By Kristy Wagner

Staff Writer

River Tree Arts in Kennebunk has discovered a creative way to get to know 10 people in one evening through Pecha Kucha Night, a phenomenon that has caught on in hundreds of cities worldwide and has recently become a part of the town’s creative community.

River Tree Arts is currently accepting submissions for the upcoming Jan. 26 Pecha Kucha Night. Pecha Kucha is pronounced “pecha-kuh-cha.”

“You have to go by the Japanese rules,” said Linda Ward, vice president of the River Tree Arts Board of Directors. “Nobody can just do it. It’s very strict and you have to start by 7:20 p.m.”

Pecha Kucha is a Japanese term that means “chitchat.” Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham, designers in Tokyo, wanted to find a way for young designers to network and show their work in public, so they created Pecha Kucha Night in 2003.

The presentation format they devised includes 20 slides shown for 20 seconds each with the idea that the presentation is concise and moves quickly. According to the Pecha Kucha website, Klein and Dytham chose the 20x20 format because architects tend to “talk too much” and “go on forever” and PowerPoint presentations allow for the same flaw.

“It’s really about the process of how someone gets to where they are in life. There’s usually a creative process in their story as opposed to a technical thing,” said Susan Inoue, president of the River Tree Arts Board of Directors.

Inoue said Pecha Kucha Night is a gathering of people in a community to share their passions.

“There are strict rules we have to abide by,” Inoue said.

The rules for Pecha Kucha Night are set by the founders. All Pecha Kucha gatherings must begin at 7:20 p.m. for reasons the founders do not specify and are held in a venue with a bar much like Klein and Dytham had at their first Pecha Kucha Night in Tokyo. Ward said the bar aspect of the evening is meant to add to the sociability associated with meeting people and networking. River Tree Arts incorporates a bar setting in their Kennebunk Pecha Kucha Night.

“The doors here open at 6:30 p.m. and people gather at the bar – that’s the networking and talking – we do five shows at 7:20 p.m. and then take a break and then we do five more and then that’s the evening,” she said.

Ward said the presentation night has to be completely nonprofit. The charge River Tree Arts has for their presentation night covers the venue’s expenses for putting the show on. Pecha Kucha’s trademarked policy states that the presentations are for content and not for profit.

Ward said she read about the creative gatherings and then attended her first Pecha Kucha Night in Portland in February 2011. She got in touch with Jean Maginnis, founder and executive director of the Maine Center for Creativity, and Maginnis told Ward how to gain authorization to host a Pecha Kucha Night in Kennebunk.

“We were mentored by the Portland team, which is sponsored by the Maine Center for Creativity,” Ward said.

Maginnis and the Maine Center for Creativity initiated Pecha Kucha in Portland, which is known as Pecha Kucha Maine. Pecha Kucha evenings are also held in Bangor, Brunswick, the downeast region, Lewiston-Auburn, Portland, Waterville and Vinalhaven.

Ward had to apply through the Pecha Kucha website in order to hold a Pecha Kucha Night at River Tree Arts. After submitting an application, she received paperwork from Tokyo.

“I had to write it all up; I had to sell us,” Ward said of the application process.

She said she had to explain what type of presentations River Tree Arts would be looking to “jury.” Jurying is an early step of Ward’s and Inoue’s process of choosing presentations from the many Pecha Kucha submissions they receive.

“We put out a call for submissions and then people submit three to five slides,” Ward said.

Ward said submissions for the upcoming Jan. 26 Pecha Kucha are due by Tuesday. River Tree Arts held its inaugural Pecha Kucha Night on Nov. 17. The venue will hold four shows per year.

Inoue, Ward and others on the Pecha Kucha team will look at submissions Jan. 11 and choose the 10 they want to present at Pecha Kucha Night.

Inoue said the team tries to choose presentations on varying subjects and do not always seek out the best and most polished presentations.

“We’re looking for a good story,” Inoue said. “It’s just about the creative process, it makes it sound like it should be artists but it isn’t.”

Inoue said submissions received for the January Pecha Kucha Night have been from architects, potters, painters, photographers, sculptors and cartoonists, among many others.

“It can be just a story of your process,” Ward said.

She said one week after the jury the art center holds what they call a “jelly.” Ward described the jelly as “a dress rehearsal” for the presentations where everything “gels” together.

“At the jelly we help people to change direction with their presentations,” Ward said.

The city organizer and other’s involved in the Pecha Kucha of the venue give directions at the jelly. Both Ward and Inoue participate in the jelly at River Tree Arts.

She said the jelly is a constructive critique that aids the presenters in fine-tuning their Pecha Kucha.

“Since we know what we’re looking for we can sort of guide them,” Inoue said.

The first Pecha Kucha Night River Tree Arts held in November attracted more people than expected. The Pecha Kucha team had planned for about 50 attendees and about 75 showed up. Among the 10 presenters at the first Kennebunk Pecha Kucha was Kristin Fuhrmann-Simmons of Kennebunkport.

Fuhrmann-Simmons is a therapist-turned-baker and presented 20 slides on cake baking, her process of becoming a baker and dealing with brides and other clients. She heard of Pecha Kucha from Ward.

“(Ward) is a friend and we were talking about a cool new media,” Fuhrmann-Simmons said.

She said Ward described the “new media” as an “anti-boredom, anti-slideshow” presentation format.

“We didn’t talk about it for a while and then (Ward) came to me and asked ‘Would you be interested to submit some slides and an idea?’” Fuhrmann-Simmons said.

The baker submitted her slides and was selected to be one of the 10 presenters.

“At the jelly part I thought ‘I can put this together no problem,’” she said.

Fuhrmann-Simmons said she received a lot of reviewing at the jelly.

“They really give you great feedback,” she said.

Fuhrmann-Simmons said she prepared notes after the jelly that helped her refine her Pecha Kucha and develop a “more defined and precise and funny presentation.”

Ward and Inoue said Fuhrmann-Simmons’s presentation was humorous and touching.

“I’m a former therapist so I definitely talk about how you never go away from being a therapist,” Fuhrmann-Simmons said.

She narrated each slide for 20 seconds and began with a photo of herself decorating a cake early in her baking career. Most of the slides show cakes that offered certain challenges that helped Fuhrmann-Simmons grow into her career or marked special moments that reminded her why she turned to baking as a profession in the first place.

“I loved it,” Fuhrmann-Simmons said. “I think that when I have a chance to translate my passion through word and pictures and a little bit of storytelling I feel like people get a real picture of me as more than just the commuter or the grocery shopper or the mom dropping the kids at school.”

Fuhrmann-Simmons elaborated on how she experienced the networking and community aspects of Pecha Kucha Night while she presented and listened to others.

“I’ll be in people’s minds when I wasn’t before,” she said.

“I really feel that Kennebunk Pecha Kucha was more of an ‘oh wow’ situation where we got to see these aspects of people in our own busy lives that we may otherwise not have considered,” Fuhrmann-Simmons said. “And now that we do consider (people) we get that little bit of magic that, wow, we all have something to contribute, we all have a creative life, we all have creative thinking.”

Inoue said Pecha Kucha Night allows for a strong community connection and opens people up to the realities of who their neighbors actually are.

“I think people were shocked about the people who lived in our community,” Inoue said.

She said the draw of Pecha Kucha is the interesting individuals who present their passions to the public. Everyone waits to see what comes next at Pecha Kucha Night, she said.

“The whole point is that people are sort of on the edge of their seats,” Inoue said. “It’s that touch of human where people really lean forward.”

Staff writer Kristy Wagner can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.