ペチャクチャ Chit-Chat

One of the problems with any conference, is trying to manage the numbers of submissions for presentations which tend to pour in. It's always difficult to find enough space in the programme to allow many voices to be heard without spawning multiple parallel threads. One way of at least partially overcoming this, and of injecting a little more fun and 'performance' into the proceedings is to use one of the popular short format presentation styles such as 'Pecha Kucha' or 'ignite' (or I guess the longer 18 minute TED style). What's weird about many of these is the way that they have been trademarked by publishers and other organisations - nothing it would seem these days is immune from commodification and IPR! This is despite the fact that similar activities have long been used in various research and business communities. Anyway, that notwithstanding, we'll probably adopt a pecha-kucha or 5-minute marathon style for some parts of our Symposium to spark a bit of imagination amongst presenters about how to get their message across convincingly and in a more entertaining style than is typical of many traditional academic conferences.