I attended Pecha Kucha Night (PKN for the initiated) San Francisco last Friday. I’ve been before but this one was hosted by Autodesk in the Autodesk Gallery at One Market so there was a double benefit of being able to peruse the gallery AND see a bunch of great 400 second presentations from talented creative folks.

First of all the Autodesk Gallery is well worth a visit. It’s a showcase of exhibits that celebrate design and lets you experience it in a very tactile and immediate way because many of the displays are interactive. I thought the 3D television was cool and because I’m a surfer the hollow-body surfboards from Oregon’s 42 Surfboard’s caught my eye too but there’s truly something for everyone. The gallery is open to the public the first Wednesday of every month between 1:00pm-5:00pm and they have new exhibits all the time. If you want to keep abreast of what’s happening there you can follow them on Twitter @autodeskgallery. You can also check out their online gallery if you can’t make it there in person.

If you haven’t heard of Pecha Kucha it’s an efficient presentation template that lets the presenter deliver 20 slides each for 20 seconds for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. If you’ve ever sat through a long and boring presentation you’ll appreciate the way the PKN template forces brevity of thought and expression, halts interruptions and enables the presenter to really focus on their message.

Pecha Kucha Night was founded by Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein of Tokyo’s Klein-Dytham Architecture to give creative folks a forum to meet, network, show their work and originally to attract crowds to SuperDeluxe an experimental event space in the Roppongi district of Tokyo. Although founded by architects the evenings are open to pretty much anyone willing to present and I’ve seen model makers, inventors, sculptors, photographers (both amateur and professional), urban designers, industrial designers, graphic designers, film makers, artists, political activists and pretty much everything in between. You’re never quite sure what you’re going to get and that’s definitely part of the fun. Fun presentations? Yes, it’s possible.

PKN is held monthly in 192 countries so if you’re looking for an evening out with a great crowd and the chance to be inspired or to help inspire others with your ideas and experiences contact your local PKN and get your 20 slides together.

Official Site – http://www.pecha-kucha.org/

PKN on Twitter – http://twitter.com/pechakuchanight

Quick Fact: Pecha Kucha is Japanese for chit-chat and is usually pronounced in three syllables like “pe-chak-cha” although it’s entertaining to come up with your own way to say it.