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Zen and the Art of Teaching Pecha Kucha (pronounced peCHAtchka, from the Japanese for “chit-chat”) is an innovative presentation format that was devised in 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Tokyo’s Klein-Dytham Architecture. Architects and designers are infamous for droning on when given the floor, so the idea was to limit presenters to 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. With the prescribed length and format, more people could speak at an event, messages were more focused and “death by powerpoint” was avoided. At the IATEFL 2008 Conference in Exeter, Lindsay Clandfield introduced Pecha Kucha to the world of English Language Teaching with a night of presentations by Scott Thornbury, Jeremy Harmer and other ELT heavyweights. Some presentations were funny, while some more reflective. The evening was one of the most successful events of the year’s conference, so much so that it was brought back at the 2009 IATEFL Conference, which can be watched online. Because English Central wanted their Anti-Conference to encourage input from a greater variety of sources than occur at typical conferences, it was decided that a Pecha Kucha event would be ideal. This is your opportunity to have the stage and share your insights with your peers. Preparing well involves some work, but you can certainly have a lot of fun at the same time. If you would like to present in the first Canadian ELT Pecha Kucha, please email your details and brief abstract (no more than 500 words) to tyson@englishcentral.net. Read more about Pecha Kucha ELT.