Well-travelled industrial designer Phillipe Schlesser first attended a Pecha Kucha Night in Barcelona. He returns to his native Luxembourg next month to launch the first local edition of a Pecha Kucha Night at Mudam. “It is a nifty concept, so I thought why not do something in Luxembourg that has the same impact?” says the young innovator. That nifty concept was the brainchild of architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham in Japan five years ago - Pecha Kucha derives from the Japanese for “chit-chat”. It serves as a platform to promote local artists, designers, architects and creative minds in general. There are currently over 110 regular Pecha Kucha Nights in different cities dotted around the world.

 “It’s about sharing knowledge and ideas,” says the enthusiastic Schlesser.  “I really like that open source idea of looking at processes that are not publicly available.” He wants the Pecha Kucha Nights to raise public awareness of what is happening in Luxembourg’s creative disciplines, though the concept is, essentially, not about promoting business.

The idea at a Pecha Kucha Night is that between 10 and 14 speakers address an audience using a PowerPoint presentation. But it is much more than what the Wall Street Journal, in an otherwise positive article by Juro Osawa, called “a two-hour show-and-tell event”. What makes Pecha Kucha Nights different is that each speaker is limited to 20 slides that are each displayed for 20 seconds only – giving them 400 seconds, or 6.40 minutes, to make their point. The format requires conciseness and focus. “You really have to know exactly what you want to talk about,” says Schlesser, who will himself present at the Mudam event. The multi-cultural nature of Luxembourg, he says, should be reflected at the event, with no limitation on what language a presentation should be conducted in.

Pecha Kucha Nights are open to everyone and are not limited to any specific topics, although Schlesser says individual presentations should be about a passion and should be fun. Above all, they should be about a unique view of a subject that may serve to inspire an audience to think outside the box or change their point of view.  “Often you limit your thoughts and ideas, and even business models, to what you know,” Schlesser explains. Indeed, it is clear that presenters might deliver a highly original idea, and Klein and Dytham are preparing the launch of a foundation that will award financial grants to back the best ideas at a Pecha Kucha event.

At the event itself, neither the other speakers nor the audience knows in advance what subject someone might be addressing, which also adds a touch of suspense and keeps the event fresh. An after party allows participants and audience to interact on an informal basis. Indeed, while the focus is on what Schlesser calls “inspiring presentations”, Pecha Kucha Nights might also make up for the lack of a networking group for creative minds from different disciplines. “I grew up here and I think I know more or less what is happening in the local design scene. But I know little about what is happening in the architectural world,” he says as an example. On a networking basis, then, Schlesser believes the Pecha Kucha Nights can help open up opportunities for creative talents who might meet new business partners or clients.

 

Pecha Kucha Night Luxembourg: Volume 1 is on Thursday, 4 December at MUDAM.

For more information or to submit an idea for a presentation:  www.pecha-kucha.org/cities/luxembourg