Pecha Kucha: A New Sector of Raleigh Creative Minds

As some you may know, I helped organize an event this month called Pecha Kucha. While you’re still trying to figure out how to pronounce that, I’m already basking in the warm-n-fuzzy creative juices as a result of the presentations and the engaging audience.

I will admit that I was unable to focus and didn’t comprehend all of the speakers’ presentations at the time of the event due in part to being an organizer and trying to make sure everything went smoothly and in part due to the extremely distracting & noisy sorority girls present in the room. Hmmm those two reasons are probably inevitably intertwined. Which is why I’m extremely grateful that Uplink Productions videotaped all of the presentations so that I could watch them again to gain more meaning. If you, too were distracted by the sorority girls (or just missed the event), you can watch all of the presentations here. Or you can read my recap below.

Overall I would say I was pleased with the presentations and the atmosphere surrounding them. Even though we held the event in a sports bar there were some kids in the audience (and on stage) and I even heard comments from the audience about how they were pleased by the family-oriented style. I’d also like to give credit to Ashley Sue Allen for the title of this post coming from one of her comments after the event.

So on to the recap:

Ben Scofield: To get us started for the evening we had Ben help us understand mastery and what it really is. My favorite part of his presentation was a slide that read “Your mediocrity is insulting”. But don’t read that the wrong way. Ben wasn’t saying that he is a master at everything. In fact, I think the take-away point from his presentation was that we are mediocre at many things in life (for me I’m only mediocre at skiing and most sports for that matter), we are adequate at enough things in life (we are adequate at our jobs or else we would be fired), but we are only the master at very few things in life (you might recognize that you’ve mastered chess if you’ve won an international chess tournament). So don’t push yourself too hard. You don’t have to be the master at everything—being adequate is usually good enough.

Dawn Cannon: Dawn’s presentation was extremely unique for a few reasons: 1) She filled in for someone who dropped out at the last minute and had only about 1 hour to put a presentation together, 2) There were no pictures on any of her slides and it still rocked, 3) This was Dawn’s first public speaking engagement, 4) Her son Steven (you might remember him as the kid who read the Whole Food lunch menu at TEDxTriangleNC) was on stage with her to help tell their story, and 5) She told the very personal story of herself as a single mom as a sophomore in college raising her son in a very untraditional way. All I have to say is GO DAWN!

Jerry Phelps: This man may be crazy, but perhaps also a master cyclist. Jerry’s presentation told the story of his bicycle race from Paris, France to Brest and back to Paris again (about 745 miles over 3-5 days). If you think you want to try this, he suggests checking out this website: http://www.paris-brest-paris.org/

Alex Gibson: He just couldn’t make up his mind if he was Iron Man or not. He isn’t actually Iron Man, but maybe he is a superhero, at least in his local community. Alex suggests to, “focus locally, don’t focus globally; the world’s too big. It is arrogant and counter productive to think that you can save the world, end global hunger, end world poverty, solve world peace, or any of that stuff.” So all you local Raleigh businesses can help be a superhero to your community, too, because “good businesses generate missions to drive their profits, whereas great businesses generate profits to drive their missions.” Go get ‘em tiger!

Becky Sansbury: While much of the audience may have though Becky was talking about how to get more customers for your business, I think she was just talking about relationships and that building trust is the way to build strong relationships—no matter what kind. So just remember 1) that when you keep your promise, you grow trust and, 2) to listen and learn from people, keep a record of what people tell you so that you don’t have to guess what they’re thinking and you can talk straight to them.

Leslie Flowers: You Get What You Think. Although a little “out-there” for some, the power of positive thinking and thoughts are real. If you want something, just tell yourself it will happen over & over and it will come true. Too many of us are told we can’t do something, so we think we can’t do it, and then why are we surprised when we don’t do it? For example, young people today are told they can do anything they want & they can go to college, so young people think they will go to college, and what happens? There are record numbers of college enrollment. Think people, think!

Willa Brigham: I loved Willa’s presentation because she was the only presenter to get up there and start off with song she wrote specifically for the event. Additionally, she was also able to make it interactive by bringing up about 10 people from the audience mid-way through to demonstrate her point: how to quilt a community together. I really enjoyed seeing our audience on stage with the presenters and hope to see more audience-engagement in future Pecha Kucha Nights.

Richard Spangler: His presentation proved that really anyone can come to the stage and talk as long as they have something to talk about. Richard is a pole-vaulting coach who realized the differences between how men and women learn based on his coaching experience. I’m fairly certain I already knew this, but according to Richard, women learn methodically (taking it slow & practicing), while guys just jump right in and learn from their mistakes (or don’t learn from their mistakes and just keep trying over and over again). Needless to say, Richard gave us quite a few laughs!

Lynanne Fowle: I had no idea that there were democratic free schools in the US where students actually vote and have a say in running the school. I am particularly moved by her presentation because I could only dream of having gone to a school like this when I was growing up. The new Jordan Lake Sudbury School that just opened last year in Apex, NC believes “that all children are curious by nature and the most valuable and profound learning takes place when initiated and pursued by the students in a way that makes the most sense to them.” Amen! Is this the future of schooling? Do theses schools actually succeed for all children? I can only imagine how much better prepared children would be for life if US education adopted this belief.

Aaron Mangal: Our final closing speaker started off with a “LOVE BLAST” to everyone in the room and explaining that he loves every single person in the room. Even though I don’t believe that everyone can really love everyone (and certainly not perfect strangers), how can you feel anything other than positive towards someone who just proclaimed to love you? The room got pretty quiet for a few minutes after that—while everyone pondered the place of love in their lives. My favorite line: “Media is communication, but it’s missing something… And that something… is LOVE” – ponder that one my media and communication friends.

Photo credits: Dawn Cannon