Pecha Kucha

We've all seen and heard presentations that just seem to go on forever.  We don't mean to be rude, but there's only so much a person can listen and pay attention to before they start getting bored and tired of the topic.  This is a presenter's worst nightmare.  There's nothing more terrifying than getting up on a stage or in front of an audience, prepared to give your speech, only to see yawns and bored expressions coming from the crowd.  There are ways to avoid these situations though.  One solution is the Pecha Kucha presentation style.  Originating in Japan in 2003, Pecha Kucha is comprised of 20 images, and 20 seconds per slide.  This style was created to help speakers present efficiently by limiting the entire presentation to 6 minutes and 40 seconds.  This shorter presentation style helps keep the audience engaged and interested in what you're saying.  This style would be extremely beneficial to business because it lets the speaker focus on key concepts that they want to communicate to the audience.  Businesses could use this to pitch a sales idea, promote a new product, etc. So next time you have to give a presentation, have no fear! Pecha Kucha is here!

"PechaKucha 20x20." PechaKucha 20x20. Pecha Kucha, n.d. Web. 16. Mar. 2016.
"What Is Pecha Kucha Technique?" FPPT. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.
"PechaKucha." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 16. Mar. 2016.

Pecha Kucha. Digital Image. Wisembly. N.p., n.d. Web. 16. Mar. 2016.

Presentation Technique

In Steve Jobs' speech to the Stanford graduating class of 2005, he tells them 3 stories from his life.  The first story is about how he dropped out of college and ended up creating a multi-billion dollar company called Apple.  The second story is about how he was fired from Apple, and how he created a new company called Next and met his wife.  Apple joined up with Next, and he was working with Apple again.  The last story was about how he was diagnosed with cancer and found out it was curable.  By including stories about his own life in his speech, Jobs stuck to something he was passionate about and obviously knew a lot about, considering it was his own life.  He included some jokes and kept the audience engaged.  In the second video, Reshma Saujani begins her speech with a story of how she ran for Congress, and everyone told her she would lose.  She did lose, but it was the first time in her life that she truly did something brave.  She then continues with her speech explaining how girls are raised to be perfect, and boys are raised to be brave.  Girls are only allowed to do things that they know they will be great at and succeed in, while boys are taught to take risks and not worry about how good they are at something.  Her message is that girls need to be taught to be brave also.  I learned from these videos that including personal stories is a great way to keep an audience engaged, and it also shows that you have some experience with a certain topic and you know what you're talking about.

"Teach Girls Bravery, Not Perfection." Reshma Saujani:. TED, Feb. 2016. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.

Steve Jobs Quotes. Digital Image. Candy Tech. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.