Having been agency-side of the PR game for the last 14 years, I have seen - and participated in - my fair share of PowerPoint presentations. I've sat in endless meetings, debating the best order for slide decks, rehearsed pitch presentations, searched ClipArt folders for the perfect image and agonised over the most impactful slide build.

But last night, something revelatory happened. I witnessed for the first time a new and exciting way to pitch ideas and concepts: Pecha Kucha. Never heard of it? Me neither, so here's a quick summary (courtesy of Wikipedia):

Pecha Kucha (Japanese: ペチャクチャ, IPA: [petɕa ku͍̥tɕa],[1] chit-chat) is a presentation methodology in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each, usually seen in a multiple-speaker event called a Pecha Kucha Night (PKN). The presenter has no control of his/her presentation, and the slides automatically change every 20 seconds, typically resulting in an exciting, fast-paced and highly engaging event.

At last night's launch of Cisco's British Innovation Gateway Awards 2012 (more on that in a later blog post), a number of Britain's up and coming entrepreneurs were invited to Ravensbourne College to present - Pecha Kucha style - to members of the tech, creative and start-up community. The presentations ranged from an email solution that allows you to 'switch off' email from selected senders, to a storytelling platform where the direction of the story changes depending on the viewer's anxiety levels.

The presenters did an amazing job - gone were the usual agenda slides, company credentials and lame animations. The Pecha Kucha approach meant that each pitch was creatively delivered, replacing written content with lots of interesting imagery to help convey key points. The result was fun, engaging and really gave you a sense of the company's personality. The whole room was mesmerised - not just by the cool concepts and ideas, but by the ability of these start-ups to present such a compelling case for their businesses.

So the challenge now is to take what we learnt at Ravensbourne and apply it to our own presentations - I'll admit, it's a bit of a scary concept (that 30 slide PowerPoint acts as a bit of a comfort blanket as you head into a pitch) but I think we're brave enough to make the leap. So I'll just apologise now if in the coming weeks you can't get hold of me, or I'm a little slow at getting back to you - it's because I'll be at Ravensbourne, learning the art of Pecha Kucha from the best of Britain's future tech talent. Fancy joining me?

Laura