format has been replicated in more than 42 cities, including New York, London, San Francisco, Seattle, Rotterdam, Shanghai, Mexico City and Berlin. Events are usually limited to one each month per city.

Well-known presenters have included the architects Jun Aoki, Toyo Ito, Rem Koolhaas, and designers such as Tom Dixon.

There are actually no restrictions on the type of content that could be presented. Some organizers have added their own variations to the format. In Groningen, in the Netherlands, two slots are given to a live band, and the final 20 seconds of each presentation consists of an immediate critique of the presentation by the host’s sidekicks. Video art has also been presented at some events.

The name derives from a Japanese term for the sound of conversation ("chit-chat").

[edit] Business Application

The 20/20 format of Pecha Kucha is now also being adopted in the business world, with some company internal business presentations being run in a strict 6 minutes 40 seconds, with all discussion and questions held to the end of the presentation. This is primarily a device to help timebox presentations, force presenters to be more focused in their message, allow them to flow uninterrupted, and ultimately to avoid the "death by powerpoint" syndrome, of sitting through long and often tedious powerpoint presentations.^{[citation needed]}