Travel Blog

I thought I had gotten comfortable with public speaking and then last night I participated in Pecha Kucha in Miami. Pecha Kucha (which means “chit-chat” in Japanese) is a kind of Ted talk on speed. As you speak, 20 photographs appear on the screen behind you, for 20 seconds each. So your six minute and 40 second talk needs to be tightly coordinated with the images. If you pause, or hesitate briefly, your timing goes off.

At home I timed myself, whittling what I had originally written down to 20, 20-second bits of monologue. But it was not the same as standing in front of an audience, as I did last night, and seeing an image suddenly replaced by another while I still had more to say. I felt extremely rushed and under the gun. Later I thought of George Plimpton, who said that the most terrifying thing he had ever done - worse than playing quarterback for the Detroit Lions or entering a boxing ring with Archie Moore - was playing the triangle with the New York Philharmonic. The reason being that in music, unlike in sports, there are no timeouts; time moves inexorably and there is no stopping it.

I realized last night how much, when speaking to groups, I like to use pauses for effect (not to mention digressions). Adding to my discomfort were the stage lights, which made it impossible for me to see the audience. Normally, I like to establish eye contact with two or three listeners, and of course gauge their reactions to what I’m saying. Last night that was impossible.

I got a little flustered at the fourth image, but recovered well and made it to the end and a round of applause. I felt like a figure skater who stumbles early in her program but makes up for it later, earning a 9.5 instead of a 10.