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Guide to Making a Pecha Kucha Presentation: Overview

History of Pecha Kucha

Pecha Kucha  , the Japanese term for the sound of conversation ("chit chat") began in Tokyo, back in 20

Conceived by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham , their original goal was to create a space where designers cou

share their ideas/passions with others.

However, knowing how dangerous it is to give a designer a microphone... they decided to put some checks

place. In order to prevent speakers from droning on and on, the Pecha Kucha format has restrictions: name

20 slides, on display for 20 seconds each. Because of this constraint every single Pecha Kucha presentatio

regardless of speaker or topic, is exactly 6 minutes and 40 seconds in length.

Since its inception, the Pecha Kucha format has spread to multiple cities around the world. As of June, 200

more than 200 cities hold their own Pecha Kucha events, where people across multiple disciplines and fields

study share the things that interest and invigorate them. Visit pecha-kucha.org for more info, and to find

event near where you are.

(photo: brandon shigeta)

About This Guide

My name is Felix Jung, and I gave my first talk at Pecha Kucha Chicago, Volume 9. I thoroughly enjoyed t

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event and had a fantastic time preparing for my talk. On looking back, I wanted to write up a summary of m

process, and to share any tips or hints to others who are planning (or considering) participating in their fir

Pecha Kucha event.

A few caveats: I'm no professional speaker, nor do I profess to have any kind of secret insider knowledge. I

a guy who gave a talk, and maybe my notes will be of help. The suggestions I make here are just tha

suggestions. Take them or leave them, as what worked for me might not necessarily work for you.

Like design or poetry or cooking, there's no one way to do this right (and anyone who tells you otherwise

trying to sell you something).

When I was first doing my prep, I spent time looking around on YouTube for examples of Pecha Kucha talks

wanted to see what others had done, and wanted some basis for comparison.

To that end, I'm posting up my slides and videos of my talk in the hopes that they might be of some help

you. There are two videos of my talk: one that shows the event live, and another that has audio from t

evening superimposed over my slides.

Additionally, if you want a closer look at the slides themselves... check out the downloads section for .zip fi

of both the individual slides, as well as the main .PSD.

Again, I want to stress that I'm not suggesting you copy what I did. Completely the opposite, in fact

encourage you to come up with your own style, your own approach.

When I was working on my own presentation, I wanted specific examples of how others set up their talks.

that spirit, I hope these pages provide a good starting point. Good luck in your prep, and if this was a usef

resource... I'd love to hear about it (and I'd love to see your presentation too, if it's online). Break a leg!

Next: Getting Started

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Guide to Making a Pecha Kucha Presentation: Getting Started

Picking Your Passion

While portfolios are oftentimes a common topic of many Pecha Kucha talks, you shouldn't feel like you ne

one in order to participate. People have chosen to share stories, hobbies, focused on an individual person

location, a particular creative project... it doesn't really matter what your topic is at Pecha Kucha, so long as i

something that's of deep and sincere interest to you.

Remember that this is a fun project, and that you're volunteering your time. If you're not into the subje

matter to begin with, you've just gone and made your job much, much harder, and unnecessarily so. If it's n

of interest to you, preparing for your talk will begin to resemble work - and nobody wants that.

In picking your subject matter, you should feel that you've got too much to say. If you find yourself struggli

for material or trying to "make up" content to fill the void... well, you're probably focusing on the wrong top

Here's a good litmus test. Is the subject matter something you've argued passionately about with friends

colleagues? Have you stayed up late talking or thinking about it? If you were at a noisy bar, would you rai

your voice to make a point on this topic? If you've answered yes, then you're on the right track.

In the words of  Pecha Kucha Chicago organizer Peter Exley  , Pecha Kucha should be about "passion,

portfolio." I think that's a great insight, and a great rule for any talk.

Notecards and Paperclips

Let me open by saying that I love computers, I love technology. But my recommendation to you, wh

starting your prep work, is to first look to low-tech tools: paper and pencil, notecards and paperclips.

The typical impulse will be to sit down at the computer and start designing out your slides. While this

definitely a fun portion of the process, I recommend that you fight this urge. The slides come after you've g

an outline down. Know that if you start designing immediately, you risk wasting a great deal of time creatislides that may not end up in your presentation.

Me? I burned a lot of time at the computer, fiddling and tweaking. It was like spending time looking at pai

samples when I hadn't even figured out what kind of a house I wanted to build. It may feel good to ju

noodle around, but what you're really doing is procrastinating the necessary first steps: getting an actu

outline put together.

Maybe you're more comfortable with capturing notes on a computer than I am. If that's so, well then... mo

power to you. For me, I found that shifting to old school notecards and paperclips helped tremendously

made a few attempts creating lists with text files and all that... and found that with actual notecards, I got

outline together pretty quickly.

I'd recommend working at a large table. The more room you have to spread out, the better. Having som

music and a glass of water nearby doesn't hurt, either.

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(note: not water)

Capturing Ideas

For five minutes, sit down with your notecards and try to capture everything that comes to mind. Write dow

any topic or keyword, one per notecard. This can take any shape you want - a concept, a phrase, a particul

photo or image that you're thinking about.

Don't bother counting your cards. Just concentrate on capturing every idea, and jot everything down. Write

much as you want, and just go until you run out of words. Don't worry about organization (we'll tackle th

next), as this is the "brain dump" portion of the process. The goal here is to get as many ideas out of yo

head, and onto paper, as possible.

Organizing Your Cards

Now that you've got a large set of cards, you can easily do some organizing. First step? Group similar car

together. Break out some paper clips or rubber bands at this point, and match up similar cards that touch

the same idea or theme.

After you group your cards together, see if any group or set stand out. The more cards you have in a stathe more you may have to say on that particular topic. If you've got an individual stack of 20 or more... you

in luck! Maybe your entire presentation is somewhere inside that one stack.

After your cards are grouped, look through each one. As you examine them individually... are there double

Can you get rid of this card? With each one, ask yourself: Do I want to spend time talking about t

particular idea/example? If you pause or are unsure, put that card in a "discard" pile.

The final goal here is to have 20 separate cards or groups of cards (one for each slide you'll design). Once y

have a group of 20, start moving them around and see if a particular sequence arises.

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As you shift the cards around, you'll start to see some underlying themes emerge. Certain groups of cards w

make more sense next to others, and ever so slowly... a narrative will reveal itself.

Grouping Cards into Sets

I found that if I used three slides to touch on a particular idea, I had to be going at a pretty brisk pace. I

used five or more slides, it started to feel like a bit much (remember that 5 slides is technically 1/4 of yo

entire presentation).

Four slides felt, to me, just right. Enough to get into a particular story or idea, without feeling too rushed too verbose.

It's About Removing, Not Adding, Content

Working on Pecha Kucha talks is a strange process. For most of us, the kinds of talks or presentations we

tend to revolve around gathering and organizing information we don't have at hand. Think of an Econom

class in high school, where you had to prepare a 5 minute speech on Supply and Demand. Lots of researc

and a lot of information you needed to learn and memorize.

With your Pecha Kucha talk, the topic you're discussing is something you already know, something you ca

about and have thought about a fair amount. The thing you'll discover with prepping for Pecha Kucha is thit's more about editing and deleting things, as opposed to coming up with new stuff.

Because the majority of your talk will be about things you know, revisions will actually be a synonym

deletion. As your organization process continues, you'll start to see that there's not all that much room af

all. And as a result, only the good stuff should stay in.

Sequential Doesn't Mean Linear

I'll touch on this during the Practicing phase, but I wanted to emphasize this point early on: just because yo

slides are in sequence, it doesn't mean they have to be linear.In fact, I would encourage you to leave gaps between your slides. Don't worry so much about what you'll s

to transition from one slide to the next - time for that later on in the process. As you'll see in the next section

having places to pause in your talk, as well as having "jumps" between slides will actually work to yo

benefit.

Remember that we're still in the notes and organization phase here. No need to stress yourself out trying

plan out the entire talk right now. At most, you should be looking for the loose threads that connect yo

cards together... and organize things accordingly. So long as those threads are there, you have a path (whi

you'll better define later on).

Next: Slide Design

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Guide to Making a Pecha Kucha Presentation: Slide Design

General Design Tips

I am not a designer. So take everything I say here with a grain of salt. I have a particular style/preferen

when it comes to slides... and this will likely differ from yours. The suggestions below are not meant to be a

kind of authoritative set of "rules," but rather the thoughts I had when I went about designing my slides f

my talk. Use what you like and discard the rest...

I used Photoshop to edit my images and slides. If you don't have Photoshop, consider looking into a progra

called GIMP (which is free) or an online editor called Phoenix.

Large images work best. I'm a fan of filling the entire workable space with an image. Assuming that there w

be a large crowd in attendance, imagine being someone way in the back. It's better that everyone sees

image on your slide, versus someone not being able to see it. For my money, an image can't be too large... b

it can most definitely be too small.

Use as little text as possible. The more words on your slide, the more time the audience will spend readi

(and not paying attention to you). A failing in 90% of all slides is the curse of too much text. Remember th

the main focus here is you talking, and the purpose of the slide is that it supports your words... not the othway around.

The slide should be an addition to, not a summary of, your ideas and concepts. I know it's a hard thing to d

but fight the impulse to put all the points you want to cover onto the screen. Otherwise, you run the risk

turning your presentation into a speed-reading exercise for your audience.

No more than four images per slide. In my talk, I used a variety of images. Some slides were one lar

graphic, other slides were split into two tall, vertical images. And I had a few slides that were sectioned

into four images.

When I tried to address every image in the slide that was split into four... I found myself rushing a bit (an

was barely able to hit each one). In the span of about 20 seconds, I'd say that four images is about as much

you can touch on, if you want to say something specific about each image.

Make things consistent. However you choose to display images, try to make them consistent, slide to slide.

you plan on adding in small "titles" to each slide, try to make the placement of these titles consistent. Use t

same font for each title.

In designing your graphics, it's oftentimes easy to get lost within each individual slide. Remember that the

slides will be shown together, as a group. The more consistency there is, the easier you make it for yoaudience to see connections between the slides.

And on top of that (and perhaps most importantly), if you apply a consistent look and layout aross all yo

slides... your slides will automatically look that much more professional. I can't stress this consistency thi

enough.

A site that may be of some interest is Garr Reynolds' Presentation Zen blog. In particular, I found two of h

posts (What is good PowerPoint design? and Gates, Jobs, & the Zen Aesthetic) to be pretty helpful/interesti

reads.

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(credit: v.max1978)

Finding Images

If you've got screenshots or photographs to use, great. But if you find yourself wanting to fill in a gap

wanting a separate image to help highlight a point... there are numerous resources online where you can fi

quality images for your personal use.

A note: when looking for royalty-free or Creative Commons licensed images, make sure to read up on ea

site's terms of use. If you're ever in doubt regarding copyright or use, ask.

Flickr: You can perform an "advanced" search on Flickr and specify only images that have a Creati

Commons license (image attribution is often one of the requirements).

Image*After: A large, free collection of photos. Images can be downloaded and used for both personal acommercial purposes.

Stockvault: A photo sharing site with images from designers, photographers and students. Commercial use

NOT allowed, but personal use or internal presentations is acceptable.

morgueFile: The site name refers to old files/notes kept by criminal investigators and newspaper reporters,

use as quick references. High-res images are available for personal and commercial use, so long as the image

altered in some way.

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Pow!: A large collection/list of stock photography resources.

iStockphoto: Royalty-free images, available for purchase based on a "credit" system. Great quality, but y

need to pay for the images (worth it though).

Gimmestock : High quality images for $1 each.

If you're preparing early enough and you encounter an image you want to use - it never hurts to email a

ask permission. Oftentimes though, getting a response back is a difficult and/or protracted affair, so make suyou send out those inquiries early.

I ended up sending out a lot of permission requests, and found it beneficial to have a standard explanation

both Pecha Kucha and my talk saved in a .txt file. That way, I could easily add in a summary of why I w

asking for permission, along with my request.

I would recommend you not set your heart on one particular image that don't have the rights to. Tracki

down the appropriate person or department is a really slow affair, and even if you get the right em

address... it's out of your hands whether your inquiry gets a response. If there's an image you absolutely mu

have, I'd recommend buying it from a stock photo site instead.

As a side note, I *think* that using images for a Pecha Kucha talk would fall under Fair Use. But despite all t

Law and Order episodes I've watched, I'm really not a lawyer. Maybe someone else who knows this better c

comment on it? At the end of the day, if you're unsure whether you can use an image or not - ask.

Next: Practicing

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Guide to Making a Pecha Kucha Presentation: Practicing

My Philosophy on Pecha Kucha Talks

In my opinion, Pecha Kucha isn't the same as any regular speech or reading. To me, it's a different animal, an

falls closer on the side of performance.

While I've seen presenters read their talks from a piece of paper, rarely do I feel that these "readings" hold t

same energy as someone who's speaking and looking directly at the audience. I think  Pecha Kucha ta

should be memorized, and that the goal should be to walk up on the stage with nothing but your voice a

your slides.

Ultimately, Pecha Kucha provides a place where speakers can share their passions and attendees can becom

inspired. But I'll also argue that an unspoken goal of Pecha Kucha is one of entertainment. If you're taking t

stage to read from a piece of paper or a predefined script, that takes some of the fire out, I feel. That to m

seems more like mere recitation than presentation - my two cents.

(practice makes perfect)

Practicing and Refining Your Talk

While there are many ways to go about practicing, these here are the ones I found most useful. Your sty

may be quite different from mine, so use what makes sense to you. Use what you like.

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The main mantra I hear when it comes to talks/speeches is: be comfortable/familiar with the material. So lo

as you're familiar with what you're going to say, you won't be nervous.

I didn't start practicing and doing dry runs until maybe 3 or 4 days before the event. In hindsight,

recommend starting to practice a full week before you hit the stage. I did pretty well, but feel confident that

have done a killer job had I only started practicing a little earlier.

Practice against a timed version. Depending on the venue, some folks may end up using Powerpoint, othe

may use Keynote. It's pretty easy to import slides into either program and set a default transition time to

seconds.

If you don't have a copy of Powerpoint or Keynote, consider downloading Open Office (which is free).

It's essential that you practice your talk against an actual, timed version of your slides. In fact, I can't imagine

scenario where you wouldn't want to do this.

Practice standing up. While your initial test runs may be done sitting in front of your computer screen, as t

event date nears... you'll want to practice while actually standing up.

Position yourself next to the computer in the same way you'll be presenting (either to the left or right of t

monitor). Check with your event organizer to see whether you'll be facing the screen, or if you'll be facing taudience.

The closer your practice runs mirror the final event site, the more comfortable you'll be when you take t

stage.

If possible, hook up your computer/laptop to a projector or your television. Having your presentation on

larger screen also helps get you closer to the same setup as the actual event.

Look at various points in the room, when talking. A good speaker is able to make listeners feel included

making eye contact with audience members. While this may or may not be possible (depending on yo

comfort level), consider at least practice scanning the room as you talk.

Add in silence, remove "filler" noises. I say "uhm" all the time, particularly in everyday conversations. Bu

remember vividly how many of us (in high school speech class) would say "uh" or "uhm" or "like" as a silen

filler, something that happened between sentences or thoughts.

Try to fight this tendency, as you practice. Making a sound like "uhm" is our way of signaling to others th

we're thinking, that we're processing information. We do it so we don't look like dumb-asses just staring o

into space. It's an audio cue to others that our brain is, in fact, working away.

But in a talk or speech, it's disruptive and sounds a little clumsy. The more you can edit out these "uhms" a

replace them with pauses or silence... the better your talk will sound. I promise you - they'll make yotransitions seem that much cleaner, that much more professional.

Let your slides do some of the work. One of the most important things I learned when practicing was tha

didn't need to fill in all the details. I didn't need to give all the backstory - just enough to establish conte

and enough to be able to make my point.

Remember that your slides can do a lot of your talking for you. As an example, let's say you wanted to ta

about your younger self, and your slide is a photo of you as a kid.

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Instead of saying "This is a photograph of me when I was a child," jump immediately to the point you want

make. When the image appears, assume that people will pick up much of what's already in the photograph.

Compare a line like "This is a photo of me when I was younger" to something like:

"The third grade was the worst year of my life."

"I fell in love for the first time when I was eight."

"As a kid, I loved ice cream sandwiches more than my parents."

Stronger, right? By letting your slides do some of the storytelling, you save a bit of time and can get to theart of your topic/idea that much faster.

Leaping between slides. With only twenty seconds per slide, that's not a lot of time to work with. One of t

things I realized during my practice runs was that I spent a lot of time talking about how each slide related

the other. I felt compelled to fill in the space between slides, and felt like I needed to describe the transiti

from slide to slide.

Totally unnecessary. One of the greatest things here is that you've got the ability to make HUGE lea

between slides. Realize that you actually have to do less work than you think. When you put two images ne

to one another, people will automatically connect them together.

A link will exist, without you having to outline why the two images are related. I encourage you

experiment with slide and image juxtapositions, to see what works and what you can get away with. Coupl

with pauses, a big leap between slides can be very effective, and makes for a great transition.

Break your talk down into "sets." If trying to do an entire practice run seems too daunting at first,

breaking down your slides into different sets. Instead of thinking of your presentation as a large chunk, y

can likely see where there's a start, middle and an end, and practice each segment separately until you

ready to combine them.

Practice your talk while you have your iPod/headphones on. Ok, this suggestion is a little looney tunes. Bu

you want to really test how well you know your material and how ready you are... put in some headphonand play some music (very softly) as you try going through your talk.

With the music providing a bit of a distraction, you'll be forced to concentrate even harder on your talk as y

practice. If you can pull this off, and can go through your talk while having headphones on... you're in gre

shape.

Run through your talk, first thing in the morning. If you want another really good test to see how prepar

you are? Start up your computer or laptop right when you wake up. First thing in the morning, see if you c

run through your talk, cold. If you can do that and are comfortable with how it turned out - you are definite

set.

Ultimately, how well you do with your presentation has everything to do with how much you pract

beforehand. Many of you out there are way better at winging things than me, but I know that I need a lot

trial runs, a lot of rehearsals before I can get up on stage.

To me, practicing helps iron out all the technical things - the pacing, the delivery, the timing. And the mo

you practice, the closer you'll get to just getting up on stage and talking with the audience. The more y

practice, the less it becomes about mechanics... and the more it becomes about substance: your ideas, yo

passion, the things that inspire and energize you.

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I'll leave with this final thought: you can never practice too much. But you can definitely not practice enoug

When in doubt, run through your presentation one more time.

Next: The Big Event

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Guide to Making a Pecha Kucha Presentation: The Big Event

On the day of, there aren't really a lot of things that can be done. At this point all the slides are in, and IM

it's risky to make dramatic alterations to your talk, last minute. If you're really nervous, consider using yo

morning and evening commutes to practice, or go over your talk during lunch. Try (hard as it is) not to thi

too much about it.

Get comfortable with the mic. As silly as this sounds, go up to the stage area and stand near the microphon

I did this, and it helped immensely. Getting a feel of what the view/perspective will be from the mic will hewhen it's finally your turn. It'll seem a little more familiar.

Try not to drink before you talk. This may seem self-evident, but try to avoid drinking (too much) prior

your talk. By all means, order a stiff drink afterwards... but try to hold off as much as you can, beforehand.

One drink can easily lead to a few drinks, particularly when you just want to "settle your nerves." Consid

this: how terrible would it be for you to slur your words on stage? All your hard work and prep, undone by

few too many drinks prior to.

I say this as a big fan of the sauce: save the boozing for afterwards. It'll taste that much sweeter.

Volunteer to go early. For me, until I finished my talk... I was a ball of nervousness. If possible, check with t

event organizer and see about getting an early slot. There are many good reasons for speaking early, but t

major reason to me is that you can get your talk completed... and spend the rest of the time basking in yo

great performance, and enjoying the other speakers on the bill.

The crowd is on your side. Intensity and passion are things that can be felt by the audience. The crowds

Pecha Kucha are there to cheer you on, and everyone's there to get excited, to get inspired together.

Remember that this isn't you getting in front of a class, giving a report on Lincoln's presidency. You're talki

about what interests you, what you're passionate about. You're sharing that with the crowd, and they're eag

to hear what you have to say. You came here willingly and the crowd came here, willingly. It's not a yoversus-them thing, it's a together thing.

Slow and steady. As you start your talk, recognize you're nervous and that there's probably a lot of adrena

in your system. Try to consciously slow things down. Try to make sure you're speaking clearly and that you

not just zooming through your slides.

If you finish a particular slide a bit ahead of schedule, it's ok to pause in wait for the next slide to appea

Consider using the pause to look around and make eye contact (see below).

Try to make eye contact. Hopefully this doesn't throw you off your game too much. And hopefully ypracticed looking around a bit, when you were doing your dry runs.

A big part of speaking is engaging the audience, and scanning the room making eye contact with people hel

tremendously in this regard. If you're too nervous, don't worry about locking eyes with individuals... but t

looking to different areas of the room as you talk.

This is a particularly tricky thing, especially if you haven't tried it out beforehand. I'd definitely recommen

adding this to your practice runs so that you'll be a bit more comfortable with this, prior to the event.

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Bring business cards. People from the audience will likely come up to talk with you after your presentati

(particularly if you did a good job). In addition to the well-wishers and pats on the back, many folks may b

interested in setting up meetings with you or exchanging information.

Make sure to have some contact info or business cards handy. Anything, so long as it has your phone numb

email, or URL on it. At the very least, have some paper and a pencil on hand.