Live elearning

Via Kerrie Blyth came an article from PC Authority about the notion of ‘Pecha Kucha’, a very structured approach to presentations where presenters are restricted to 20 slides, and allowed only 20 seconds to speak to each. 400 seconds total for a presentation. It grew out of presentations organised by

Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham (Klein Dytham architecture), … in 2003 as a place for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.

But as we all know, give a mike to a designer (especially an architect) and you’ll be trapped for hours. The key to Pecha Kucha Night is its patented system for avoiding this fate. Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each – giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to show.

Pecha Kucha (which is Japanese for the sound of conversation) has tapped into a demand for a forum in which creative work can be easily and informally shown, without having to rent a gallery or chat up a magazine editor. This is a† demand that seems to be global – as Pecha Kucha Night, without any pushing, has spread virally to over 100 cities across the world. Find a location and join the conversation.

Or as Wired put it “Pecha Kucha: Get to the PowerPoint in 20 Slides Then Sit the Hell Down”

This would be an interesting format to trial next time we have a large number of presentations to get through. Perhaps we could trial it in our next team workshop?

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