Several times during our run with Pecha Kucha Night, we received inquiries from other groups on how to start up the event in their own cities. Most recently, we shared our tips with a group out of Dayton, lead by Interbrand Design Forum. After letting us know that we helped in their success, we thought we’d share it with the rest of the world.

What is Pecha Kucha Night?
Pecha Kucha (pronounced peh-chak-cha) is a global grassroots movement started by architects and designers in Japan to remedy long-winded lectures and frivolous presentations. In one corner, the presenters at Pecha Kucha have only six minutes and forty-seconds to convey their idea, with twenty slides at twenty-seconds each, whether they like it or not. In the other corner, a well-stocked bar. And in the middle: you. The two corners compete for your attention; get a drink and you’ve missed what could be the most influential idea of your career. Pay attention and you’ll miss your third or fourth drink. Conversation among the audience, especially during timid presentations, is encouraged. Business presentation, meet rock show. Bullet points, meet fight club.

Funding
Pecha Kucha is a nonprofit organization, so the model is simply to cover operational costs. Any profit made is donated back to the parent organization. Some cities charge for tickets and provide an open bar, others waive admission and have a cash bar, and still others subsidize the event through sponsorships. Regardless of your choice, it’s important to decide which way you want to go early on, as this influences your event’s brand and how it is perceived. We opted for the first route (a $20 ticket got you in and access to the open bar). By using pricing as a lever for creating value, we attracted an audience that wanted to be there. Also, by streamlining the exchange of cash, we could focus more on the exchange of conversation.

Tip: Pre-sell tickets by using an online event service like Eventbrite. This helps you get a better estimate of how many are coming, and decreases the likelihood of pay-at-the-door jams or change shortages.

Location
Location helps you create the desired atmosphere for the event. Should it be buttoned-up? avant-garde? refined? raw? That of course depends on your group. We included a mix of locales, ranging from independent art galleries, to yoga studios, unfinished office space, and an art museum. Questions you should ask as you are looking at locations include:

• Is there a rental fee?
• Can you serve alcohol?
• Is staging available?
• Do they have tables and/or seating?

The more that was provided, the better the fit – but sometimes we had to fill in the gaps by renting equipment or hiring a bartender.

Tip: Convert location partners into sponsors, and save on rental fees. In return, include their logo on all event communication, and feature their own employees as presenters. Pecha Kucha can provide them great exposure to a new engaged audience.

Recruiting Presenters
Buying good beer is easy, but finding good presenters is a bit of a tall order, especially as you look to cull a new group for each event. We began with our own network, handpicking our initial presenter set, and hoped for the best: that they would inspire the audience to present at the next round and the cycle would become self-sufficient. However, we found that people rarely stepped up to bat on their own account, but rather that the key to finding presenters, is by asking them personally (no surprise). We were able to inject fresh acts into the mix by maintaining a web and social network presence, that called out for presentation submissions.

Tip: It’s ok to have repeat presenters. In fact, you’ll find that your presenters are eager for a second chance because they know they can “do it better next time.” Leverage these veterans to add stability to your lineup.

Presentations
Authenticity was a priority for our lineup of presentations. Except for providing them the specs (20 slides x 20 seconds each) we made no move to help presenters develop their topics or serve as their editors. Each person was responsible for creating their own PPT deck, and submitting it prior to the show so we could assemble them into a master deck. We also requested a short bio from each speaker, so that we could introduce them on stage.

Tip: To help inspire the development of presentations, create a loose theme for the event. For example, for our third volume, we used a theme of “Consumption.” Presentations spanned environmental, economic, and media topics, as well as a handful of others that we’re stil not quite sure are related.

Promotions
After you’ve worked hard to create a good event, you certainly want to keep people energized and engaged. Man someone with a laptop at the ticket station to add people straight to your email list so that you can keep in touch between events. Besides email newsletters, leverage Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and other social media to keep your audience talking.

Tip: Connect with local media to get coverage on the event. We were able to secure a spot on our public television station, which exposed us to a desired audience that was smart, creative, and community-involved. We also were able to use this video for our own promotion purposes.

More questions?
Although we have passed the torch of Pecha Kucha Indy, we still enjoy staying involved with the event. If you have questions on starting up your own Pecha Kucha Night, or need advice on how to maintain it, we’d love to help. Give us a shout!

We are taking a brief hiatus from staging and promoting PKIndy to focus on a couple of other experiential endeavors (more to come on this), but fret not – we’ll be back soon with something even more scintillating. In the meantime, check out some photos from the most recent Pecha Kucha event below.

A big thanks goes out to our sponsors Invoke Yoga & Pilates, Starbucks, and the Indianapolis chapter of the AIGA, as well as all of the volunteers that made this event such a success.

A big thanks to the editors at Indianapolis Monthly for naming Pecha Kucha Indy “Best Open Mic” event in Indianapolis for 2008. Kristian Andersen + Associates and our friends at Asthmatic Kitty have been staging Pecha Kucha events here in Indianapolis for over a year now and continue to be amazed by the level of enthusiasm and support that the event garners. If you’re interested in presenting, helping, or just finding out more, be sure to visit: www.pkindy.org.

Excerpt from Indianapolis Monthly below:

Its concept is simple. Its pronunciation is not. Pecha Kucha (peh-chak-cha, if you’re a stickler for authenticity; peh-cha-koo-cha, if you speak Hoosier) takes its name from the Japanese word for “chatter.” A mixer for designers and architects, it puts presenters on stage at locations ranging from Big Car Gallery to the IMA, to elaborate on 20 slides for 20 seconds each while the audience reacts (positively or negatively). Booze is free. And sometimes necessary.

We hosted the fourth installment of Pecha Kucha Indy on November 7th, 2008 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. More than 80 people turned out to hear one of the strongest groups of presenters we’ve had yet.

Pecha Kucha, literally meaning “chit-chat” in Japanese, is a grassroots movement started by architects and designers to remedy long-winded lectures and frivolous presentations. The movement has spread to cities across the world, including Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Budapest, Hong Kong, London, Portland, Nagano, Toronto, and now Indianapolis.

In one corner, the presenters at Pecha Kucha have only six minutes and forty seconds to convey their idea, with twenty slides at twenty seconds each, whether they like it or not. In the other corner, a well-stocked bar. And in the middle: you. The two corners will compete for your attention; get a drink and you’ve missed what could be the most influential idea of your career. Pay attention and you’ll miss your third or fourth drink. Conversation among the audience, especially during timid presentations, is encouraged. Business presentation, meet rock show. Bullet points, meet fight club.

Christopher Vice - Chair of the Department of Visual Communication at the Herron School of Art & Design presenting on Design Thinking

The gang from WFYI was on hand to capture some video interviews for their upcoming feature on Pecha Kucha Indy, which will air on December 15th, 2008 on WFYI. If you haven’t made it out to one of the events yet, be sure check the web site: pkindy.org for details. You can sign up for more information and even purchase tickets for the next event (which is scheduled for late February).

The Wall Street Journal just did a great article on the Pecha Kucha events in Tokyo. You can read it here.