Richard Nantel

Wired magazine this month features a story about how PowerPoint, that ubiquitous business and training tool, is being used to produce events that are a cross between competitive sport and a new art form.

Pecha-kucha, Japanese for “the sound of casual chatter,” was developed by a couple of British architects, Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein. The rules are simple:

• Each pecha-kucha participant delivers a PowerPoint presentation.
• Each presentation must comprise of 20 slides, no more, no less.
• Each slide must be displayed for exactly 20 seconds.
• Consequently, each presentation is exactly six minutes and 40 seconds long.

I believe the designers of pecha-kucha should be awarded the Nobel prize in economics. If this spills into the business world, global productivity will skyrocket as death-by-PowerPoint meetings are cut short.

In training, pecha-kucha may help keep learners focused. “Missed the slide on how to land the plane? I guess you shouldn’t have glanced at your Blackberry, bud.”

Pecha-kucha is catching on. Events are springing up in many cities. You can find out more about pecha-kucha here.