PechaKucha or, put away those boring slides

I don’t seem to have talked about PechaKucha before, which is surprising. We have been to a few PK nights and told lots of people about them, but not here. Time to do so.

The first Ubud PechaKucha night for the year was held last Tuesday at BetelNut. Numbers in attendance seemed down on last year, possibly because a charge was levied for the first time. Not a huge charge, so it’s a pity that people were deterred as these nights can be some of the most stimulating events around.

If the word sounds Japanese, that’s because PK is a Japanese concept, born from a design studio that was looking for a different way to pitch ideas to each other. Short, snappy and entertaining is the key. No more doze-off PowerPoint slide shows.

PK presentations can be on any topic. Just under seven minutes (6 minutes 40 sec to be precise) is allowed with 20 slides at 20 seconds per slide. On automatic, so no cheating. The more engaged the presenter is with their topic, the better.

Ubud PechaKucha, organised by the Hubud Creative Space, has six presenters on each PK night. Topics can be anything. Anything at all. as long as the presenter has some expertise and a whole lot of passion. Tuesday night’s presenters covered a bamboo reforestation project in north Bali that is bringing economic stimulus to the community (Kadek Gunarta, founder also of the Bali Spirit Festival); Rili Djohami talked about the reefs of the coral triangle initiative and the threats and opportunities faced by the various interest groups; and the frightening statistics of HIV and AIDS in Bali were outlined by Tono Permana who also talked about the work that is being done to educate communities and care for those affected.

Also on the program were Mynoo Blackbyrn whose interest in miracles and personal experiences have led to her begin to realise an ambitious vision to create an amazing space to foster spirituality while Italian artist Marco Cassani talked about his art practice that demands interactivity from the viewer, with fascinating results.

Final speaker was Ubud identity Janet deNeefe, businesswoman and restaurateur, who paid tribute to the Balinese women who inspired her and whose food businesses predated hers by decades. Ibu Oka, Ibu Murni and Ibu Okawati were some on whom she heaped praise and affection in a talk that rounded out the evening beautifully.

Looking forward to February.