I am excited to be a part of brining an innovative new type of presentation style to this year’s ACPA National Convention in Las Vegas. Myself and some of my favorite colleagues (Ed Cabellon at Bridgewater State University, Patrick Love at Rutgers University, and Kristen Renn at Michigan State University) will be presenting a series of PechaKucha presentations. As the Convention gets closer, I’ll share more details about what we’re cooking up, but just to tease you a little, we’ve titled the session “The Future of Student Affairs in Six Minutes and Forty Seconds.”
So what is PechaKucha?
PechaKucha (pronounced peh-chach-ka) is the Japanese term for the sound of “chit chat.” In February 2003, Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham devised PechaKucha as a presentation style that involves a presenter speaking over a 20 slide presentation set to automatically advance the slides every 20 seconds. As a result, each PechaKucha presentation is exactly 6 minutes and 40 seconds. Witnessing a PechaKucha for the first time can be an exhilarating experience. Kristen Renn likens it to watching a figure skater go for the triple salchow. The presenter must get their timing exactly right in order to sync up with the automatically advancing slides. Will they make it? Will they stumble? Gasp!
Since its inception, individuals have organized PechaKucha Nights inviting anyone to take the stage and share a simple idea or concept. These nights are now organized in over 500 cities across the world and now it’s coming to student affairs. To find out more about PechaKucha, check out the website here. Ignite is also a play on a similar concept.
Innovative Styles of Presentation at Student Affairs “Conferences”
There has been a movement within higher education and student affairs circles to experiment with different methods of organizing conference experiences that are more interactive, more collaborative, and more relevant to participants. Joe Ginese has written a number of interesting blog posts on the topic which spawned further conversation (here, here, and here). Tony Doody and Patrick Love have also been on the forefront of some of these conversations.
Some examples of work being done in this area include:
As Convention time gets closer, I’ll be excited to update you with what we have in store! I think we’re all going to have a fun time and maybe learn something new along the way.
Pb 
Very cool.