Best Practices: Presentations
Want to Know More?
- Examples of pecha kucha:
watch?v=wGaCLWaZLI4
Munzenmaier, C. (2009). Pecha kucha: Visual haiku. Available from
Pink, D. (2007). Emotionally intelligent signage. Retrieved from
watch?v=9NZOt6BkhUg
- Resources on pecha kucha:
Pecha kucha and PowerPoint. (2008, April 1). Posting to MeetingsNet blog:
pecha_kucha_powerpoint/
Pecha kucha night. (n.d.). Retrieved from
Perez, C. (2008, April 8). Pecha Kucha: Only six minutes to make your point! Posted to
tags/pecha-kucha/
Pink, D. (2007, August 21). Pecha kucha: Get to the PowerPoint in 20 slides, then sit the hell down. Wired Magazine. Retrieved from
media/magazine/15-09/st_pechakucha
Reynolds, G. (2007, September 28). Pecha Kucha and the art of liberating constraints. Posting to Presentation Zen blog:
• Pecha kucha haiku:
Only twenty slides
In twenty seconds. Constraint
melds form and function. / No More Death by PowerPoint
Lawyer Charles Perez can predict what happens when the lights dim and the PowerPoint begins: “jurors’ eyes glaze over within seconds.”
His solution? A presentation format called pecha kucha (pe-CHAK-cha). Pecha kucha is the Japanese term for chit-chat. It’s a simple but rigorous format designed to cut through the chatter and get to the essentials.
Pecha kucha has three simple rules:
• Limit yourself to 20 slides.
• Show each slide for exactly 20 seconds.
• Emphasize images rather than words and bullet points.
The format, developed by architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham, was intended to help young architects showcase their work without endless rambling. Pecha kucha nights, first held in Tokyo in 2003, have spread around the world. Creative types meet to showcase their projects. The format works well for stimulating discussion, but is not effective for presenting detailed information or complex arguments.
Nevertheless, Perez believes that playing with pecha kucha can keep lawyers from “inflicting brain freeze” on juries. Garr Reynolds, author of Presentation Zen, agrees. “Everyone should try Pecha Kucha” because “it's a good exercise for getting your story down even if you do not use the method exactly for your live talk.”
Those who experiment with pecha kucha find that its constraints are actually liberating. Michelle Martin writes that the strict time limits force presenters to focus on “the heart of a topic—the ‘need to know’ rather than the ‘nice to know.’”
If you want to try pecha kucha, where should you start? That depends on whether you want to begin with form or content. Presenters have found all of these methods to be good starting points:
• Choose 20 images.
• Create 20 blank slides and set Slide Transition to 20 seconds.
• Write a script in Notes view, with about 35 words per slide.
Finding powerful images can be a challenge. Michelle Martin’s “Primer on Pecha Kucha for Learning” lists several good sources.
Timing narration may be the greatest challenge of all. If you speak longer than 20 seconds, your narration will override PowerPoint’s automatic timing.
You can see an onscreen timer if you insert narration slide-by-slide. How you do this depends on your version of PowerPoint. Check narration and transition in Microsoft’s onscreen help.
Once you’ve produced a presentation in the standard 20 slides/20 seconds format, you might be inspired to adapt the format. Management consultant David Zinger used the technique to create a visual resume. Could project status meetings, year-end reviews, and promotional presentations be limited to 6 minutes 40 seconds? A variation called Ignite pushes the clock even harder, displaying 20 slides in 5 minutes.
What possibilities could pecha kucha open for you?
Document design: WinCommunications ()
Articles in this series (available at may be freely distributed as long as credit is given to Cecelia Munzenmaier, a partner in writing-resources.us, which provides consulting services on Plain Talk and business writing.