POST PECHA (KUCHA)

Well that was interesting. As an exercise the Pecha Kucha was very unusual: we don't usually get examined on the structure of a presentation over the content, so that was interesting. I think that as a system of presentation, Pecha Kucha has both good and bad points. It's great for making you condense information and keeping the attention of the audience, but it is quite offputting to be quite so regulated strict about the time keeping. I would have preferred to have a "time gate" in which we had to change slides, which admittedly would have made it less demanding, but I think that the standard of presentation might have been higher.

As for my own personal performance, I thought I did quite well. I agree with Mr Rokison that I perhaps chose a difficult topic to talk about - it isn't easy to explain away a song about the pain of putting a child up for adoption through financial need without a) playing the song and b) talking for longer than 20 seconds. However, I didn't think I did that badly at all: my timings were fine, I conveyed an argument and I knew my stuff (at least, I thought I did). I thought some others were better, though: Lazarus' talk on Alan Bennett, with clarity, passion and knowledge, stands out, and so does Fabian's talk on man-eating snakes, which was rather macabre, but impressive nonetheless. If I were to do another one, I would try to do some things differently. I would try to talk about something that wasn't so hard to talk about. I would also try and be a bit more relaxed, and finally I would try and have a bit more fun with it - I felt like I was doing a piece of work, not a talk about an album I love. Anyhoo, there's nowt can be done now. Have a look and tell me what you think.