PechaKucha's Greenville debut

It’s difficult to pronounce, but the concept for PechaKucha is simple—a presentation format in which 20 images are shown for 20 seconds each.

The idea is for creative people to share things they are passionate about with other creative people in a fast-paced, visual format.

PechaKucha (pronounced Pa-chak-cha) nights have been held in cities throughout the world, including Atlanta, Charleston and Columbia, for more than five years, and Greenville is finally catching up, hosting its first event at 8:20 p.m. Nov. 12 at The Huguenot Mill at the Peace Center. Doors will open at 7:15 p.m. to allow time for networking.

“The idea intrigued all of us,” says Brock Koonce, program director for Greenville Forward and a co-organizer of the Greenville PechaKucha event. “Greenville wants to be a truly creative city and we have all the pieces in place. This brings that to the forefront of people’s mind in a unique and different way.”

PechaKucha—the Japanese term for the sound of conversation—originated in Tokyo in February 2003 when two architects wanted a forum for designers to network and showcase their work to the public.

The event has since expanded beyond architects to include anybody who can present an interesting topic in a creative way.

For instance Brad Benjamin, a PechaKucha co-organizer and the president of the Greenville section of American Institute of Architects says one of the best presentations he’s seen was by a man in Atlanta who talked about his cigarette addiction and presented slides showing cigarettes coming out of their pack.

“It was a mundane little idea, but it was all about the delivery,” Benjamin says.

The goal is to explore a diversity of topics, something PechaKucha organizers are keeping in mind as they look through applications for the November event for eight to 12 creative, interesting presentations.

Diversity and creativity—not to mention the 6 minute, 40 second running time for each presentation—is something that made an unofficial PechaKucha event earlier this year successful, according to Maxim Williams, an event co-organizer and the director of community relationship building at St. Francis Hospital Bon Secours Health System.

Williams participated in the unofficial event and did a presentation on approaching healthcare in an integrative way.

“It was the hardest presentation I’ve ever had to do,” he says. “I’m used to using a lot of words, but in this case I had to rely on images and art to explain an abstract idea like health care.”

He says having to explain his ideas visually made him think about his area of expertise differently. Time for networking both before and after the presentations put Williams in touch with potential volunteers and others interested in community outreach.

Koonce hopes the fast-paced style of the presentations, in addition to the material, will appeal to Greenville’s young adult and young professional community. Ideally, he says, PechaKucha nights—which the organizing group hopes to hold four times a year—will bring creative minds together who otherwise might not have an opportunity to interact.

“We’re hoping this opens eyes to the fact that Greenville is a truly creative community,” he says. “We hope that when young people find out about something like this, who might be sitting on their couches saying, ‘Greenville sucks, there’s nothing to do here,’ it marks a trigger in their brain that they don’t have to go all the way to Atlanta or Charlotte to experience something like this.”