Thursday, September 20, 2012
LOCAL teacher Anne Young brought the house down when she gave a Pecha Kucha talk about the power of writing letters and the correspon-dence related creative journey she has been on.
Then, when she returned to her job at Gisborne Central School, she threw down the gauntlet, challeng-ing students to come up with their own brief talk about something that inspired them.
The winner of that contest was 10-year-old Rata Simperingham, her prize being the chance to mix it up with the grown-ups, giving a talk at the next Pecha Kucha occasion, to be held tomorrow evening. She will be one of 10 speakers who will be in the hot spot for Volume 10 of Gisborne Pecha Kucha, an event where speakers have 20 slides on a subject that inspires them and 20 seconds to talk about each one, making for a quickfire sharing of inspirational ideas.
And it’s a popular format. Since the PK concept was launched in Gisborne more than two-and-a-half years ago, the events have attracted audiences of a couple of hundred people. This time a designer, an artist and a yoga fanatic are on the list, which is made up of Rata along with Elena Ogle, Rosie Cairns, Bess Halley, Katy Wallace, Meredith Akuhata-Brown, Bridget Scully, Ryan Brown, Chris Wilson and Jamie Quirk.
■ Gisborne Pecha Kucha #10 will be on at Gisborne Hotel tomorrow (5.30pm).