Just Do It

Philly Pecha Kucha

by Dianca Potts

Sat., March 7, 7:30 p.m., suggested donation $5, Studio 340, 4522 Baltimore Ave., 215-387-3434, phillypechakucha.com

If you can't say it in 6 minutes and 40 seconds, don't say it at all. That's the theory behind Pecha Kucha, a sort of show-and-tell for adults that Tokyo architects invented in 2003 to make their PowerPoint presentations less dreadful. Each presenter can show exactly 20 images for 20 seconds each, and though the original discussions focused on architecture, they've since explored evolution, geography, art and other topics in more than 120 cities.

Bradley Peniston, the Philly Pecha Kucha organizer, thinks the event's strength is its simplicity. "It forces you to focus and present it in a structure that keeps the presentation short and the energy level up," he says. Philly's first Pecha Kucha will feature nine speakers, including The Possible City author Nathaniel Popkin and Pentagon Memorial designer Julie Beckman. Many of the presentations are serious (Frank Chance's campaign for bettering Clark Park, Michelle Holshue's examination of how the media portrays nurses and Jonathan McEuen's talk on neuroscience), but just enough are extremely lighthearted (Dustin Fenstermacher's photographs of gussied-up show cats).

The event, which is two hours long, has been likened to performance art and spoken word poetry. We'd like to think it'll be more like a TED conference for Philly.