This is a great exercise in discipline, and must be very effective if done well.

I suggest people deliver thoughts rather than a script. If you know that 20 secs means around 60 words, and that you can express a thought in 20 words, then three thoughts per slide should fit.

It certainly would help keep things concise – rather like a poet “constrained” by metre actually expresses themselves better as a result.

If you are reading, then read from an autocue; that can work. Otherwise, if you learn the ideas, and their order, the words should come naturally.

Think Short Thoughts is my advice!

But the Pecha Kucha format is incredibly constraining. It requires a huge amount of work just to put together. I’m not happy saying it, but having observed people struggling, in this situation reading from a script may be the best option.
Olivia

You’ve zeroed in on the point that I haven’t developed very well . The reason is I’m in two minds on this. You can see Pecha Kucha as twenty 20-second presentations strung together. If you had 20 seconds to make your point – you would script it to make sure you were able to make your point in the best possible way in that time. On the other hand, if you script it, you tend to read your script (and a number of presenters did that at the Pecha Kucha night I attended). Not many people are good at reading a script in an engaging way.

I think it also depends so much on your personal style. If I was doing it, I would prepare a rough script but then reduce that to notes. I know that I can stay succinct and I have a pretty good short term memory. But it were my husband Tony – well he’s a great speaker and has the gift of the gab (gets inspiration while he’s on his feet) – but that would get him into trouble with this format – I’d suggest to him that he stick pretty closely to a script.

Final answer – it depends!

Olivia