Coolest idea ever.
Pecha Kucha Nights are a way for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public, often done using Power Point slides. The Pecha Kucha formula calls for each presenter to show 20 images at 20 seconds each, giving each presenter 6 minutes and 40 seconds of fame before the next person steps to the plate. This system keeps presentations concise and the audience’s interest high. Each event usually has ~14 presenters drawn from the design, architecture, photography, art and creative fields (though recently it has also crossed over to the business world). The Pecha Kucha phenomenon was recently covered by Wired Magazine, spawned a del.icio.us widget and is beloved by Seth Godin who thinks it’s brilliant. I love the concept because it follows very closely with something that I have been studying up on recently – how ‘constraints’ alter communications and interactions. For example, think of Twitter’s success by limiting Tweets to a certain number of characters.
Pecha Kucha, Japanese for “the sound of conversation,â€� allows creative work to be informally presented, without the need for renting a gallery, earning a magazine review or a undertaking a major advertising campaign. The audience comes to the artist. With little marketing effort Pecha Kucha Nights have spread virally to over 80 cities across the world and New York recently had it’s 4th Pecha Kucha night on October 10th in the East Village.
How cool would it be to apply this to startups? Following Stowe’s idea for a 10-page mini business plan, why not a Power Point deck capable of winning funding presented Pecha Kucha style? Also, this would be an interesting presentation format for next years Techcrunch40.
So who wants to organize the next one here in the city?
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