This edition of PKN marks the 10th Anniversary of Creative Dundee! 

Pecha Kucha Night Dundee Vol 20 happened on Monday 26 February 2018 for the first time ever on the main stage of the Dundee Rep Theatre! In the cultural heart of the city since 1982, the home of Dundee Rep and the Scottish Dance Theatre has been a consistent source or incredible performances, entertainment, and education – we couldn’t be happier to partner with them on our 10th year of existence and 20th Pecha Kucha Night!

The Rep’s restaurant will be open for a pre-Pecha Kucha supper, so you can catch up with friends before the event starts!

Pecha Kucha Nights run in over 1,000 cities around the world, they’re a quick-fire way of hearing from people across the city and beyond, and tickets generally go fast… At Pecha Kucha Night Dundee we have around 12 diverse individuals who speak about whatever they like, and it’s a speedy format – presenters have 20 images and 20 secs per image – so just under 7 mins, which means you hear a lot of interesting, thought-provoking and inspiring stuff with an audience 300+ people it’s a great night out.

Our regular ‘spread the word’ feature on the night gives anyone the chance to grab the mic and shout out the events and opportunities they have coming up.

A huge thanks to Lyall Bruce, who was also responsible for the art on the first few Pecha Kuchas, for the incredible PKN artwork. Check out his website for more.

And as we celebrate Creative Dundee’s Anniversary, tweet/instagram/facebook us your favourite Pecha Kucha moment using the hashtag #PKN_DND.

Speakers Include:

Beth Bate is Director of Dundee Contemporary Arts where she oversees the artistic and strategic vision for the organisation. With large-scale gallery spaces, cinemas, a print studio, learning programme, shop and cafe bar, DCA attracts over 380,000 visits year. Originally from Wales, Beth is also a Trustee of Edinburgh Art Festival and of West Ward Works, a member of the Scotland Advisory Committee for the British Council and was a Clore Leadership Programme Fellow in 2014/15. @beth_bate 

Yann Seznec is an artist and musician whose work focuses on sound, music, physical interaction, games, and building new instruments. Recent works include projects at Fak’ugesi and A MAZE Johannesburg, Sanctuary Festival, Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the Floating Cinema in London, Playable City Lagos, and Timespan. Much of his work involves building custom instruments such as musical pigsties, slinky instruments, candle-based sound installations, electromechanical mushroom spore reactors, and more. He is a lecturer at Abertay University. @yannseznec

Kirsty Thomas is the founder and creative director of Tom Pigeon, a design studio based on the East Coast of Fife. Working across disciplines and materials Tom Pigeon create jewellery, prints, homewares, paintings, collage and sculptural installations and have been lucky enough to work with spaces like Tate Modern, V&A, and The Barbican and publications like Elle Decoration, Vogue and Wallpaper. When not building the Tom Pigeon empire, Kirsty likes flea markets, peanut butter sandwiches, kayaking and escaping to the big city. @tompigeon

Mike Stirling moved to Dundee to become Celebrity Editor on Shout Magazine in 1997, before progressing to become Deputy Editor of the UK’s best-selling teen title. He’s continued to love working in his adopted city all his adult life. Since July 2016, as Editorial Director of Beano Studios, Mike has undertaken a creative and commercial role across publishing, digital and consumer divisions, heading up all things Beano in Scotland. Mike also worked on the BAFTA nominated international TV series, Dennis & Gnasher and was most recently Creative Consultant on the smash-hit CBBC Show Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed. @MikeyStirling

Doctor Bharti MBE, PhD is a multi-award winning podiatrist aka Sole Queen for the bonnie city of Dundee and beyond. Born to Indian ancestry in Kenya, her journey to becoming a foot doctor was always meant to be as when her mum was expecting her she was tending to a close relative’s gangrene afflicted foot due to diabetes related complications. In the universe’s most wondrous ways, when she was a teenager, a viral verruca on her own foot ventured her into the world of foot care and now alongside her expert team at her flagship clinic Sole Body Soul in Dundee, she is passionate about reinventing the way in which patients experience treatments related to foot problems. When you meet Doctor B you will be drawn to her amazing smile, positivity and passion for all things life and feet. She firmly holds the belief that as humans we hold the power to our health and well being in our own two feet! When she’s not helping people achieve happiness with every step, Doctor B can be found enjoying the wonders of nature through travel or in her kitchen, working on yet another spice fuelled recipe.  @solebodysoul

Gaz Robinson is a game developer and lecturer living in Dundee and a Director of Biome Collective: a co-working space for people to collaborate and make games & digital art. He’s fond of building good things for art, bad things for fun and produces “excellent” #content on Twitter at @ViewtifulGaz

Suzanne Scott is a Dundee based artist working under the name WhimSicAL LusH. As well as creating a wide range of stationary, homeware, wearable art and original illustrations Suzanne’s artwork installations, big and small, have been commissioned privately and by businesses, including BrewDog and Bird & Bear. Suzanne loves to collaborate and work with others to help them tell their stories, so producing illustrations for people’s books, teas, beers, gin, events and more, have taken her on many an inky adventure. Other adventures have seen her painting a door for Dundee’s Open Close project, a huge elephant for Hamilton’s Big Stampede and paper sculptures for ARCHIE Foundation’s Storybook Ball in Aberdeen. She has secured prominence as a public artist designing bronze plaques for Dundee City’s Discovery Walk, making her permanent mark on the city. Suzanne was also an artist and art co-ordinator for the popular Oor Wullie’s Bucket Trail and is currently part of the Maggie’s Penguin Parade team. @WhimSicALLusH

Adam StJohn Lawrence is the Co-Founder of WorkPlayExperience, a company which helps organizations worldwide change how their staff, partners, and customers work together to discover and create value. In 2010, Adam co-initiated the award-winning Global Service Jam – which was soon followed by the Global Sustainability Jam and the Global GovJam – and he has been a leading figure in establishing the global community of practice and sharing around the Jams. Adam lives in Southern Germany, enjoys nature and medieval re-creation, and rides a classic Japanese motorcycle. @adamstjohn 

Lynn Parker is a lecturer in animation and interactive media at Abertay University who, when not teaching, makes strange interactive work that tries to make the world more playful and often makes people feel a bit socially uncomfortable. As part of Abertay Game Lab, she is channeling these playful interventions into academic research and is currently in the final stages of writing up a PhD thesis about bringing people together through play. When she’s not teaching, making game controllers out of tinfoil and kids toys, scribbling with chalk around Dundee or out and about with her Beagle, Snoopy, you can find her random thoughts and adventures on twitter. @toadrick

Connor Finlayson is in the final few months of studying interaction design at Duncan of Jordanstone, busying away towards the degree show with the goal of improving the world. In addition to being a tea-loving Dundonian idealist, Connor is an Ambassador for the Holocaust Educational Trust and has worked with survivors and educators in London, Jerusalem and Washington D.C. to learn about our past and help make sure we learn from it. He talks about how visiting Auschwitz at 17, coming of age in the city of design and working in Ninewells Hospital has made a designer dedicated to making life better for everyone. @thoughtbottler

Dr Jennifer M. Jones is an educator and digital media practitioner with a passion for research, education and advocacy, promoting and supporting alternative and community media for a change. She works with art, educational and community groups across the UK to develop media and digital literacies using media activism, event-based media and participatory approaches to developing media and digital literacies. She is regularly invited to speak at events about the practice of citizen journalism and community engagement, as well as running practical training sessions in digital storytelling. On boxing day 2017, she lost her Spanish rescue dog for 8 days and had to put all this digital media stuff into practice. @jennifermjones

JD Henshaw is the Artistic Director of Sweet Venues and Sweet Productions, creating and producing shows and venues across the UK. Having graduated from the University of Dundee a couple of times, he realised that this was the place for him and is endlessly happy that Dundee loved him back. With Sweet, JD looks to support artists and work in established venues, pop-up spaces, as parts of festivals or as stand-alone projects. He’s also gotten into a habit of starting festivals when it feels that something’s missing – this is a very odd addiction to have. Outside of production work, JD has an endless love of horror fiction in all forms, comic books, and large transforming robots. He’s really quite lucky that folk put up with his nonsense.” @mrladeda

Emma Jones is Head of Production at Scottish Dance Theatre, a role which takes her all over the world. She also works as a lighting designer, her last three projects have taken her to Havana to work with the Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, to Derby Theatre for Peter Pan and Edinburgh for The Lover for a co-production between Scottish Dance Theatre, Stellar Quines and The Royal Lyceum. Emma has lived in Dundee for 15 years. @SidelitezJones

Amanda Lowson’s colleagues describe her as “the bees knees” due to her endless enthusiasm and positivity. She is a facilitator, a partner, a mother, a grandmother and a lover of life. As Dundee Rep’s Community, Health and wellbeing associate, Amanda works with a diverse range of people to develop confidence and discover their voice through the creative process. @DundeeRep

Richard Cook of spex pistols, Dundee is a master lens maker who has been designing and making lenses for over 30 years, since he left school with no qualifications and got a job washing lenses in a bucket. He has previously been a male stripper, a stand up comedian and a pea buster salesman. He has been the undisputed World Outdoor Fried Egg Champion since 1984 and would welcome any challenges to his crown. 6 years ago, when he opened his shop and was down on his luck, Pecha Kucha saved his life. On that night, where he made so many new friends for life, he met the love of his life Sooz, and they now have Sadie, the first Pecha Kucha baby. He has also lost 4 stones in weight and re learned to swim after a near death experience in the River Tay. His best ‘invention’ to date has been the Self Reflector, a mirror which takes your photo, prints it out of an old till and plays you your favourite song from when you were 14 out of and old radio amplifier. His favourite project of the last few years is The World’s Smallest Street Market, an idea collaboration with Jennie Patterson which is even more fun than it sounds. @spexpistols