We finished our annual conference last week, and you know what that means: LOTS of POWERPOINT presentations. I've seen many "bad" Powerpoint presentations in the past 10 years. I've even delivered "bad" Powerpoint presentations myself. The tool's dynamic encourages "bad" presentations. It's like that "self-working magic trick" we all bought as kids-- the mechanics of the effect were so easy, we wound up showing it before we'd practiced our showmanship.
Which leads me to Pecha Kucha.
For those unfamiliar, Pecha Kucha is like haiku for visual presentations. It has a specific form-- 20 slides, displayed for 20 seconds each. Thus, if one remains true to the form, a presentation will last 6 minutes, 40 seconds. I admit, it sounds gimmicky-- but it also sounds better than the typical Powerpoint marathons we've all endured. I suspect Pecha Kucha's constraints force its followers to learn the craft of showmanship.
I'd like to try this format myself, but I don't use Windows or Microsoft Office on any of my personal machines. All the presentation software to which I do have access, such as Google Docs, doesn't appear to have an timed transition that automatically moves from one slide to the next. The nearest approximation I can make is using the screen saver feature on my iBook that can be set to display image files kept in a specific order-- but the delay between transition effects seems to be hard-wired at precisely 8 seconds.
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