Are you looking for an opportunity to present your ideas to an audience of more than 500 engaged and creative young people? Edmonton’s NextGen is currently accepting presentation submissions for Pecha Kucha Night 14,  on October 18, 2012 at the Myer Horowitz Theatre, located on the University of Alberta campus. More than 145 presentations have been given at Edmonton Pecha Kucha Nights to date on wide-reaching topics, from professional online gaming to in vitro meat and everything in between.

Deadline for submissions for Pecha Kucha Night 14 is August 31, 2012.

WHAT IS PECHA KUCHA NIGHT?

Tokyo’s Klein Dytham Architecture first devised Pecha Kucha, the Japanese phrase for “the sound of chitchat” in 2003, as a night for young designers to meet, network, and discuss their projects. The catch: each designer gave a presentation containing only 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds, for a total presentation length of six minutes 40 seconds. These constraints challenged presenters to clarify their ideas and match each thought with the perfect image.

Pecha Kucha Nights are held by a global community of 501 cities. Pecha Kucha has been described as a grown-up “show and tell” with a diverse range of presentation topics, reflecting the unique nature of each presenting city. Edmonton’s NextGen was the first to host Pecha Kucha Night in Western Canada and regularly enjoys sold-out events, ranging from 500 – 650 audience members.

10 STEPS TO A GREAT PRESENTATION

1. Choose an original and engaging topic that you are passionate about. Self-promotion is out & creative ideas are in. Our audiences respond well to passionate people speaking on concepts & ideas rather than selling a product, experience or point of view.
2. You only have 20 images, so choose them wisely. Don’t worry about a title slide; we take care of that for you with a PKN 13 intro slide that includes your name & presentation title.
3. If possible, create your images to be in landscape orientation to maximize the use of the screen.
4. Reference your images! If they are your own images, even better.
5. Resize your images to 1024px by 768px.
6. It’s best to AVOID clip art, text, and combining more than two images on one slide.
7. Match words & images. You only have 20 seconds per image and the presentation automatically moves on to the next image. Choose your words wisely!
8. Keep it casual and conversational – there is no lectern.
9. Watch Travis Sheridan’s presentation about how to give a good Pecha Kucha presentation.
10. Keep in mind that Pecha Kucha presentations are about ideas and those ideas allow the audience to learn, expand their perspectives, and leave the night with something new on their mind.

HOW DO I SUBMIT A PRESENTATION APPLICATION

1. Let us know you are interested by emailing with your full name, title (i.e. architect, designer, student, teacher, activist, etc.), and some background on what you want to talk about.
2. Next, read the 10 tips to make a great presentation listed above, before creating your presentation.
3. Write a 250 word summary statement. This gives us the best idea of what you’ll be speaking to at Pecha Kucha. Even better, include 3 points you hope audiences will walk away thinking about.
4. Choose a minimum of 10 images up to a maximum of 20 images that match exactly what want to share, put them all in a ZIP folder or other compressed file format.
5. Next, submit your presentation by email to and include its title and a summary.
6. Deadline to submit an application is August 31, 2012.

RESOURCES

Frequently asked questions about Pecha Kucha Nights

Pecha Kucha Daily Blog

We look forward to receiving your submission for PKN 14!

The problem, I find, with the food industry is that…

Soon after you feed your customers, they are hungry again and they come back for more.

This pressure of continual hunger from your customers has put a great strain on the industry, encouraging businesses to fill that hunger need with whatever means possible. This pressure is true not only for the little local minded food businesses, but also for the large multinational food corporations.

You can go into a fast food chain and find the same hamburger across North America because of the demand for consistency for that hamburger. And you can also find chefs of small restaurants sacrificing sleep whilst they scour the city for a bag of locally grown onions for tomorrows special because there is a demand for the knowledge of where your food comes from. The pressure is the same for all sectors of the food industry.

 
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Are you looking for an opportunity to broaden your skills, meet business and community leaders and help to make Edmonton a strong and vibrant community?

Edmonton’s NextGen is working with the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) to assist in the search for an EEDC/NextGen Youth Intern.

In this volunteer position, you will be exposed to incredible experiences working with the EEDC Board of Directors to help promote both economic and tourism development in helping to make Edmonton one of the world’s leading mid-sized cities by 2030.  While applying your next gen perspective, you will work side by side with Edmonton’s top business and community leaders, attend board and committee meetings and work on a variety of projects.

In addition to working with the EEDC Board, you will also be the EEDC/NextGen Liaison on Edmonton’s NextGen Initiative.  This means that you will join a cast of young, passionate, community-minded leaders who are taking the future into their own hands by creating a city that attracts and gives voice to the next generation of Edmontonians.  Your role will be to keep both NextGen and EEDC up-to-date on activities that have an impact on the next generation.

EEDC/NextGen Volunteer Youth Intern Commitment:

• EEDC Board Meetings – 6.5 hours per meeting day (There are 4 meetings scheduled per year) (February, May, September and November)
• EEDC Audit Committee Meetings – 2 hours per meeting day (There are 4 meetings scheduled per year) (February, May,  September and November) This year, there will not be one in September but in August based on vacation schedules.
• EEDC Governance Committee Meetings – 2 hours ((There are 4 meetings scheduled per year) (February, May,  September and November)
• EEDC Compensation Committee Meetings – 2 hours (There are 2 meetings scheduled per year) (February and November)
• EEDC Annual General Meetings – 2.5 hours per meeting (There is one meeting per year) (April)
• EEDC Mid-Year General Meetings – 2.5 hours per meeting (There is one meeting per year) (November)
• Edmonton NextGen – 2 hours per meeting (10 meetings per year) (September -June

Qualifications:

The ideal candidate will:

• be business oriented and community minded,
• have strong writing and research skills;
• establish and maintain effective working relationship with internal and external clients; and
• have experience in preparing and delivering presentations.

To find out more about the EEDC or NextGen, please visit:

www.edmonton.com

edmontonnextgen.ca

To apply, please send your resume and cover letter to Brian Murray at no later than 6 p.m. on Friday July 20^th

It’s official: the backlash against local food has begun. May it be as short-lived as it is ill-conceived.

Earlier this year, a Toronto couple released ‘The Localvore’s Dilemma’, critiquing the localvore movement and turning on its head many of the valorous claims it made. Lower carbon footprint? More ethically sourced? All quantifiably bunk, say authors Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu.

But they miss the most important motivating factor of the local food movement.

It’s never been about quantitative trade-offs on miles-trucked or litres-of-pesticide-sprayed. It’s about satisfying a deep, emotional desire to feel connected to what’s on our plate.

Two years ago, at Pecha Kucha night 8, I delivered a talk about some of the tensions of local food – the need to overcome the geographic barriers of our cold, continental climate; the fickleness of the tastemakers that deem local food trendy and authentic; and the risk of cooption from bigger players in the agrifood business. But in my talk, I forgot one divisive, and perhaps unsolvable challenge: isolation.

 
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“We as a society and as an economy need to start optimizing for a large number of small things, not just relying on a small number of large things.”

– Woody Tasch, Founder of Slow Money Alliance.

This quote would resonate with most people who are thinking about the next generation. So then, what is the direction of restaurants in this next generation going to be? Are we happy eating at any establishment that is not a chain, a ‘large thing’? I think we can do better than that. I like this quote mainly because of the word ‘optimizing’ and I will explain myself.

 
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July’s NextGen Speaks Out! theme will be Food

 
Summer is in full swing. Do you know how I know, besides the weather? Well the signs are all there. I know that you will be able to identify with at least a few of this signs.

• The BBQs are out in full force, the aroma of my neighbours’ dinner taunting me on my way home. An unspoken challenge to get out there and make something on the grill.
• Gardens are starting to produce fresh vegatables, fruit and herbs. Now you can go just a few steps to your backyard/balcony to collect ingredients for dinner instead of something trucked into the store.
• Then there is the multitiude of Edmonton and area farmers markets which are now bustling with people on weeknights as well as weekends.
• Patios are quickly becoming a hot commodity on lunches and after work. You almost have to leave early to send someone to “save” you a table, so you can enjoy your libations in the sunshine.
• Last but not least we are on the brink of the festival season. It won’t be long before we can rub elbows (litterally and figuratively) at the Taste of Edmonton and then Heritage days is right around the corner.

 

This month we will be bringing you tantalizing, and thought-provoking posts on and about the food scene in Edmonton. Ww’ll share what that means to a consumer, to a foodie, to a business owner, to an activist, and to someone who loves to cook, bake, and create.

 

We also want you to engage in discussion. Come on nextgener’s we know you have opinions and thoughts on these themes too. We’d love for you to comment, start a discussion, and share these posts with your networks.

 

Check back weekly as we will be adding new NextGen Speaks Out! posts regularly. We’re looking forward to it and hope you do too!

 

Disclaimer
NextGen Speaks Out, our guest blogging series, is envisioned as a hub for information and discussion. NextGen is a non-political, non-denominational organization focused on giving all nextgeners a voice. NextGen does not represent the opinions expressed by the individual columnists.

tagged with blog, community, edmonton, engage, farmer's market, festival, Food, guest blog, nextgen, slow, speaks out, yeg