September 2010

Can you do it in 6:40?

Okay, it's time for something radical, something almost crazy, something that goes completely against the grain of corporate presentations: Pecha Kucha

It's a Japanese term that means "chit chat." But what it could mean for your organization is a much more efficient use of your time. Let me explain.

In February 2003, Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham, two architects based in Tokyo, got the idea for short, sweet presentations - and what they dreamed up contained true genius; a technique that forces speakers to present in quick efficient bursts of just six minutes and 40 seconds.

The genius is helped by a feature in Microsoft's PowerPoint software that allows each slide to automatically advance, in Pecha Kucha's case after 20 seconds. So each speaker at Pecha Kucha events gets 20 slides, and each slide advances after 20 seconds on screen. So the total presentation time for a speaker is 6:40. And you're done.

Genius.

Now think about that approach for a minute. Think about all those seemingly endless corporate presentations you've endured over the years. Think about the wasted time and the bad slides. Typically, if you had 12 executives present it'd take all day, a veritable marathon of speakers and slides that often adds up to a lot of bloat.

What if you took the Pecha Kucha approach in your organization? Using that approach, those 12 executives would all be done speaking in less than two hours.

The audiences would love it. The speakers might hate it (they'd feel like they needed more time; they'd feel "naked" without 87 slides; they'd be intimidated).

Do it anyway.

Pecha Kucha has been described as "the love child of PowerPoint and Twitter," and what it takes aim at is the overall bloat, the intellectual laziness, the awful slides and the lack of preparation that are all so rampant in corporate America.

It's radical, almost crazy and completely against the status quo of atypical corporate presentations.

And it could just be the best thing to ever happen to your organization's meeting and speaking culture.

For more tips building a 6:40 presentation: http://www.pecha-kucha.org