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We have so many interactive and communicative visitors on Indezine.com. They get in touch via email, or the feedback forms, or via our chat applet, and even through our LinkedIn and Facebook communities. One question that has come up often is about topics for Pecha Kucha presentations. So I decided to do something about these questions by writing this post about easy topics for Pecha Kucha presentations.
See Also: 10 Tips for Pecha Kucha | Pecha Kucha Questions
Let’s start with wondering about why do readers ask for topic ideas? Why not choose something that’s close to their heart or something that inspires them? That’s because Pecha Kucha presentations are not your typical PowerPoint slide decks. In fact, there’s no rule in Pecha Kucha that dictates you must use PowerPoint. As long as you have twenty slides, it does not matter if you are using PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, Google Slides, a PDF, or even a program that advances photographs. Just remember that these presentations are limited to twenty slides that show up for only twenty seconds each. And the presenter must speak all along, while the slides are showing and changing.
The second reason people ask for topic ideas is that this might be their first Pecha Kucha presentation, and they are not sure what will work, and what won’t.
Yes, it is a good idea to use a simple topic, and it helps if the topic is something you are excited about. The Pecha Kucha site says, “The key to a great presentation is to present something you love.”
But what are simple topics, that excite you, and are interesting to your audiences? Of course, if you already have a topic, you need not read further, but if you are still looking for ideas, here are ten easy topics that you can use for your Pecha Kucha presentations.
1. Share Travel Experiences
Did you get back from an around-the-world trip, or did you go to Antarctica? Or did you do something more simpler, like a sightseeing trip around your own town, or a little more amazing, like a visit to the Great Wall of China or the Taj Mahal in India? Yes, you can show photos, but more importantly, show photos about your experiences while traveling, and speak about those experiences.
Talk about your fears during your travels, and how you overcame them. Was there something surprising that happened–something you never imagined? Did you meet a close friend unexpectedly in a place halfway around the globe? See, any of these travel experiences will interest people, if they are accompanied by some great visuals. But make sure that you don’t get into too much detail because you only have twenty seconds for each slide. And audiences only want to see the larger picture–they don’t want to know about every small detail!
For slides, use pictures that you clicked on your vacation. If you are not the camera-happy type, you can try to get shareable pictures from sites such as Flickr. See our Searching Flickr for Creative Commons Pictures page to learn more.
Taj Mahal, photo by Geetesh Bajaj
2. Talk Food
If there’s something audiences love more than travel, it’s got to be food. Why? That’s because rather than traveling around the world, food can make the world travel to your table.
If you love to cook, you can share your favorites, and by favorites, this could be just names of your favorite foods with pictures. You want to share entire recipes? Wait, there may not be too much time to share entire recipes, unless you use all twenty slides for just one recipe–and that’s a great idea too. You can then talk about the ingredients, the preparation, the cooking, and the eating.
You can also talk about what recipes you like to cook, and why? Are the ingredients interesting? Or did you invent these recipes? Or are they family recipes handed down through generations?
If you identify yourself more as someone who enjoys eating more than cooking, then you can share a list of your favorite restaurants, and what you like to eat when you go there.
Of course, the food theme has so many more possibilities: you can take about making candy, your success with vegan meals, your discovery of Japanese cuisine, or the herbs you grow in a kitchen garden. As long as you are passionate about food in some way, you already have an amazing topic for your next Pecha Kucha presentation.
So what do you stay away from? Avoid talking too much about violent food, especially if you know your audience has a fair share of vegans and vegetarians. Never show pictures of killed animals, and if some food is not allowed as per customs of a particular religion, you may want to avoid that topic too.
Pictures for food are so easy to click, find, or discover. Just click what you eat at home, whatever you cook, or anything you order at a restaurant. Pictures clicked with your camera phone are usually good enough, as long as you present the food aesthetically.
Pan Pizza, photo by Geetesh Bajaj
3. Emotions, and Controlling Them
Does any one emotion scare you, or have you found a way to control that emotion? Which emotions? These could be something that you want to control such as fear, jealousy, anger, greed, or any number of other emotions. But then there are positive emotions too that you can talk about, such as caring, happiness, laughter, love (including parenting), and more. Of course, there’s no need to control the positive emotions as much.
With negative emotions, you can devote a few slides about how they come about in people, their disadvantages, and ways to control them.
With positive emotions, you can talk about why they are opposites of negative emotions, and how they can benefit others–and you too.
Clearly, each emotion has so much information available to be shared, that you will have to stop when you have content that is sufficient for twenty slides.
Also, it’s better to not go into too much detail about emotions, and also don’t fall into the trap of sharing too much about yourself in a Pecha Kucha presentation, because not everyone in the audience is your best friend.
Finding pictures about emotions can be the easiest, and also the most difficult! Why? That’s because it’s easy to find pictures about common emotions such as happiness or grief. But complex emotions such as anger or greed are different–how many pictures of angry people can you show? And greed is relative as a subject because one person’s necessity may be another’s indulgence. In such cases, you will have to weave a story and look at situations where these emotions show up. You can also use plain text, such as quotations for such slides, although you’ll have to restrict such quotations to just a few slides.
Image: Pixabay
4. Looking at the Future
This is a fun topic, and you can let your imagination soar. What about how air travel will function forty years from now? Or how kitchen gadgets will change in the next hundred years?
Or how will changes in electricity, phones, make-up, books, or even security change the society in the next ten, twenty, or thirty years? This type of topic is great because you are only limited by your imagination–and audiences love to explore the future along with you.
You may have a tough time finding visuals that correspond to your imagination. You can therefore doodle on paper, and then scan or photograph your doodles, that can become slides for your Pecha Kucha presentation.
Image: Pixabay
5. Explore Satire
OK, this is not everyone’s cup of tea. But if satire is close to your heart, it can be a great topic for a Pecha Kucha presentation. Make sure you identify that you are using satire right at the beginning, so that your audience can consume your content in the right spirit.
Try to make some fun of yourself too, rather than always poking fun at others–this approach will balance your content. Also, there’s no need to be overly mean or sarcastic. Keep your satire fairly simple. After all, how much complicated can you get in twenty seconds?
Visuals for satire slides can include photographs and cartoons, and you may want to source your visual content from copyright free resources such as Creative Commons or Public Domain repositories.
Image: StockUnlimited
6. Explain What You Do
How many times have you delivered a presentation for business reasons that tells audiences about what you do, or what your company does? Now what if you were to spin those same slides, and make them a lot less formal? What if you were to remove anything that cannot be shared outside your business, and replace that with fun experiences and even mistakes that taught you lessons? Won’t that make a very interesting Pecha Kucha presentation?
So why not just follow this option, and create an unusual slide deck that explains what you do, but not to business partners or clients! Imagine you have to explain what you do to your ninety-year old grandmother and to a ten-year old nephew–both at the same time? Won’t such an audience give you an excuse to add more pictures? Well, that’s exactly what you need in a Pecha Kucha presentation.
You can click a bunch of selfies and use them here, and even use some of your old pictures. You can share pictures of locations where you worked as long as you are not breaking any copyright rules, and also use anything you please, as long as you believe that you would find these pictures interesting if you were a part of the audience?
Image: Pixabay
7. Create a Picture Show About Your Hobby
Do you collect stamps or fruit boxes? Do you enjoy embroidery or video-gaming? Is astrology something you love, or maybe shopping is something you excel at? People have so many hobbies, and the stranger your hobby is, the more interested your audience will be to hear more about it. You can talk about what got you started, why you continued, and why you plan to follow along your hobby for years to come.
And then talk about whether your family loves your hobby or hates it, whether they encourage you or not, and share a funny story that involves your hobby.
The best part about doing a presentation about your hobby is that the content you want to show is right there with you–and you can often click pictures of your collectibles at home. If you have an outdoors hobby, make sure to take your camera along when you stepping out on hobby-time. And if your hobby is photography, then you already have enough visual content.
Image: Pixabay
8. Talk about Pets
Everyone loves pets, because pet-owners want to know more about pets of other people. And those who are not pet-owners want to know what make you so passionate about your pet. Either way, this is a very successful topic because it’s easy to share simple experiences with your pets in a few words, that fits within a single slide; and you can also share a longer experiences across multiple slides.
While talking about dogs and cats can be interesting, talking about uncommon pets may be more interesting for audiences because everyone wants to hear about something they have never experienced, and audiences want to relive those experiences, along with you.
If you have pets, you most certainly have many pictures of them.
Image: Pixabay
9. Ten, Fifteen, or Twenty
If you find everything difficult, the easiest answer is to create a list of “ten, fifteen, or twenty” best or worst of anything and use that info to create a Pecha Kucha presentation. What about ten favorite songs, twenty favorite movies, or something more exotic like fifteen poisonous plants?
If your list has ten items, you can dedicate two slides per item. If you choose fifteen, you can use the extra five slides to add an intro and conclusion. If your list has twenty items, you get one slide per item.
Such lists can also include inspirational quotes about a particular topic.
For visuals, use anything you like such as pictures, doodles, newspaper clippings, quotes, charts, tables, and even maps–or combine them all together as long as you respect copyrights. Learn more in our Picture Copyrights page.
Image: Pixabay
10. Talk About What Not to Do
OK, here’s your chance to hand out to wisdom to unsuspecting folks. Show your most intelligent facial expression, and share wisdom. Really? Is that even a real suggestion on this list? Yes indeed, but that’s only half the story. Here’s the other half we never told you about: the key to success in such presentations is to show your human self and admit that you have made many mistakes in your life, but you learned from those mistakes, and will now share your wisdom with others.
Every human is different, and is also a subject-matter expert in some sphere. To attain that expertise, you must have made mistakes and must have used those mistakes as stepping stones to success. Talk about those stepping stones, and tell your audience about the mistakes they can avoid.
Visuals for such presentations need to be calm and not overly colorful. Use scenery that shows dawn or dusk.
Image: Pixabay
Topics To Stay Away From
As with anything else, stay away from religion, sex, and politics because almost anyone can attend a Pecha Kucha presentation. You should therefore stay away from any topic that could be minutely controversial.
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FAQs
Ten Easy Topics for Pecha Kucha - PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff? ›
A Pecha Kucha presentation is a format that uses 20 slides or images that are displayed for 20 seconds each. The slides will move automatically as the presenter is speaking. This format ensures that the speaker is concise, keeps the presentation moving, and gets through all of their content.
What makes a PechaKucha speech unique? ›A Pecha Kucha presentation is a format that uses 20 slides or images that are displayed for 20 seconds each. The slides will move automatically as the presenter is speaking. This format ensures that the speaker is concise, keeps the presentation moving, and gets through all of their content.
How long should a typical PechaKucha presentation last? ›A traditional face-to-face Pecha Kucha presentation lasts 6 minutes and 40 seconds and uses 20 images that advance every 20 seconds as the presenter talks. In keeping with the traditional Pecha Kucha format, we ask that you try to give your talk in this timeframe.
How do you make Pecha Kucha interesting? ›- Choose a good topic. While you can present on any topic, the best PechaKucha presentations focus on compelling topics to the presenter. ...
- Start with an outline. ...
- Be concise. ...
- Choose and use images wisely. ...
- Practice.
- Say Your Topic in a Sentence. ...
- Keep Slide Text to a Minimum. ...
- Find the Story in Your Topic. ...
- Tell a Story With Images. ...
- Use Just a Few Main Points. ...
- Practice Your Timing. ...
- Give Yourself Some Visual Cues.
In a Pecha Kucha, images are frequently the only information on the entire slide. Avoid images that don't advance your topic or contribute meaningful visual information. Try to find images that are illustrations or metaphors of your key Page 2 points and/or use word-as-image. Avoid sounds or video clips.
What are some easy topics? ›- Importance of Kindness.
- Is there Value in Homework?
- Things I learned in Lockdown.
- How can food be recycled?
- Should Art be a part of the school curriculum?
- Should schools teach sign language?
- Women make better presidents/prime ministers.
- Why books are better than their movies?
- The Future of Banking in India.
- Rise of Protectionism.
- Rising heat waves.
- Celebrity Endorsement of Products.
- Effect of ChatGPT on Journalism.
- Biohacking.
- Thorium for clean unlimited enegry.
- India-Japan Relations.
- Beauty is not only in the eye of the beholder.
- Children don't play enough.
- Animal testing is necessary.
- Girls are too mean to each other.
- Men should get paternity leave.
- Tattoos are an addiction.
- If I had a year to do what I want.
- Butterflies: deadly creatures.
Getting the Most Out of Pecha Kucha
Purists will say there should be no text, only images or images with superimposed text on them already (caption images). Best practice is to fill the screen unless using space for emphasis.
Can Pecha Kucha slides have words? ›
Practice, Practice, Practice
The best Pecha Kucha's rarely have many words and only images so these need to be enough to prompt you as with no words there is nothing else to help you out. It needs to be like a script, practiced in this way too. You should know what to say without looking at the slides.
You can only reasonably speak 100-150 words per minute, or 33 words every 20 seconds.
What is PechaKucha storytelling format? ›PechaKucha (Japanese: ぺちゃくちゃ, IPA: [petɕa kɯ̥tɕa], chit-chat) is a storytelling format in which a presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds of commentary each. At a PechaKucha Night, individuals gather at a venue to share personal presentations about their work.
How many words is a 20 second PechaKucha? ›A person should practice in delivering 30-35 words in 20 seconds and therefore overall intent of having Pecha Kucha presentation is to seek attention of audience on focused topic in less time.
Does PechaKucha presentation effective? ›Studies show that the Pecha Kucha style can improve English speaking skills in general. This has particular relevance when teaching international students who speak English as their second language (Robinson, 2015).
What does a 5 minute presentation look like? ›When creating a five minute presentation, plan to present a slide per minute. The five slides, in order, include a Title/Author/Affiliation slide, an Outline slide, a Problem Description/Motivation slide, a Proposed Approach/Alternative slide, and a Summary/Conclusion slide. The title slide names your presentation.
Should Pecha Kucha have text? ›Memes, gifs, and other pop culture images can be used to make your Pecha Kucha more relatable to your audience! Clip art does not fulfill this requirement. There should not be text on the slides as it distracts the audience from what the content of the speech.
How many words does a presenter say on every slide? ›Don't make your audience read the slides either. Keep text to a minimum (6-8 lines per slide, no more than 30 words per slide). The bullet points should be headlines, not news articles.
What is a 20x20 presentation technique? ›It's a time-bound format where you let your presentation play automatically, with each slide running for 20 seconds each. This means that you can't go back or skip to the next slide. Compared to an elevator pitch and the 10/20/30 rule, it's restricted to a self-presenting deck or a time limit per slide.
What are the don'ts of presentation slides? ›- Don't Use Too Much Text. ...
- Don't Just Read the Slides Out Loud. ...
- Don't Talk Too Fast or Too Slow. ...
- Don't Overuse Charts and Graphs. ...
- Don't Use Hard-to-Read Fonts. ...
- Don't Use a Low-Contrast Color Palette. ...
- Don't Use Too Many Effects. ...
- Don't Use Irrelevant and Low-Resolution Images.
What are the 5 common topics? ›
The five common topics are: definition, comparison, circumstance, relationship, and authority. We start with definition. If two people can't agree on the definition of whatever they want to discuss, there's no point in moving forward with the conversation.
What are the 5 common topic questions? ›...
Example Questions
- Did ___ cause ___ ?
- What will happen if ___?
- If ___ is true, what cannot be true?
- Are ___ and ___ mutually exclusive, or can they coexist?
- Side Hustle. ...
- Prime Gaming. ...
- Cat Toothpaste. ...
- Brightwheel. ...
- Vitamin C Serum. 5-year search growth: 350% ...
- Drunk Elephant. 5-year search growth: 288% ...
- Regenerative Agriculture. 5-year search growth: 672% ...
- Banana Ketchup. 5-year search growth: 60%
- Ancient Greek Heroes Modern Interpretation.
- Antidepressants and Its Effects on Human Brain.
- How Bad Nutrition Affects a Person's Appearance.
- Traces of Romanticism in Well-known English Literature.
- Influences of Music in Mental Health.
- How Religion and Politics Blend Within a State.
Pecha Kucha is a presentation form of 20 images for 20 seconds. The slides change automatically and the speaker must synchronise their speech with the images. It's sometimes also called a 20×20 presentation.
How long is a Pecha Kucha total? ›What is the Pecha Kucha method? Participants must make their presentation using 20 slides —no more, no less— and they must take 20 seconds per slide to comment on them, for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
How many sentences are in a slide Pecha Kucha? ›In the Notes page, write what you want to say for each slide, then create the slide. In 20 seconds, you can say 2-4 sentences. When your slides are done, run through them in Normal view so you can see the Notes pane or use Presenter view to read the notes.
How do I make PowerPoint slides last 20 seconds? ›Select the slide that has the transition that you want to modify. On the Transitions tab, in the Timing group, in the Duration box, type the number of seconds that you want.
How long does it take to say 420 words? ›A speaker with an average speaking speed will need 420 words for a 3 minute speech.
How many words is 1 minute? ›These estimates use the average speaking pace of 150 words per minute to estimate. How many words in a 1-minute speech? There are 150 words in a 1-minute speech.
How long to speak 1,000 words? ›
How long does it take to speak 1,000 words? Assuming an average speaking speed of 125 to 150 words per minute, it would take approximately 6:30 to 8 minutes to speak 1,000 words.
Can a PechaKucha presentation have words? ›Getting the Most Out of Pecha Kucha
Purists will say there should be no text, only images or images with superimposed text on them already (caption images). Best practice is to fill the screen unless using space for emphasis.
A person should practice in delivering 30-35 words in 20 seconds and therefore overall intent of having Pecha Kucha presentation is to seek attention of audience on focused topic in less time.
Can PechaKucha slides have words? ›Practice, Practice, Practice
The best Pecha Kucha's rarely have many words and only images so these need to be enough to prompt you as with no words there is nothing else to help you out. It needs to be like a script, practiced in this way too. You should know what to say without looking at the slides.
A good 20-minute talk presents one idea, tells one story, and asks one question. Begin by choosing one idea. Try to make it an idea that has universal interest, but where your specific expertise can usefully be applied.
How many words can you say in 20 seconds? ›You can only reasonably speak 100-150 words per minute, or 33 words every 20 seconds.
How many sentences can you say in 20 seconds? ›In 20 seconds, you can say 2-4 sentences.
What is Pecha Kucha storytelling format? ›PechaKucha (Japanese: ぺちゃくちゃ, IPA: [petɕa kɯ̥tɕa], chit-chat) is a storytelling format in which a presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds of commentary each. At a PechaKucha Night, individuals gather at a venue to share personal presentations about their work.
How many words do you say in a 10-minute presentation? ›The general rule for speech giving is 100 to 200 words per minute. With this in mind, a 10-minute speech would require 1,000 to 2,000 words.
How many words do I need for a 20 minute presentation? ›✓ A 20-minute speech would be 2500 – 3000 words (word count function on computer) or about 8-10 typed pages, double spaced. ✓ Speaking for less time is better than speaking for a long time.