Pecha&Kucha&&&& Session&Information&&Guidelines&! Typically, pecha kucha presentations are mostly images. The transitions from slide to slide are timed to 20 seconds, so that the presenter can't extend the time. Pecha kucha works well when many people have to present, and of course, when the material isn't very lengthy or technical.
Picking Your Passion
While portfolios are oftentimes a common topic of many Pecha Kucha talks, you shouldn't feel like you need one in order to participate. People have chosen to share stories, hobbies, focused on an individual person or location, a particular creative project… it doesn't really matter what your topic is at Pecha Kucha, so long as it's 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 subject matter to begin with, you've just gone and made your job much, much harder, and unnecessarily so. If it's not 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 struggling for material or trying to 'make up' content to fill the void… well, you're probably focusing on the wrong topic.
Here's a good litmus test. Is the subject matter something you've argued passionately about with friends or colleagues? Have you stayed up late talking or thinking about it? If you were at a noisy bar, would you raise 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, not 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, when 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 is definitely a fun portion of the process, I recommend that you fight this urge. The slides come after you've got an outline down. Nada sms blackberry terbaru dibawah. Know that if you start designing immediately, you risk wasting a great deal of time creating slides 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 paint samples when I hadn't even figured out what kind of a house I wanted to build. It may feel good to just noodle around, but what you're really doing is procrastinating the necessary first steps: getting an actual outline put together.
Maybe you're more comfortable with capturing notes on a computer than I am. If that's so, well then… more power to you. For me, I found that shifting to old school notecards and paperclips helped tremendously. I made a few attempts creating lists with text files and all that… and found that with actual notecards, I got an outline together pretty quickly.
I'd recommend working at a large table. The more room you have to spread out, the better. Having some music and a glass of water nearby doesn't hurt, either.
Capturing Ideas
For five minutes, sit down with your notecards and try to capture everything that comes to mind. Write down any topic or keyword, one per notecard. This can take any shape you want – a concept, a phrase, a particular 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 as much as you want, and just go until you run out of words. Don't worry about organization (we'll tackle that next), as this is the 'brain dump' portion of the process. The goal here is to get as many ideas out of your 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 cards together. Break out some paper clips or rubber bands at this point, and match up similar cards that touch on 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 stack, the more you may have to say on that particular topic. If you've got an individual stack of 20 or more… you're 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 doubles? Can you get rid of this card? With each one, ask yourself: Do I want to spend time talking about this 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 you have a group of 20, start moving them around and see if a particular sequence arises.
As you shift the cards around, you'll start to see some underlying themes emerge. Certain groups of cards will 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. If I used five or more slides, it started to feel like a bit much (remember that 5 slides is technically 1/4 of your entire presentation).
Four slides felt, to me, just right. Enough to get into a particular story or idea, without feeling too rushed or 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 do tend to revolve around gathering and organizing information we don't have at hand. Think of an Economics class in high school, where you had to prepare a 5 minute speech on Supply and Demand. Lots of research, 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 care about and have thought about a fair amount. The thing you'll discover with prepping for Pecha Kucha is that it'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 for deletion. As your organization process continues, you'll start to see that there's not all that much room after 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 your 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 say to transition from one slide to the next – time for that later on in the process. As you'll see in the next sections, having places to pause in your talk, as well as having 'jumps' between slides will actually work to your benefit.
Remember that we're still in the notes and organization phase here. No need to stress yourself out trying to plan out the entire talk right now. At most, you should be looking for the loose threads that connect your cards together… and organize things accordingly. So long as those threads are there, you have a path (which you'll better define later on).
Next: Slide Design
How to create a Pecha Kucha presentation that rocks.
Public speaking fills so many people with dread. Sometimes, even standing up to present to your own team is an uncomfortable experience, let alone a Ted Talk or a stand-up routine. However, despite the fear, people still sign up, again and again, to share ideas, encourage others and speak on topics they're passionate about in front of a crowd of strangers.
On the 20th June 2018, The Inspire Recruitment series kicks off, a collaboration between myself and Louise Triance of UK Recruiter, giving individuals the chance to speak and share their inspirational ideas to improve the recruitment industry. Since confirming the speaker line-up, I've had numerous conversations helping the speakers prepare their ideas and talks and knowing that so many others have asked me these questions, I thought I'd share some of the things I've learnt.
Of course, there are loads of different presentation formats and ways to communicate your ideas, but the most common is the Pecha Kucha format. A simple layout that asks the speaker to present against a backdrop of twenty slides, each changing every twenty seconds. You'll have experienced this heaps of times, for example, the popular Ignite series have a similar format, as well as Disrupt HR. Our goal is to use this presentation style to build a community of recruiters who want to improve themselves, and the industry, encouraging less experienced speakers to stand up and share their ideas. The stage isn't just for experienced speakers.
1: Start at the End
When you only have a limited time frame to entertain and inform, you need to think about the talk from the audience's perspective. Before I plan any talk, I ask myself these three questions:
- what do I want the audience to think/feel/know?
- how will this benefit the audience in life?
- what stories can I tell that bring my idea to life?
The clearer you are about what benefit you're bringing, i.e. make them feel less alone, discover new ways of doing things or hacks to get things done quicker, than the easier it will be to create a compelling presentation. In short, you have to know what you're giving.
2: Have a Structure
Traditional presentations spend up to four minutes setting the scene, but with Pecha Kucha you need to shake a leg and get to it. A clear structure will keep you on track, and guide your audience, helping them engage with you more effectively. Below is a template that I use when planning my talks. I tend to have 3 main points of 5 slides or 4 Points of 4 slides in my talks (even 5 points of 3 slides if you have a lot to say quickly!!!). A sample outline for when you have 4 talking points would be.
- Slides 1-2 – Introduction –
- Slide 3-6 – Key Point 1
- Slide 7-10 – Key Point 2
- Slide 11-14 – Key Point 3
- Slide 15-18 – Key Point 4
- Slide 19-20 – Summary & Takeaway
3: Plan the Talking Points
So many speakers make the mistake of planning the slides before they know what they want to say. Your slides should support your words, not the other way around. A. good way to plan your talk is grab a wad of sticky notes, then follow these steps:
- Write all your ideas of things you want to say on individual sticky notes. Don't worry about the 20-slide limit right now, just get all your ideas out on the table.
- Rearrange the sticky notes into the sections you outlined in the previous section.
- Consolidate and refine the points so you have the right number of talking points per section. Remember every talking point has to earn its place. A common mistake is to try and include too many points.
- Using a piece of paper (A4 size), create a grid with 20 boxes on them. Write your final points in each box
4: Write and Design
This sounds daunting and scary because people often wonder if they'll have enough to say, however, trust me, the challenge is always cutting out words. The BBC works on the basis that a news presenter talks at a speed of three words per minute, which means, you only have 45 words per slide, which is 900 words for the whole presentation, and that's practically nothing.
If you do feel like you have more to say than can be covered on one slide, you can always talk for longer and use two of your slides. I have sometimes cheated and used the same slide twice, but that is slightly against the spirit of this presentation style.
After you group your cards together, see if any group or set stand out. The more cards you have in a stack, the more you may have to say on that particular topic. If you've got an individual stack of 20 or more… you're 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 doubles? Can you get rid of this card? With each one, ask yourself: Do I want to spend time talking about this 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 you have a group of 20, start moving them around and see if a particular sequence arises.
As you shift the cards around, you'll start to see some underlying themes emerge. Certain groups of cards will 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. If I used five or more slides, it started to feel like a bit much (remember that 5 slides is technically 1/4 of your entire presentation).
Four slides felt, to me, just right. Enough to get into a particular story or idea, without feeling too rushed or 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 do tend to revolve around gathering and organizing information we don't have at hand. Think of an Economics class in high school, where you had to prepare a 5 minute speech on Supply and Demand. Lots of research, 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 care about and have thought about a fair amount. The thing you'll discover with prepping for Pecha Kucha is that it'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 for deletion. As your organization process continues, you'll start to see that there's not all that much room after 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 your 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 say to transition from one slide to the next – time for that later on in the process. As you'll see in the next sections, having places to pause in your talk, as well as having 'jumps' between slides will actually work to your benefit.
Remember that we're still in the notes and organization phase here. No need to stress yourself out trying to plan out the entire talk right now. At most, you should be looking for the loose threads that connect your cards together… and organize things accordingly. So long as those threads are there, you have a path (which you'll better define later on).
Next: Slide Design
How to create a Pecha Kucha presentation that rocks.
Public speaking fills so many people with dread. Sometimes, even standing up to present to your own team is an uncomfortable experience, let alone a Ted Talk or a stand-up routine. However, despite the fear, people still sign up, again and again, to share ideas, encourage others and speak on topics they're passionate about in front of a crowd of strangers.
On the 20th June 2018, The Inspire Recruitment series kicks off, a collaboration between myself and Louise Triance of UK Recruiter, giving individuals the chance to speak and share their inspirational ideas to improve the recruitment industry. Since confirming the speaker line-up, I've had numerous conversations helping the speakers prepare their ideas and talks and knowing that so many others have asked me these questions, I thought I'd share some of the things I've learnt.
Of course, there are loads of different presentation formats and ways to communicate your ideas, but the most common is the Pecha Kucha format. A simple layout that asks the speaker to present against a backdrop of twenty slides, each changing every twenty seconds. You'll have experienced this heaps of times, for example, the popular Ignite series have a similar format, as well as Disrupt HR. Our goal is to use this presentation style to build a community of recruiters who want to improve themselves, and the industry, encouraging less experienced speakers to stand up and share their ideas. The stage isn't just for experienced speakers.
1: Start at the End
When you only have a limited time frame to entertain and inform, you need to think about the talk from the audience's perspective. Before I plan any talk, I ask myself these three questions:
- what do I want the audience to think/feel/know?
- how will this benefit the audience in life?
- what stories can I tell that bring my idea to life?
The clearer you are about what benefit you're bringing, i.e. make them feel less alone, discover new ways of doing things or hacks to get things done quicker, than the easier it will be to create a compelling presentation. In short, you have to know what you're giving.
2: Have a Structure
Traditional presentations spend up to four minutes setting the scene, but with Pecha Kucha you need to shake a leg and get to it. A clear structure will keep you on track, and guide your audience, helping them engage with you more effectively. Below is a template that I use when planning my talks. I tend to have 3 main points of 5 slides or 4 Points of 4 slides in my talks (even 5 points of 3 slides if you have a lot to say quickly!!!). A sample outline for when you have 4 talking points would be.
- Slides 1-2 – Introduction –
- Slide 3-6 – Key Point 1
- Slide 7-10 – Key Point 2
- Slide 11-14 – Key Point 3
- Slide 15-18 – Key Point 4
- Slide 19-20 – Summary & Takeaway
3: Plan the Talking Points
So many speakers make the mistake of planning the slides before they know what they want to say. Your slides should support your words, not the other way around. A. good way to plan your talk is grab a wad of sticky notes, then follow these steps:
- Write all your ideas of things you want to say on individual sticky notes. Don't worry about the 20-slide limit right now, just get all your ideas out on the table.
- Rearrange the sticky notes into the sections you outlined in the previous section.
- Consolidate and refine the points so you have the right number of talking points per section. Remember every talking point has to earn its place. A common mistake is to try and include too many points.
- Using a piece of paper (A4 size), create a grid with 20 boxes on them. Write your final points in each box
4: Write and Design
This sounds daunting and scary because people often wonder if they'll have enough to say, however, trust me, the challenge is always cutting out words. The BBC works on the basis that a news presenter talks at a speed of three words per minute, which means, you only have 45 words per slide, which is 900 words for the whole presentation, and that's practically nothing.
If you do feel like you have more to say than can be covered on one slide, you can always talk for longer and use two of your slides. I have sometimes cheated and used the same slide twice, but that is slightly against the spirit of this presentation style.
A few things to remember:
- don't forget to include stories or real-life anecdotes and this makes your presentation relevant and engaging to your audience
- the slides are only there to support you, not list everything you're already saying
- images are more important on slides than words. Sites like Unsplash and Picsabay offer free high-quality photographs
- if you do need to add words, use big fonts and restrict the number of words to no more than a handful
How To Setup Pecha Kucha Powerpoint For Mac Os
5. Never Stop Practicing
You might have the best slides in the world, but if your words don't come out right, the effort is for all for nothing. The better you know the words, the more comfortable you will be with them and it will allow you to speed up or slow down if you're running ahead or behind.
Start by creating a set of flashcards that have the picture of the slide and the matching words. Memories the order of the slides and the key points. Lastly, practice the presentation again and again. Each time you practice, challenge yourself to say as much as you can without looking at the slides. It won't be long before you have it nailed and ready to handle any nerves you might experience on the big night.
Remember This Though……
You should now be ready to present your talk to the masses. However, remember that presenting should be fun, so try and enjoy it. If your intent is focused on inspiring the audience, then 99% of them will want you to succeed. Just by standing on the stage you will immediately have gained their respect for having the guts to stand up in front of a crowd and share something you care about.
If you are interested in attending the Inspire Recruitment event on the 20th June in London you can get a ticket here
Pecha Kucha Presentation
If you want to want more Pecha Kucha style presentations check-out Ignite Cardiff who has a fantastic selection of videos to watch
