Twenty slides displayed for 20 seconds each for a total time of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. That's the formula for Pecha Kucha. Pecha Kucha was devised as a way to keep presenters focused and to keep an audience's attention. Pecha Kucha presentations have exactly 20 slides and the slides are set to automatically advance every 20 seconds. Sticking with this format allows for a multiple speakers to "take the stage" and keeps their messages concise.
When students, teachers, principals, or anyone who makes presentations use the Pecha Kucha format, their slides tend to have less text. Twenty seconds isn't enough time to dwell on a slide, much less a slide with more than a couple of bullet points. Instead of bullet points, many Pecha Kucha slideshows use photographs as the visual aid.
It does take practice to give a talk that is exactly 6 minutes and 40 seconds, so rehearsal is a must. In fact, Pecha Kucha is often considered performance art. Even with proper preparation, it's a challenge for presenters to stay in sync with their automatically advancing slides. This actually makes it more fun for the audience to behold as the slides zoom past the presenter.
Pecha Kucha presentations are a great chance to try out Presenter Tools in PowerPoint or Presenter Display in Keynote. These features allow presenters to see their notes and preview the next slide while the slideshow is running. You can learn more by reading my previous post Presenter Notes Improve Slideshow Presentations.
Pecha Kucha, usually pronounced "pe-chak-cha," is Japanese and translates to chatter. And quick chatter is what can happen as the slides advance faster than the speaker can talk. Pecha Kucha certainly isn't appropriate for all topics, but it can be a nice change of pace for a student's project or teacher's lecture. Because of the fast pace, Pecha Kucha doesn't facilitate discussion during the presentation, but time could certainly be made for questions and discussion after the presentation.
As an example, I've recorded myself giving a Pecha Kucha, Take Control of Your Email. It's based off my previous post and features tips for dealing with your inbox. Because it's a recording, I could have perfected my speech and timing, but I didn't. I rehearsed and then recorded in one take so you could see what it would been like in person. If you cannot view the YouTube video below, you can download the larger or smaller mp4 versions.
Pecha Kucha presentations tend to have very little text on the slides. Some of the best Pecha Kucha I've seen have absolutely no text--it's all done with images. The slides from my Pecha Kucha are below for reference. You can see I used a mixture of large text, photos, and screenshots.
Perhaps the 20 slides/20 seconds format doesn't quite work for you. Feel free to change the format to fit your needs. Ignite is a style of presentation that, like Pecha Kucha, uses exactly 20 slides. Ignite speeches are only five minutes long because each slide advances every 15 seconds. Perhaps a teacher assigns 15 slides that are timed to advanced every 30 seconds. Whatever the format, the constraints can bring about creativity and expressiveness. Brief presentations require topics to be refined to what is essential and interesting--an important communication skill.
Twenty slides displayed for 20 seconds each for a total time of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. That's the formula for Pecha Kucha. Pecha Kucha was devised as a way to keep presenters focused and to keep an audience's attention. Pecha Kucha presentations have exactly 20 slides and the slides are set to automatically advance every 20 seconds. Sticking with this format allows for a multiple speakers to "take the stage" and keeps their messages concise.
and click the Transition tab.
