Designing Downtown, one of the largest and richest citizen-driven conversations about urban cores in Canada, returns to Edmonton October 5, 2013. Edmonton’s downtown will come alive with an eclectic mix of events and interventions celebrating Designing Downtown’s vision, anchored by Pecha Kucha Night 17. For a full list of upcoming events, visit www.designingdowntown.ca.

Designing Downtown is a movement to transform downtowns founded by Progress Unlimited, MADE , and Edmonton’s NextGen. Designing Downtown is a vehicle for inter-city exchange for partnerships that seek to enrich and advance the conversations and actions we take to shape downtowns as spaces for everyone. Designing Downtown is an experiment and exchange; an opportunity to create dialogue that celebrates & critiques; and a space to be a fixture in and designer of the urban experience.

Pecha Kucha Night 17, Saturday, October 5, 2013, at the Winspear Centre, features speakers from different regions and backgrounds that will challenge audiences to think in new ways about how we design and develop our city cores. Tickets are on sale now via TIX On The Square; charge by phone 780-420-1757 or online at www.tixonthesquare.ca. Tickets are $30 for students (with I.D.) and $35 for general admission, plus GST. Doors, cocktails and exhibits at 6:30 pm with presentations beginning at 7:00 pm.

Since its debut in Edmonton in the spring of 2008, Edmonton’s NextGen has welcomed more than 175 presenters and 6,000 audience members to this popular presentation format. Pecha Kucha Night 17 marks the first Pecha Kucha night in Edmonton with a roster of acclaimed, curated speakers from across the nation; it is also anticipated to be Edmonton’s largest Pecha Kucha Night to-date with an audience capacity of more than 1,700.

makescape 2 invites Edmontonians to enjoy a dynamically activated Centennial Plaza (behind the Stanley Milner Library) on October 5, 2013, from 3 to 11pm. This project is an urban intervention that transforms an underutilized space using design and art elements, food, and entertainment into a space that entices passerby to interact with the environment and each other differently.

Join the conversation online with hashtags #DD2013 and #yegpkn. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.designingdowntown.ca.

About Pecha Kucha
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 gives a presentation containing only 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds, for a total presentation length of six minutes 40 seconds. Conceived as a venue through which young designers could meet, show their work, exchange ideas, and network, the format keeps presentations concise, fast-paced and entertaining.

Founding Partners