Pecha Kucha
For those of you who are not familiar with this method, it’s a presentation format that involves 20 slides (powerpoint usually) delivered sequentially, with 20 seconds allowed per. The idea, I believe is to cut the fluff out of your presentations and get succinct points over in the allowed audible whitespace. Okay, I was pretty hesitant about the whole idea as I have developed my whole teaching pedagogy around not having a class full of students locked on me for 6 odd minutes while I deliver banking style wisdom to fill their empty cups. But, it wasn’t so bad after all; though 6 minutes is an eternity from the presenters point of view, staying on point makes it sail quite quickly from the audience point of view. My sage advice on the topic:
- Don’t wing it – You have to be pretty skilled to seamlessly pull this off without, at the very least, 1 or 2 dry runs in front of a mirror or other reflective device.
2. Know your topic – Obvious, yes, but if you haven’t completed step 1, this could potentially save you from running out of the room crying.
3. Don’t focus on your weaknesses – Although not everyone will agree with me on this point, a presentation in this format is all about confidence, so wear comfortable shoes and play to your strengths…whatever they may be.
4. Don’t have 7 cups of coffee immediately before – Enough said.
Will I use this presentation format in the future? Possibly. I can see the attention grabbing value, and it is short and succinct enough to hold even the most attentively challenged of us for 6 and 40, provided you don’t have a voice like snufalufagas.
Quick summary:
Hook potential – high
content density – moderate
power point busy-ness factor – low
Stay tuned with bated breath for my review of PK #2