KC Design Week 2013 - Pecha Kucha Night

The final even that I participated in was Pecha Kucha Night.  I've been to this even before, but not during Design Week.  Usually it's held at a bar downtown, which is a great type of location for it, but since the crowd that it draws has gotten so big, they've had to move it to an auditorium at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Pecha Kucha is pronounced peCHAH kuCHAH, and it is a Japanese word that loosely translates to mean the sound of chit-chat.  There were 6 presenters, and each presenter is allowed 20 slides, and 20 seconds to present each slide.  It's always a wide variety of topics, some more entertaining and humorous than others, but always creative and interesting.  

The evening started with a couple of presentations by 2 textile artists, and while their presentations were interesting, they were as entertaining as what was to come.

This guy was my favorite presentation of the night.  He just pretty much gave his 'rules' for being a 'creative nerd' as he calls himself.  He was very funny, very animated, and I really enjoyed him. 

Remember those bottles of Boulevard Beer from Monster Drawing Rally?  This is the guy that MAKES the beer.  His presentation was quite interesting and entertaining too.  This particular slide reads "My dad is finally proud of me because I make beer for money."

And appropriately enough, was followed by intermission, or the 'beer break'.

This woman did something a little different.  She is a spoken word artist and poet, and instead of present on a topic, she performed one of her original pieces.  I had never witnessed a spoken word performance before, and while it's probably not something I'd attend on a regular basis, I actually enjoyed it.

The evening ended with an architect.  But, instead of presenting his work to us, he decided to tell us a story.  A story he wrote when he was 9 years old.  It's about the cowfish.  In short, it was about how these cows came to live on an island off the coast of Texas.  They started out as fish that looked like cows, who eventually lost their fins and grew their legs.  

It was hilarious. 

He did all of the illustrations too