Pecha Kucha Night

Had an interesting night attending Pecha Kucha. It is a Japanese word (I don't know what it means) but the it uses a presentation format referred to as the 20/20 - 20 slides timed for 20 seconds per slide. So each presentation was less than 7 minutes. This is held all over the world. Tonight's topic was on social media and the line up of 10 local personalities were quite impressive.

Hosted by the British Council and Niki Cheong, it was held smack in the middle of KL. I, ah, suggested to my friend that he drive. Poor guy, I didn't realize he drove a manual so he had to suffer when we got caught in the expected jam along the Federal Highway.

Anyway, I digress. These were my highlights:

• Niki Cheong - Apologized to the world for what social media has inflicted upon our lives such as Justin Bieber. And for affecting the many lives of our cetak rompak pirates for we now download illegal movies directly from the web instead of buying their wares.
• Zain HD - He spoke about his experiences with CouchSurfing. His personal experiences and constant topic on how this site has enriched his life made his presentation easy to follow. Simple but personal. Powerful.
• Foong Cheng Leong - He is a lawyer specializing in cyberlaws and he spoke about those who were "naughty" online (as in those who were politically outspoken) were persecuted.
• Pastor Sivin Kit - I liked how he ended his presentation by saying the best thing about social media is when we become more human.

The ladies spoke very well too, clear and held the audience captivated. Many used it as a platform to promote their next event/product. However, the mic was not cooperative and kept going into silent lapses. I was also seated at a place where I couldn't see the screen so I could only hear the presentations. It would have been good to have screens at different angles like in weddings at Chinese restaurants when presenting photos of the wedded couple.

Overall? Still a bit raw but can be improved with practise, if these people were to speak again! And perhaps a more screens for the projection. Would definitely consider going again.

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