Pecha Kucha Night allows presenters 6 min, 40 sec. to shine!

Pecha Kucha Night offered as part of the Design, Art, Technology Symposium is an exciting way to discover new ideas and information!
The two day DESIGN MATTERS: Design, Art, and Technology Symposium 2009 (March 5, 6) is in full swing at High Point University. Aimed at students, educators and professionals, The 5th Annual Symposium is centered around the concept that design, as a fundamental component of all creative endeavors, matters to us all.
Thursday evening’s offering, Pecha Kucha Night provided an informative and intriguing way for a highly diverse group of creative people to share their interests with one another. For those not familiar with the concept of Pecha Kucha, think of it as a sort of karaoke for power point presenters. The platform is the same for everyone, you submit 20 slides that are shown for 20 seconds each, giving you 6 minutes and 40 seconds to say what you’re going to say. When your slides are finished, so are you.
This being my first Pecha Kucha, (a phenomenon sweeping 173 cities worldwide, according to their website) I wasn’t sure what to expect, After settling into my seat for the first round however, the most fundamental Pecha Kucha truth was magically revealed to me. Given a finite amount of time and the opportunity for properly projected support materials, just about ANYONE can be interesting on a topic they are impassioned about, no matter WHAT their chosen subject might be!
While certainly the presenters here were all creative types, the choice of material and styles of presentation varied wildly between individuals. In this brief format, feeding you information in palatable little bites, variety was the key and kept the audience’s interest peaked. Some people read carefully prepared dialogue, timed perfectly to change with the slides. Others read but hadn’t worked out their timing, necessitating pauses while they waited for the images to catch up. Still more spoke their pieces directly to the audience with no written cues whatsoever.
Some people outlined the work they do in a general sense, others focused in on a project of specific importance to them. One artist offered a presentation on the work of another artist whose influence touched the lives of many. Several had a humanitarian slant. A few people’s power points centered on ideas, while plenty more held fast to the concrete and tangible.
Even a dry subject might still get extra oomph thanks to its presenter. Some wielded humor or slickly polished banter to get their point across, while others charmed with unvarnished but enthusiastic delivery. I was unfamiliar with 90% of the people presenting but my mind raced off to all the interesting people I do know and how they and their life’s work might captivate in this format. Is the concept short-attention-span theatre at its finest? Perhaps. But I think the compelling combination of multiple perspectives/personalities, mixed well with specified knowledge, makes Pecha Kucha some of the most truly enlightening entertainment I’ve witnessed in a long time.