Pecha Kucha, the Japanese term for the sound of conversation (“chit chat”), was recently held in Singapore. It created a space where people spanning multiple disciplines and fields of study shared their ideas and passions with others. This 9th installment of Pecha Kucha night was held at Home Club, Clarke Quay.
The event is fundamentally quite unique, as it covers topics across a diverse range of industries. Pecha Kucha also has a quirky restriction: The speakers are only allowed to present 20 slides, each one on display for 20 seconds each. This style of presentation is known as the 20×20 format, which is aimed to keep individual presentations short, concise and interesting. The restriction also helps open up the stage for more speaker slots.
Various people from all walks of life spoke, including Vanessa Kenchington of Plain Vanilla Bakery, Fakkah Fuzz, a stand-up comedian, and Alvin Ho of Atelier Hoko.
Former lawyer Vanessa Kenchington left her job as a law firm associate to grow her bakery business without any formal culinary training. She had to learn how to frost and bake cupcakes from scratch, and reach a minimum quota of 100 cupcakes a day. As an entrepreneur, “Practice makes perfect” was a very important value to her, as she saw it as a sign of dedication to making any small business succeed. Vanessa also mentioned that her experiences, loved ones and family were the source of her strength that validated her business plan.
Alvin Ho, co-founder of independent research platform HOKO, shared his research on void deck cat behaviour. This research includes investigations towards material and immaterial conditions that make up experiences in everyday life. He used to see some stray cats setting up their ‘home’ near his apartment and he began to question himself, “Why do these cats choose to live around the area? Is there any hidden potential embedded in my environment that the majority has failed to notice?” He then started his field study on 4 cats, in search for their ‘immaterial house’ embedded in the midst of our everyday environment.
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We also had Jonathan Wong, who represented Microsoft as the product manager for Internet Explorer. He talked about his life and how as a product manager, he markets IE to consumers – not an easy task, given that people’s perspectives of the new browser interface are heavily influenced by old stereotypes and impressions of IE.
Pecha Kucha Night ended with the last speaker, Sam Chablani, who shared his journey training under Michelin-starred chefs at the Culinary Institute of America. He gave interesting insight into the world of professional kitchens, explaining how the modern-day chef had to master various aspects of not just cooking, but business, marketing and entrepreneurship as well.
You should attend the next Pecha Kucha Night Vol #10, which is happening soon. For more information, visit: http://www.pechakucha.org/
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