This presentation format forces the speaker to bring his/her story as visually as possible within a strictly limited time span.

Basic rules of a Pecha Kucha presentation:

• the Pecha Kucha PowerPoint presentation consists of 20 slides
• each slide lasts 20 seconds

With these basic rules a Pecha Kucha always lasts 400 seconds (6 minutes and 40 seconds). The rules of the game make this form of presenting fun and useful. In less than 7 minutes you bring the story, which keeps you always concrete and direct.

Thinking carefully about WHAT you want your audience to remember, that is the most important thing. Choose 1 message, no more. If you want to tell too much, you use too many words and a large part of the story is lost. So choose carefully and practise a lot. You get 20 seconds per slide. After that, the next slide comes up relentlessly on the screen.

In 5 steps to a powerful Pecha Kucha:

1. Determine the core message
2. Create a storyline
3. Find images to go with your storyline
4. Structure the story and the images
5. Cut where necessary and… practise

What do you use a Pecha Kucha for?

• A fantastic idea that you convey to a group of people. A Pecha Kucha forces you to stay concise in, for example, a Pitch presentation.
• In entrepreneurs' groups (Voka (Plato), Unizo, ...) people introduce themselves and/or give an update on their activities. The Pecha Kucha ensures that each speaker gets an equal amount of time to do this powerfully and visually. The better the preparation, the more convincing the introduction/update will be.
• You experienced something special and want to convey this to a group without boring them. Images support your story.
• You have a plan and want to test it against a specific target group. With a Pecha Kucha you automatically land on the essence and that is usually enough.

Pecha Kucha is a presentation technique that was introduced in 2003 by two architects from Tokyo (Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham). They came up with “The Pecha Kucha Night”, where young designers come together to network and show their work. Pecha Kucha is Japanese for chit chat, or idle talk.

Best of luck!