ESG News South Africa

Support Pecha Kucha night for Haiti

The Johannesburg Pecha Kucha Night, part of a movement started in 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham, takes place on Saturday 20 February 2010 at 8:20pm. By participating, creative people in Johannesburg will help raise US$1 million to be used by Architecture for Humanity to rebuild homes, schools, public buildings and other built environments in earthquake-devastated Haiti.

This year's event, however, will mark the first time that all cities have held their nights on the same date.

"It will also be the first time all the cities will be linked in order of time zone and in terms of theme in order to create a continuous, single-purpose Pecha Kucha night wrapping itself around the world," says Brendan Wade, MD of Studio 4332. It initiated the event in Johannesburg in May 2009 and still hosts the quarterly event, in which 20 designs are presented, each in only 20 seconds. Each presentation therefore lasts exactly 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

"With 200 cities participating, we're expecting 2000 creative presentations to be made and some 200 000 creative people to be involved in a 24-hour live relay, with each city live for about seven minutes - enough to give one presentation," Wade says.

"That's an enormous amount of innovation focused very tightly on a single outcome - and an extraordinary opportunity for Johannesburg creative talent to not only be directly involved but show how creativity is not a luxury but absolutely essential to solving the most basic survival issues confronting humanity.

For more information about Johannesburg's participation, go to www.pecha-kucha.org/night/johannesburg/.

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