20 Slides - 20 Seconds

After a quick beer with the agency lads, we jumped on the tube towards Russell Square. We were really excited about it, not Russell Square but Pecha Kucha Night. A format of presentation that was hosted by the D&AD last night. And it was quite brilliant.

Unlike most lecturey lectures, there were no long winded speeches that bored you half to death and half asleep. Instead, 13 speakers were invited on stage and were given 20 slides that lasted for 20 seconds each to tell us what they thought about stuff, all kinds of stuff. It was similar to Interesting 2007 last year, just a lot quicker.

There was one who stood out from the rest, perhaps because of his name (Sanky), perhaps because of his hair (big) or perhaps because he engaged the hell out of his audience for 6 minutes and 40 seconds. Whatever it was, I doubt anyone will forget the only slide of the evening that silenced the entire hall. He presented about 15 slides of stuff he loves, mostly funny and good ideas. Then he hit us with a picture of the falling man (9/11). 20 seconds of pindrop silence in the audience and nothing but applause thereafter.

A great evening full of AHA's, our favourite D&AD lecture so far.