Pecha Kucha Event Review

Pecha Kucha Event Review

By:  Nikki J. Means

Project Manager, New Media Professional, and Process Consultant

Email:  nikkijmeans (at) yahoo.com

Blog:   http://TeaEscapade.wordpress.com

This morning I attended Pecha Kucha Over Easy at the METS Center.  As a project manager professional and process consultant, I create presentations regularly.  So when I saw this upcoming event, Pecha Kucha Over Easy advertised on LinkedIn, I was excited for the opportunity to attend. My agenda? To learn a new presentation style and to network.  Both of my objectives were met. I discovered that Pecha Kucha is a unique and easy presentation style.  Not to mention, Pecha Kucha can easily be utilized in any business setting. Additionally, I had a chance to network with numerous business professionals.  Finally, I learned about several amazing initiatives occurring within Cincinnati: 1) the vision for Creative & Second Story Arts Center; 2) tips on how to procure a new position from Howigotmyjob.com, 3) how citizens of Cincinnati are combating the impact of negative media coverage, and  4) the mission of the Fallen Hero Foundation & The Yellow Ribbon Center.  I appreciated the efforts of Brian Monahan and the METS Center for putting on this event and look forward to the next one.

Pecha Kucha Over Easy Notes

Date:   January 13, 2010

Location:        The METS Center

What is Pecha Kucha?

A presentation style that began in Tokyo, Japan in 2003 and has spread virally – now in 260 cities.  Usually pronounced in three syllables like “pe-chak-cha” or like foccacia but with a “P”.  The concept: 20 slides in 20 seconds; content is unlimited, amount of information is not as long as you can say it in 20 seconds.

Presenters:

1)     Brian Monahan, Prestige AV & Creative Services – Meeting Point Cincinnati Founder – Silly Meeting Industry Inventions

a)     Focus of presentation – identifying new ways to grow your business:

i)       Virtual world – pecha kucha is a way to present virtually

ii)     Businesses need to identify new communications opportunities – blogs, employee wikis

iii)   How do you roll your audience over? Facebook fan pages, ning, second life  – a way to reach out to people who cannot personally attend our events

2)     Jim Jung, Prestige AV & Creative & Second Story Arts Center – Vision for Arts Center

a)     Presentation Focus – Second Story Center for the Arts  – www.secondstoryarts.com

b)     A creative arts center for the family

c)      Looking for people to join the community – networking contacts, participation in classes, donations, employment

3)     Daniel Johnson Jr., New Media Cincinnati Founder & Howigotmyjob.com (considered a social media guru)

a)     Five qualities for how you can get your job:

i)       Well-connected: a. important to build your network before you need it and b. add value to your network

ii)     Adaptable – thinking outside of the box. Seeking to fill the need.

iii)   Audacity – “moxy” “boldness” – making yourself stand out

iv)   Perseverance – sticking with it and not giving up.; maintaining a positive attitude

v)     Authenticity – knowing yourself, what a company’s position is, and how you can meet that need.

4)     Randy Simes, Owner & Managing Editor UrbanCincy.com, UrbanCincy.com & Mainstream Media Discussion

a)     Focus – Why I’m passionate about Cincinnati and combating the impact of negative media coverage.

i)       City Dynamics – 52 neighborhoods with strong individual identity

ii)     Comfort = complacently. Media focused on negative city reports, which have caused people to lose faith in the city.

iii)   Believes in highlighting the positives of the city – urban core – the heart of the city

iv)   Urban advocates have begun to mobilize due to new media growth

v)     Involved with promoting: two-wheeler parking, streetcar initiative

vi)   Focus on promoting the positive things of Cincinnati, translating global media with a city spin

5)     June Izzi-Bailey & Keith Maupin, Fallen Hero Foundation & The Yellow Ribbon Center

a)     Presentation Focus: Vision for The Fallen Hero Foundation Museum

i)       Open a museum

ii)     Parent’s of fallen heros can be displayed – maintain their legacy

iii)   Community donations to give to troops

iv)   57 fallen heros in Cincinnati from Iraq and Afghanistan

Pecha Kucha –  Tips on how to create:

• Begin with a clear objective
• Each slide should have meaning – the slide has many visuals, very little words – no bullet points
• Pictures support discussion
• Discussion should be timed with each slide
• Place slides on auto-timer for 20 seconds
• Discussion for the slide ends as soon as it’s over – no rollover
• No going back to the prior slide

Resources:

• Presentation Zen
• Pecha-Kucha.org
• Do You PK?

Cincinnati Wordle

You just never know what will tickle peoples fancy.  In this case, I was surprised because it was a “Wordle.”

So here is the story about the “Cincinnati Wordle.”

Last week at the Meeting Point Cincinnati Inaugural Meetup, my speech was titled “Beyond WKRP.”

My inspiration for the speech was based on my experience traveling around the country and realizing that many peoples first comment when I mention Cincinnati as home is,  “I Love WKRP in Cincinnati!”  I agree it was a great show but being in the Meeting and Event Industry I know Cincinnati has much more to offer than a memory of a 70’s Sitcom.  I wanted to inspire the group to craft a better legacy for Cincinnati.

I did a little research and found some Yahoo Reviews about the City of Cincinnati and I was happy to find they were very positive for the most part.  I remembered a website called Wordle where you can input text and have it rendered in an artistic manner.  The way that Wordle works is the more frequent the word entered the larger it is displayed.  I pasted a couple of pages of reviews into Wordle and this is what came out (pasted below).

Besides how much the attendees liked the Wordle, I was intrigued by the output of the Wordle.   Although my reviews included positive and negative comments, the positive shone through.  Often it is human nature to focus on the negative but the impartial Wordle clearly reads that Cincinnati is a “Great, Beautiful, Excellent and Wonderful City!”

You can create your own Wordles at Wordle.net.

I will be posting the full presentation on MPC next week.

Get Plugged Into Social Networking – Review

From time to time, I will be posting reviews of the various “Meeting Industry” events I attend.  Here is my first review.

Last week The METS Center in Northern Kentucky hosted “Get Plugged Into Social Networking” presented by Kendra Ramirez of SaleKonnect.com and followed up by a panel discussion.

I considered the even to be a huge success.  First and foremost it was a great example of using “Social Media” to promote an event.  I am not aware of all the approaches which The METS Center used to promote this event but it appears LinkedIn Events was the primary source.  I found out about the event via my weekly LinkedIn Status Updates when a connection of mines status included that they would be attending the seminar.  This is the viral aspect so many of us our looking for in our marketing.  The METS Center must be very pleased with their efforts of probably 5-10 minutes posting the LinkedIn Event which led to an overwhelming response and over 150 attendees.

Kendra Ramirez is a text book example of how powerful social networking can be for your business.  There is hardly a day that passes that I do not see Ramirez’’s name being listed as the keynote speaker or tweets about her speaking live coming across my Twitter stream.  Ramirez’s talk was informational and entertaining.

What I liked most about Ramirez’s talk was her first step to Social Networking, “Identify your audience and your goals!” So many people skip this step when it comes to Social Networking.   It would be kind of like getting in your car and getting on 75 North heading towards Dayton, OH and realizing your goal was to go to Lexington, KY (assuming you are in Greater Cincinnati) you probably won’t make it.  The better you know your audience and goals the easier to set your direction.

Ramirez shared some statistics about the various networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.  The one that stands out the most is LinkedIn with over 30 million professional users in the United States.  You can dig into her statistics by watching the complete presentation on The METS Center website, click here, which is another great example of Social Networking by posting the video and slides.

Ramirez offered up some common pitfalls for Social Networking, the one I like most is the belief that by signing up for a service like Twitter or LinkedIn people will flock to you.  I think we have all been tainted by the “Field of Dreams” mantra, “Build it and they will come!”  The truth is Social Networking is just an extension of quality content, products or services.  Think of Social Networking like an investment, investments require capital (your product or service), time (socializing and developing contacts) and the right investment platform (Formerly Mutual Funds and Real Estate).  So invest your time wisely.

Ramirez finished her talk with a panel discussion including the areas top Social Networkers, Debba Haupert - Girlfriendology.com, Michelle Lentz – Write-Tech.com, Suzanne LaChapelle – LaChapelle Design, Rod Martin – NavigateTommorow.com, Dave Hatter – LibertasTechnologies.com.  This panel has a wide variety of experience and had some great advice on topics ranging from blogging to Twitter tips.   Watch the video online.  Click Here.

If you are interested in seeing Kendra Ramirez in person she will be speaking July 22nd at the InnerCircles Women’s Networking event hosted by InnerWorks LLC.com Click Here for details.

A useful tool for following the online event chatter is Twitter Search. The #METSCenter tag was used for this event. You can check out the discussion by clicking here.

For those of you reading who attending the event you may have met a few people that you want to follow on Twitter. I parsed the Twitter Search pages and I believe most of these people were in attendance.

@bobgarrett
@TimDeRosett
@Curtisinc
@jwestwood
@JaneVCI
@writetechnology
@coachbriany
@jwestwood
@AnnLightfoot
@CarrieCMoore
@cjvenneman
@OakleyAftrHours
@JudiCogen
@JoeKikta
@XUBlueBlob
@DaveHatter
@ParsonsC
@CinWomenBlogger