PechaKucha Night

Last night we attended PechaKucha Night at a bar in Springfield. This was a new thing for me and probably for most people there. At a Pechakucha Night each speaker presents 20 slides and spends 20 seconds on each. By adhering to this format, presenters are able to keep their a presentations succinct and to the point.

One of my friends is on the ad hoc committee that organized the first PechaKucha Night in Springfield, so we met her and her husband there. The place was packed -- about 170 people crammed into the bar, mostly people around our age. In the front was a large screen and a podium where each presenter stood to talk about the images flashing on the screen.

There were 9 presenters, a real mixed bag. Some presentations were very self-serving, commercials for the presenter's business. Other presenters seem to have understood the idea better. I like a couple of these very much: a jazz musician who recited song lyrics while surreal images flashed behind him and a woman who sang part of her presentation on bee-keeping.

It was fun, but probably not for the reasons it should have been. As a friend observed, we middle-aged people don't go to bars much, so it was unique. Also we knew lots of people there, and the emcee was "older" too. Just a fun time.

Maybe we'll go to the next one in October and see if the quality has improved.