Pecha Kucha Night – Tokyo

I first heard of Pecha Kucha when I was asked to be a speaker in college. (Wikipedia info)
Back then I thought, “Pecha-kucha is a Japanese expression, I wonder how that name came about?” I eventually found out the event started in Tokyo, so I’ve always wanted to check out the original Pecha Kucha Tokyo when there was a chance.

Well, at last, yesterday was my first opportunity to visit Pecha Kucha Tokyo vol.117 !
Super Deluxe, which is the venue that always hosts Pecha Kucha Nights, is a well known venue for hosting lots of creative events and  was also a venue I’ve been curious about.

The event on a weekday starting at 8:20pm, was a great time to start for people getting off work.
Getting there was easy, as Super Deluxe was right next to Roppongi Hills, tucked away underground.
You pay ￥1000 at the reception and enter.

I got there 10 mins into the event but it was packed already with no seats!  (Definitely go early if you want to grab a seat.)

With three big projector screens and loud speakers, it’s hard to miss the presentation. You actually don’t need see the stage or presenter at all. The venue was set up so that anyone can enjoy the whole presentation from anywhere in the room.

The talks varied from people talking about their experiences, projects, professions, exhibitions, etc.
Although the event is facilitated in Japanese & English, I was very surprised of how international the crowd was. Most people (even the Japanese people there) spoke very good English. One of my friends mentioned, “I come to this event when I want to meet other English speakers, because this is one of the few events I know where the crowd is actually very international”.

The event was divided into three sections with breaks.
You can meet and talk with people, go to the bathroom, grab a drink, order food during this time.

The bar does get a little crazy with swarms of people lining up during breaks.

For the smokers: smoking is permitted indoors, and you can smoke while enjoying the presentation.
For the non-smokers: try to stay away from the areas with ash trays.

As the original starting point of Pecha Kucha, there was definitely a special energy here.
Many people were open to collaborations, and it felt very easy to go up and talk to speakers afterwards.

For those who want to network this is a great event to attend with lots of great topics to start small talks.

The event ends around 11:00pm and people quickly scattered away to catch the last train home.