PechaKucha New Haven

First, for those who are ready to send in their presentation, please review here the Important Things, otherwise skip down to the unnumbered part:

1- Give us your presentation’s topic in some detail.  This is critical (hence first on this list). 

2- Save your images in JPEG format, “.jpg” …

3- Size of your images should be two dimensions which fall between 768px and 1280px… in other words, the smallest you might give us is 768x768 and the largest 1280x1280, which encompasses for example a 900x1000px image.  Please note that if you want your presentation to be on the global website, we have just been informed that your images should be 1024 x 768 pixels.  Please also note that we don’t have a videographer, though we encourage you to bring one with you for posterity!

 … our screen is 10 feet by 13 1/2 feet, so don’t worry about what aspect ratio you use.

4- Other PKNs say “keep your images under 500 KB each” so I’m going to assume that it’s a reasonable guideline that you should think about if your images are five times that size… also there is a “save for web” option in Photoshop which keeps images light, if you’re using Photoshop…

5- Label the images in order as follows:  YourName01.jpg, YourName02.jpg… through YourName19.jpg, YourName20.jpg.  And we do honestly want them as two digits, i.e. “01” not “1,” so we will now send them back to you if you don’t follow that.  2012 is here and it’s so danged strict!

6- Once you have them ready, put them in a .zip or .rar file and email them to us (do not embed them in the body of an email).  25MBs is the max size this gmail account can receive, in case you are wondering, so there certainly shouldn’t be a problem on this end.  We will confirm that we have received your email, so if you get nothing back, we do not have it.  We are at pkn.newhaven [at sign] gmail.com.

Thank you.  Greatly looking forward to your presentations, and not just because we need to get them all ready.  We put the slideshow together as far ahead as possible, so please email your images as soon as you can.  Alternatively, let us know your presentation’s ETA.  Let me know your name and title (title = ice skater or Zamboni operator…) and your URL if you want a link from PKN NH’s webpage.   

And now:

TIPS FOR A GOOD PRESENTATION

(as directly plagiarized and slightly modified from PechaKucha San Francisco –thank you!)

PREPARATION

Choose a theme

Portfolio pieces are standard, but by no means required.  Some of the most crowd-pleasing presentations are about what the presenter does outside the studio.  If you can tell it in a compelling way, you can tell it at PechaKucha.  But please don’t stand silent in front of the crowd if you don’t have a good story to tell.  So…

Tell a story

Even a strict portfolio presentation benefits from an over-arching narrative to pull the work together.  Don’t just describe what’s on the screen, reveal your though process, your mistakes and your epiphanies.  The audience may just begin to care about you and your work. 

Take your time

Crafting a presentation takes time.  Dumping 20 images into a folder won’t cut it.  You must decide on a theme, gather material, work out your script, and adjust rhythm and pace, and all this takes time.  Count on at least 6 hours of preparation spread over a few days.

Rehearsal

Completing the slides doesn’t mean you are ready to present them.  Even twenty seconds can feel endless for you if you don’t know the material.  Rehearse until you feel a rhythm taking over and the initial stiffness melt away. 

- Recruit a guinea pig audience.  A friend is good, a stranger is even better.

- Stand up.

- Pay attention to your body language and the tone of your voice.  Do you look slouchy, stiff, bored?

- Try to imagine yourself in the audience.  Would you enjoy the presentation?  Trim, tweak, project, whatever it takes to get you excited about your own work.

SHOWTIME

Without revealing too much, set a few expectations.  Introduce yourself, where you come from, and what you will present.  Quickly.

Talking

- Pechakucha means “chit-chat” in Japanese, so that means talk.  Every presentation requires a different amount of narration, but don’t stay silent:  if people wanted to stare at a screen, they’d go to a movie.  They’re here for you.

- Speak up!  Speak into the mic.  If you move (which you should), the mic should rotate with your head.  If you turn your head to show something on the screen and the mic doesn’t turn with you, people will not hear you anymore.  Simple. 

- Breathe.  The audience needs pauses to digest your genius, so snappy bursts are better than an endless stream.  Use silence as your punctuation.

- Articulate.

- Time your comments so you can follow the slides in a controlled manner.  If you start feeling like you are being dragged down the street by a big dog chasing a squirrel, let go of the leash, take a breath and start with the next slide.

Body Language

Audience.  Talk to the audience, not your shoes, the projector, the wall, your notes, the front row.  Smile, make eye contact, talk with everyone. 

Endurance

20 seconds is short but aim to keep the same intensity for 20 slides or people will become somewhat more distracted and noisy.

The Last Word (some ideas)

- Give thanks.

- Offer people a next step:  Where can they see more?  How can they find you?  Where will you be after the event?

- If you have to beg for work, be elegant or at least funny in doing so.

- Alternatively you can dive into the crowd.

Post-Apocalypse

Don’t go home… yet.  Scan the room to see how you’ve done.  Someone may be trying to catch your gaze, someone may have an opportunity for you, someone may want to buy you a beer etc.  You’ve talked to the audience, give them a chance to respond.

A PechaKucha Night is a rare chance to feel the creative pulse of a city in just a few hours.  But more than a slideshow, it thrives on new human connections created during each event.  PechaKucha can start discussions and relationships, so don’t be shy, show your work, make an impact.

Pecha Kucha Night is devised and shared by Klein Dytham Architecture.