Recently we’ve found ourselves pitching to a variety of panels and groups. Whilst devising our presentation, we received some sound advice from our friend Jade at Kepner-Tregoe.

“Have you heard of PechaKucha? That’s all you need!” said Jade.

So what is it?

PechaKucha 20×20 is a simple presentation format; 20 slides, set on a 20-second auto-play. 6 minutes and 40 seconds of presentation time.

It works because it condenses the most important information into a manageable and creative format. It makes you feel like the charismatic and extremely knowledgeable speaker you’ve always wanted to be!

The History of PechaKucha

We all know the meaning of death-by-powerpoint.   Well, two Tokyo-based architects set out to find a solution to boring presentations, and in 2003 the PechaKucha presentation format was born.  In Japanese, PechaKucha is translated to ‘chit-chat’.

You can read more on the history on the PechaKucha.org’s FAQ page.

Here are our tips for creating your own powerful PechaKucha.

• Choose something you know well, or choose something simple.  The slides are there to guide and support your dialogue, so it’s really helpful to be speaking on a topic in which you know a lot about.
• Don’t write a narrative script. Avoid writing your script word-for-word. Write a simple outline which will guide your presentation. You’ll find once you’ve practiced, you won’t even need your outline.
• Practice. You’d be looking at roughly 50 – 70 words per 20 second slide. We found ourselves slicing information after the 1st and 2nd rehearsals. Keep cutting down until you’re only left with the most important info.
• Choosing your images. Many people agree to avoid any words or type on your slides. But you can use text as a caption for an image. But that’s completely up to you. We chose to avoid words, and instead just use big, bold and colourful imagery.

We hope these tips have been useful.

Here’s a PechaKucha on PechaKucha to get you started.