Pecha Kucha for BarCamp South East (Ireland)

Emmet Connolly came up with the great idea of doing a Pecha Kucha session at BarCamp Ireland last September and on the day went through a variation on the theme. Emmet asked who had a del.icio.us account, then got everyone to deliver a Pecha  Kucha session using their last 20 bookmarks as slides -- basically talking  quickly about what the link was and why they bookmarked it. Very cool.

I was reminded of this by an article in Wired today calling pecha kucha the buzzword of 2006

"The key to the success of the Pecha Kucha evenings springing up across the world over the last two years -- they now exist in around 30 cities, from Bogota to Buffalo -- is simplicity. Participants get a six-minute pitch in which they can show 20 slides, and talk for 20 seconds about each one."

In fact Belfast is one of those cities, where in early November the Creative Entrepreneurs Club announced the first ever Pecha Kucha night in Ireland. Wired get to the core of why the format is taking off -

"The problem: How do you get a bunch of visual visionaries -- many of them isolated, introverted, self-employed people who tend to hunch all day behind their computers -- out into meatspace, communicating, drinking, networking? The solution: Give them a format, a structure, a parlor game, a chance to talk about their current interests and listen to others doing the same."

Unfortunately Emmet can't make it to Waterford but he's graciously passed the baton on to yours truly so in the hope that I don't drop it I'll add a Pecha Kucha session to the BarCamp South East wiki shortly.

Comments

[keith bohanna]

And up until now no-one who was at the first session had actually described what it was - so that it was a surprise for those attending

Feck you party pooping men from Limerick :-)

keith

[James Corbett]

Ooops.... I wish I could erase all traces of this post from the web but the almighty Google won't let me ;-)

[Tom Corcoran]

So that's what it is! Sounds great.