Pecha Kucha 2008

AQR’s initial Pecha Kucha, organised by Firefish’s Elle Atton and Razor Research’s Chloe Fowler, proved to be a storming success. We hear from a selection of attendees and presenters

"The French literary group the Oulipo has always intrigued me. It adopts restrictive writing rules as a source of creative stimulus. The totemic Oulipo work is George Perec’s La Disparition. For the whole novel the letter ‘e’ is absent (Gilbert Adair’s English translation, A Void, repeats the ‘e’-less trick). The Pecha Kucha straightjacket gave me some of that literary thrill. Honing twenty points down to twenty seconds a piece denied me of my lazy tricks, habits and idle ticks. I was forced to be creative. Writing it was the most stimulating experience I’ve ever had with PowerPoint. Presenting was an adrenalin rush of precision speaking. What is more, I think I put across more points, with more acuity, in those 400 seconds than I have in papers running to twice, thrice or even greater length. It was a provocative evening. I’ll greatly look forward to the next one."

Nick Southgate
Grey, London

"In Japanese, Pecha Kucha translates as ‘chit-chat’ but, let me have you know, this was far more than mere chit-chat. And I mean that in a good way! Held in an ‘eccentric’ pub in London’s West End, there we all were - a fantastic representation of qualitative researchers from a wide range of agencies, alongside ad agency and client side representatives. The atmosphere was lively and buzzy, the wine was flowing and the food was deliciously moreish! There were eight presentations (a mere 6 minutes 40 seconds each) given by a mix of both researchers and clients. All were unique, inspiring and very well delivered. It’s a fantastic concept and I’d definitely recommend this event to all of us with less than five years experience. And there are free drinks too, All night!

Alice Wilson
Synovate

"Pecha Kucha? Is that a cocktail? Apparently not, but it was thoroughly enjoyable finding out what it actually was. PowerPoint presentations are seldom exciting, and humour is all too often of the vein of 'Oops, how did that get in there?' while an inappropriate holiday snap looms behind the presenter. But inspiration was in abundance at the AQR Pecha Kucha event, which is a great way for quallies to display the versatility of the form, even while under the twin pressures of the clock and the expectant audience. The presentations were as varied as the people and organisations delivering them, a testament in itself to the importance of different viewpoints when it comes to presenting our research. It still sounds like a cocktail... but it’s a great event."

Richie Jones
FreshMinds