Pecha Kucha: An Engaging Mini-lecture Plus More

What is a Pecha Kucha? Do you know how to pronounce Pecha Kucha? Most importantly, how can Pecha Kucha enhance your training for adults? Read on to learn the answers to these questions and watch a video example of a Pecha Kucha.

What is Pecha Kucha?

Pecha Kucha (pronounced Pe – Chak – Ku-Cha) is a short format for presenting Power Point slides. A Pecha Kucha presentation uses only 20 slides and each slide is shown for only 20 seconds each. So that’s 20 slides x 20 seconds each for a total presentation time of 6 minutes, 40 seconds.

How Can Pecha Kucha Be Used as an Engaging Mini-Lecture?

Mini-lectures are supposed to be “mini” or “short.” A mini lecture or lecturette should last between 5 and 12 minutes. Why? Because of the 10-minute rule. The 10-minute rule is a guideline for trainers to change something in the training every 10 minutes.

This is because the adult brain tends to wander and get bored with the same activity after about 10 minutes. Read the rationale for this in John Medina’s article, Brain Rules: The 10 Minute Rule.

You may be more familiar with Ted talks, which stretch the 10-minute rule to 18 minutes but Ted talks are limited to a short presentation time for the same brain based reasons.

Watch a Pecha Kucha Presentation

Pecha Kucha “nights” and events happen all over the world. Crowds gather to watch others present content using the Pecha Kucha format on almost every day of the year. To find a live Pecha Kucha event in your area, visit PechaKucha.org.

To get an idea about how a Pecha Kucha presentation is given, watch one of the videos  below of Pecha Kucha presentations. Notice that use of images for the slides and the lack of words on the slides.
 -Teaching Kids to Fail by Maurya Couvares, Scripted

Mindfulness in Education by Carolyn Chandler

How to Use Pecha Kucha in Training Sessions

A Pecha Kucha format can be used any time you would use a mini-lecture but it can also serve as other interesting parts of a training. Consider using a six minute and forty second Pecha Kucha presentation as an/a . . .

• Opener – Peak interest visually to begin a training session
• Mini-Lecture – an engaging way to deliver content about a specific topic
• Story Example – highlight an example about your content with 20 slides that tell a story about a child, a teacher, a classroom, a parent, a center, etc.
• Visual Case Scenario – If you want participants to use a scenario to apply and practice skills, make the scenario come to life through the visuals in a Pecha Kucha format
• Image Rich Review – Near the end of a session, spend 6 minutes and 40 seconds to show visual examples of how concepts (presented in your training) have been implemented in real life or could be implemented

The possibilities are endless for using the Pecha Kucha format in your training outlines.

How to Create a Pecha Kucha Presentation

1. Decide on a narrow topic and the “need to know” information about the topic. (Exclude the “nice to know” information.)
2. Divide the content into 20 parts. (Write each point on a sticky note or type into a table on Microsoft Word.) Develop this into your “script” to narrate through the slides.
3. Find photographs and images for each slide.
4. Practice a few times to make sure that your script for each slide fits into the 20-second time frame.

Tips for Creating Slides for a Pecha Kucha

Check out a few of the resources listed below for templates and different ways to plan your Pecha Kucha presentation.

• 5 Tips to Pecha Kucha Excellence, a super helpful video by Charles Greene III, Presentation Magician
• Your Ultimate Guide to Giving Pecha Kucha Presentations by Paul Gordon Brown
• Inquire To Create a Pecha Kucha Presentation by Thoughtful Learning