Although next door in New Westminster there’s been 18 of them, Burnaby’s about to hold its first PechaKucha night.
The city has put out a call for presenters for its inaugural PechaKucha. It will be held Sunday, May 6 at the Shadbolt Centre as part of Burnaby’s Festival of Learning.
PechaKucha presenters get to show 20 slides for 20 seconds each, for a total of six minutes and 40 seconds each, on a topic they are passionate about. The first PechaKucha was held in Tokyo in 2003.
“It’s an event that I’ve been really interested in,” said David Jordan, who started at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts as its arts services manager in September. “I just thought this would really line up with the Festival of Learning. PechaKucha is all about the sharing of ideas, and it seemed like a perfect fit.”
It’s been a popular night out in New West for a few years after being started by some community members. The 18th version was held March 3 at the 1,200-seat Massey Theatre. Vancouver will hold its 45th in May.
“People love the grassroots nature of it. They love that the people speaking are not professional speakers, they’re people like them and they’ve got ideas that are worth sharing,” said Jordan.
“When you talk to somebody who’s just been to one, you can see the energy that comes out of the event. You can see they’ve really connected with somebody in an authentic way. I just know it has that effect on people.”
The city has partnered with Burnaby Neighbourhood House, an organization that has a lot of members and clients with fascinating stories.
“We’ve had a lot of positive buzz around the city, just talking it up internally. I think the city is going to embrace it,” said Jordan. “It will give us a really nice connection to community.”
One advantage is if someone doesn’t like a presentation, wait five minutes and another will come along.
“It’s the element of surprise that people respond to. We liked to be surprised. We like to have new ideas,” said Jordan, former executive director of the Vancouver Fringe Festival.
The deadline for anyone wanting to be a speaker is April 6. Those interested can send contact information to [email protected].
It will be a free event, but anyone wanting to attend will have to register for the tickets with Shadbolt. Burnaby and Simon Fraser University are partners in the Festival of Learning, which runs May 5 to 12.
