I first heard about PechaKucha last month from Sarah Chan, a blogger in Edmonton, Canada, who writes about bicycling as viable transportation in a big city.
The term made me curious so I looked at the PechaKucha website and found that a PechaKucha night was planned for Houston.

PechaKucha Houston #1 took place last night at Domy Books. Boiled down to it, PechaKucha is a presentation of 20 images, shown for 20 seconds each, but it's more than a PowerPoint or your parents' vacation slide show. 20x20 pans out to be just under seven minutes per presentation, which may not sound like a lot of time, and that's precisely the point.

The concept was created in 2003 by two architects at a firm in Tokyo who wanted to come up with an open venue where people were free to discuss ideas in an informal setting and without boring everyone to death. The term pecha kucha is Japanese slang for "chit chat".

PechaKucha nights now take place in 257 cities worldwide. Houston's event was organized by Tony Medrano, a graphic designer.

"I wanted to get different creatives talking to each other," he said. "PechaKucka is for anyone — as long as you're passionate about what you're talking about, this is your forum."

The only rule, Medrano told me, is that presenters can not be out to sell something. Otherwise, anyone can present about basically anything at a PK night. To illustrate that point, Houston's first event featured 12 presenters from all walks of life, from an art student at UH to a handful of graphic designers, a user experience expert, an architect, a graffiti artist, an engineer and a man who builds unique low-income housing from mostly recycled materials.

Dan Phillips, owner of the cleverly-named construction company Phoenix Commotion, whose work was recently profiled in the New York Times, builds houses in Huntsville for single mothers, low-income families and starving artists. Sixty-five to 85% of his homes are made from recycled or free-cycled material, including wine cork floors, beer bottle windows and a roof made from license plates, which are constructed to be weather-proof and can last up to 75 years and reflect the hot Texas sun.

A couple of Phillips' slides highlighted his work on a house inspired by a beer bottle.

"When you build a Budweiser house in the Bible Belt you create quite a stir," he said. "Now, I'm not out to offend anybody but indeed, I'm out to create a stir."

Local street artist Gonzo 247, a curator at Aerosol Warfare, talked about using spray paint as a fine art medium and some of the work he's done, including skins for the Sony Playstation Portable and the painting of the DiverseWorks House.

Two speakers talked about public transportation in Houston. Architect Fernando Brave said that in spite of Houston's credentials, especially in terms of architecture, it's not on the radar compared to other big cities. He lamented that fact that Houston has a dearth of public transportation options.

"I think we're trying to make public transportation a matter of policy and not a matter of need."

Structural engineer Christof Speiler of the Citizens' Transportation Coalition talked about commuter rail and whether it's a viable solution for transportation in Houston. He said voters need to ask themselves five questions about commuter rail in the city: what, where, who builds it, when and why, concluding that it was not the best solution for Houston's transportation problems.

Overall the evening was well-organized and enlightening. Maybe the best thing about PechaKucha is the vast diversity of presenters involved, and the obvious passion they exhibit for their topics. Last night was a first run of sorts, so some kinks still have to be worked out with the sound system, and the transition between speakers was quite quick — barely long enough to read the upcoming presenter's bio on the projection screen.
If you missed last's night's event, don't worry. The fact that it was called PechaKucha Houston #1 implies there are many more numbers to follow. Medrano said he hopes to host the event quarterly. PechaKucha Houston #2 is scheduled for February.