1. 20 Slides, 20 Seconds A Guide to Pecha Kucha Jessica Mason
English, Education and
Learning Sciences
@DrofletJess

2. The basics Japanese for ‘chatter’ or ‘chit chat’
Invented in 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham.
Started in Tokyo as a format to make architects be more focused and concise in their presentations.
20 slides, 20 seconds = 6 minutes 40 seconds
Slides advance automatically
Presenters have no control over when slides change
Traditionally slides are all or nearly all images,
BUT this does not seem to be as common in academia.

3. Why do a Pecha Kucha? (It might be that you have to!)
View it as an investment
Probably the most concise you will ever have to be when presenting your research
A good PK can offer a foundation for several other talks
Becoming more and more popular, in business as well as academia.

4. Practicalities! Setting up the auto advance for your slides:
Top bar on PowerPoint
Go to the ‘Transitions’ tab
Look for ‘Advance Slide’ section (far right)
Tick the ‘After:’ button (also untick ‘On Mouse Click’ if necessary)
Set the timer to 00:20:00
Go to the ‘Slide Show’ tab
Click ‘From Beginning’ (far left) and check it works
Printing a draft document if you like to plan by hand:
New PowerPoint document
Add 20 blank slides
Go to ‘File’ tab
Click ‘Print’
Under ‘Settings’ there should be a dropdown tab which says ‘Full Page Slides: Print 1 slide per page’
Change this to ‘3 Slides’ which will be listed under ‘Handouts’

5. Things to think about Who is your audience and what do they know?
How much pre-existing knowledge can you assume?
If in doubt, don’t assume!
How much do you want to deal with?
This question might best be answered by trial and error
Break down the components involved in your proposed topic
Approximate how many slides you would need for each component: is it feasible?
If you need give time over to explaining a term or a concept, how much time?
Do you really need it? Is there another way to present the information?

6. Things to avoid
Slides which don’t complement what you’re saying but still require your audience’s attention.
Especially true with graphs!
Be careful with animation speeds.
You can check speeds under ‘Timing’ on the ‘Animation Pane’.
Slides with too much text / Having every slide as text
Slides which are too ‘busy’.
Putting key information on a slide but not addressing it in what you’re saying.

7. Tips and tricks
Build in ‘safety’ slides which will allow you to catch up if you fall behind.
Images are especially good for this.
Duplicate slides and add/change elements incrementally to give yourself more time on a slide
Time yourself discussing slides from previous presentations to get a sense of how long you would usually spend on a slide.
If you (like me) tend to talk around slides rather than read from a paper, you’ll need to either rehearse your timings for your PK carefully or consider using a script.
Depending how fast you talk – 20 seconds is roughly 2 ½ - 3 lines in the PowerPoint notes section below each slide.

8. Thank you for listening! Any questions?
Jessica Mason
English, Education and
Learning Sciences
@DrofletJess