Guy Dickinson introduced a new format at reboot8: Pecha Kucha.
It’s insane.
And it rocks.
Here’s the deal: A number of people do a presentation on any topic, consisiting of 20 slides each of which is shown for only 20 seconds. Somebody else times it and advances slides while you present your topic in only a little over 6 minutes.
This wasn’t on the official program, Guy added it himself during the conference, and this is precisely why reboot rocks – smart, passionate people contributing great stuff not originally part of the plan.
Anyway, I read about this Pecha Kucha thing and went “hmmmm, that sounds like a new challenge” (regardless of my normal resistance to PowerPoint slides). Mind you: I decided to do it 1 hour before the session started, so I had to furry and cut down a previous “Happy At Work” presentation and figure out what to say.
When my turn came I was really nervous, which I normally never am before presenting. But remember: Adrenaline makes fun things even more fun! And it went great!
The 5 presentations shown were wildly different (from “The power of small” to “10 things to do with the palm of your hand”) but each was interesting and managed to give you an actual feel for the topic in a very short time.
It was also fun to see people put themselves on the line and try something new. There was an element of risk and “will they pull it off” that gave a certain nerve and immediacy to the whole session.
Thank you to Guy for introducing the format to reboot, I have a feeling it will be back for reboot9.
UPDATE: You can download my slides here.
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