Pecha Kuchas

 

The class discussion on Thursday regarding presentations somehow led to the discussion of Pecha Kuchas and their style of 20 slides with 20 seconds a piece as well as having very few words in the entire presentation. Because I am an education minor, I have heard the entire Trinity University education department talk up how wonderful this style of presentation is for the last three years. I have also had to give more of these Pecha Kuchas than I care to divulge. I personally have never enjoyed this style of presentation, and as such I never have really researched the details surrounding them, so for this blog post I really wanted to do just that. 

I was a little surprised by just how famous of a presentation style Pecha Kuchas are, as I really wasn’t expecting there to be as much force behind the Pecha Kucha movement as Trinity education professors have claimed. However, the Pecha Kucha became a serious and respected style of presentations in 2003 (Snow, 2006). It was created by Mark Dytham with the idea that these presentations could be presented at evenings as a way for professionals in any number of fields to get “to know and share ideas with their professional peers” (Snow, 2006). It was barely a year later, in 2004, that cities all over Europe “began hosting PK [Pecha Kucha] Nights and days”, and as the years progressed hundreds of other cities began hosting them as well (Pechakucha 20x20). Today, over 1,200 cities across the world host official Pecha Kucha Nights, with cities such as Prague, London, the Hamptons, Brisbane, Knoxville, and others holding new and unique ones every week (Pechakucha 20x20). This also isn’t to mention the unofficial Pecha Kucha events and nights that take place unknown in number throughout the world.

The style of 20 slides with 20 seconds per slide isn’t exactly my preference of presenting, but the fact that this style is used across the world not just for official work and school presentations is shocking. I was even more surprised by the numbers: with over 1,200 cities hosting acknowledged Pecha Kucha nights, days, and general presentations, I can’t imagine the number of people hosting unofficial ones all across the globe.

Pechakucha 20x20. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.pechakucha.com/cities 

Pechakucha 20x20. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.pechakucha.com/events 

Snow, J. (2006, July 17). All Talk. All talk -- page 1 -- time. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://web.archive.org/web/20070312053927/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,501060724-1214999,00.html