Are you looking for an opportunity to present your ideas to an audience of more than 500 engaged and creative young people? Edmonton’s NextGen is currently accepting presentation submissions for Pecha Kucha Night 12, to be held on February 2, at Metro Cinema at The Garneau (8712 – 109 Street). More than 125 presentations have been given at Edmonton Pecha Kucha Nights to date on wide-reaching topics, from professional online gaming to in vitro meat and everything in between.

Deadline for submissions is December 16, 2011

What is a Pecha Kucha Night?

Tokyo’s Klein Dytham Architecture first devised Pecha Kucha, the Japanese phrase for “the sound of chitchat” in 2003, as a night for young designers to meet, network, and discuss their projects. The catch: each designer gave a presentation containing only 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds, for a total presentation length of six minutes 40 seconds. These constraints challenged presenters to clarify their ideas and match each thought with the perfect image.

Since then, Pecha Kucha Nights are held by a global community of almost 450 cities and the presentations have become just as diverse. Pecha Kucha is a grown-up “show and tell”. Next Gen was the first to host Pecha Kucha Night in Western Canada. The event usually sells out to an audience of 500-650.

10 tips to make a great presentation

1. Choose an original and engaging topic that you are passionate about
2. Your audience will like your presentation more if it’s not self-promoting – think of giving the audience a glimpse into your topic not tugging them into it
3. You only have 20 images, so choose them wisely – we will create an introductory image that includes your name and presentation title
4. You only have 20 seconds per image, so choose your words wisely
5. Create your images to be 1024px by 768px
6. If possible, create your images to be in landscape orientation to maximize the use of the screen
7. Reference your images, if they are not yours
8. AVOID clip art, text, and combining more than two images on one slide
9. Keep it casual and conversational – there is no lectern
10. Watch Travis Sheridan’s presentation about how to give a good Pecha Kucha presentation

Keep in mind that Pecha Kucha presentations are about ideas and those ideas allow the audience to learn, expand their perspectives, and leave the night with something new on their mind.

How do I submit a presentation?

1. Let us know you are interested by emailing edmnextgen @ gmail.com with your full name, title (i.e. architect, designer, student, teacher, activist, etc.), and some background on what you want to talk about.

2. Next, read the 10 tips to make a great presentation listed above, before creating your presentation. Choose 20 images that match exactly what want to share and convert them info JPEGs (size: 1024px by 768px) using the following naming format to ensure your slides are displayed in the correct order: NG01.jpg, NG02.jpg, NG03.jpg … NG20.jpg. Please substitute “NG” with your initials. Then, put them all in a ZIP folder or other compressed file format.

3. Next, submit your presentation by email to edmnextgen @ gmail.com and include its title and a summary (<250 words).

Deadline is Friday, December 16, 2011.

What happens next?

A panel of NextGen volunteers will review all submitted presentations. Often there are more presentations submitted than we have room for in the program, so unfortunately not all can be selected.  As we wish to keep broadening the PKN presenter community, we will give first-time presenters the opportunity to experience it over those who have presented in the past.

We will let you know by Wednesday, January 11, 2012.

If your presentation is selected, we may offer suggestions to refine your presentation and images. You can then choose to make final changes and submit your updated presentation by Friday, January 20, 2012.

We will host a presenter orientation prior to PKN 12, where you will have the opportunity to ensure your images are in the right order, to learn some tips on presenting successfully, and, of course, to ask questions.

Resources:

• Frequently asked questions about Pecha Kucha Nights
• Pecha Kucha Daily Blog

We look forward to receiving your submission for PKN 12!