Virtual Design Festival

PechaKucha and Virtual Design Festival team up to stream talks from around the world

Today's VDF collaboration with PechaKucha features this live stream of talks by global creatives plus a live interview with PechaKucha founders Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham Architecture.

The live stream features contributions from a host of creatives speaking live from Wuhan, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Orlando and Tokyo.

They include designer Yves Behar, former Autodesk CEO Carl Bass, and Mark Dytham, co-founder of www.pechakucha.com and Tokyo firm Klein Dytham Architecture.

Also featured are visual artist Shantell Martin, branding expert Matt Beispiel, environmental researcher Azby Brown, life and performance coach Eddie Selover, architect Peter Exley, and former PechaKucha intern Danna Wang, who is currently in Wuhan, China, having been quarantined in the coronavirus-stricken city after visiting family for Chinese New Year.

Deriving its name from the Japanese term for 'chit chat', PechaKucha is a presentation format devised and popularised by Dytham and Klein, and consists of a series of presentations where each participant shows 20 images and is given 20 seconds to speak about each.

The concept was originally created to prevent guest speakers from speaking for too long at architecture events.

The broadcast is part of PechaKucha's Inspire The World series of webcasts, which will gather speakers from around the world to deliver presentations demonstrating creativity and ingenuity during the coronavirus pandemic.

PechaKucha's creators Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham will also be appearing in a live interview with Dezeen's founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs at 2:00pm UK time as part of our new Screentime series, in which we stream live and as-live video discussions with designers, architects and creatives around the world as part of Virtual Design Festival.

Virtual Design Festival is the world's first online design festival, taking place from 15 April to 30 June. The festival launched yesterday with a film comprised of messages from designers around the world, as well as a live interview with trend forecaster Li Edelkoort. For more information, or to be added to the mailing list, contact us at [email protected].