So how DO you pronounce PechaKucha?

Back in the summer of 2010, Ron and I were pleased to see that Springfield was the location for a new event called PechaKucha Night, and it was going to be held at a bar on the east side of town so somewhat close to us. I figured it was pronounced the way it looked: Peacha Coocha. The Iowan in me concurred. Of course we planned to go.

I found out at the event that the Japanese word is actually pronounced pe-cha-ku-cha (or "chit chat") with equal stress on each of the 4 syllables and is not unique to Springfield -- it's a worldwide phenomenon in over 700 cities. Originally thought up by some architects in Tokyo, the basic idea has a simple object: to get the presenter to be succinct. Each of the 10 presenters gives talks about 20 images for 20 seconds each. This forces the presenter to come to the point quickly, specifically in 6 minutes and 40 seconds. It's harder than it seems -- in many cases it is easier to ramble on and on and on than it is to be brief.

Since the first PechaKucha Night event was going to be held at a bar, we figured it would be a casual and fun evening. It was.

That's not to say that the presenters were perfectly attuned to the whole PechaKucha zen. There were some presentations that were blatant commercials and in one case, a presenter tried to sell the audience CDs after his speech. But the evening was still enjoyable and if we hated the presentation, we knew it would be over soon. An added benefit was when we noticed that most of the members of the sold-out crowd were close to our age. Wow, an event in a bar that we could attend without feeling uncomfortable!

The quarterly PechaKucha nights continued and last year I finally got involved when I heard through a friend that the organizers of the event were thinking about cashing it in because it was so difficult to get good presenters. Since I have a lot of time on my hands now that I am not working I decided that perhaps I could help out. Thankfully I could.

Ron gives a memorable PKN presentation

The core organizers, selfless but very busy people, needed help promoting their event and presenters, for the most part enthusiastic neophytes eager to talk about their topic whether it be the circus, community gardens, exotic vacations, volunteering, being in a commercial, donating a kidney, or making historic building with Legos.

I plunged in, compiling the results of feedback, building an e-mail list and sending out marketing e-mails. I also tried to organize the tons of information about presenters acquired over the years. More than anything the work has enabled me to feel needed -- a basic necessity for everyone, but very rare for someone who is severely disabled. Finally, something I could do!

An email

Hopefully, PechaKucha Nights can go on indefinitely in Springfield. They are always close to sold out so there's no lack of attendees. What there is a need for are presenters -- after five years the obvious people have already presented and we're trying to dig a little deeper. But it is fun and it provides a way to meet new people. And that is a wonderful experience.