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The Insider: How do you pronounce pecha kucha?

by Peter Kageyama

During October’s Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit, attendees will hear from some of the world’s leading experts in the creative economy, entrepreneurship, placemaking and technology. There will be keynote presentations, panels and breakout sessions on a wide range of topics and this year, there will be a new addition to the conference.

For the first time Innovation Philadelphia will feature two pecha kucha sessions as part of the program. Pronounced “pa-chok-cha”, the presentation format was devised by architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham in 2003 in Japan. They were trying to create a forum for architects and designers to present their work to each other and they recognized that these folks could go on for hours (death by PowerPoint) if left unchecked! Their solution, limit each speaker to 20 slides each on screen for 20 seconds, advancing automatically, for a grand total of 6 minutes 40 seconds. The result was pecha kucha, which is the Japanese phrase for the sound of people talking.

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Spotlight: Erika Mijlin

Innovation Philadelphia spotlights regional creative industry entrepreneurs, young professionals making an impact on the Philadelphia region, or innovative initiatives that showcase the tremendous innovative and creative talent driving Philadelphia’s economy.

Erika Mijlin is a producer, editor, writer, and founding partner of the media production company Artifact Pictures. Some recent professional credits include: The View From Amber Street (Co-Producer/Writer); Virtual Memory (Writer); The Adventures of Teddy P. Brains (Co-Producer/Animation Producer); From Philadelphia to the Front (Associate Producer/Cinematography); and Viewfinder (Co-Producer/Editor). In addition, she has produced many of her own short films and videos, which have shown at a variety of film festivals and cultural venues.

In 2008, she wrote and directed Feldman and the Infinite, an original play which was staged for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and produced an accompanying performance DVD. Mijlin has received numerous production grants, including an Art and Social Change grant from the Leeway Foundation, and her company, Artifact Pictures, has recently been recognized as an Athena PowerLink company by the National Association of Women Business Owners. She has taught editing, documentary production, and media studies at the Film and Media Arts Department of Temple University, and the Television Department of Columbia College. She is currently in production on several short documentaries, and is writing a new play. Erika received her BA from Vassar College and her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

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Creative Economy 201: The View from Amber Street

The next three issues of Innovation Matters will be dedicated to featuring Summit panels, workshops, and pecha kucha sessions. Erika Mijlin, a panelist on The View from Amber Street in the Creative Economy 201 track, highlights the panel’s content and her experience as a filmmaker working to balance the relationship between community, industry, and the creative economy.

The View From Amber Street is a documentary film about a pair of old industrial buildings in the Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia. The film documents the two buildings’ ongoing evolution from the centers of textile manufacturing into landmarks of the creative economy, and a home for both art and industry.

Julie Goldstein and I produced The View From Amber Street through our media production company, Artifact Pictures, which produces a range of projects, from documentary to animation. We quickly saw the potential to invest in creating a diverse community at the Amber Street buildings and Artifact Pictures has been housed in there since 2002.

In 2005, we began collecting interviews and researching the history of the building. We discovered that many of our neighbors, who were designers, manufacturers, artists and business owners, all had a similar appreciation of the unique building we shared, and had similar concerns about its tenuous future.

The film began to take shape, telling the story of our building as part of the pattern of urban gentrification. When manufacturing and industry leaves, it is gradually replaced by cheap space for artists, who then elevate interest in the neighborhood to a point at which they are priced out and replaced by more upscale residential tenants. At the time, it seemed that the Amber Street buildings were going to buck the trend and find a way to accommodate both art and industry simultaneously.

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Creative Jobs. Creative Freelance. One Site.

Finding the perfect position isn't as hard as you think. Refine your search by using local niche job boards to find what is right for your career. Recent job and freelance opportunities on PhillyCreativeJobs.com are below.

Software Engineer
New Hope, PA

FCP Engineer Allied Pixel
Media, PA

Senior Account Executive D.i.D
Fort Washington, PA

Wachovia, Center City District and Beam Global Spirits & Wine will present the 16th annual Phashion Phest at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel on Wednesday, September 23rd beginning at 6PM. Phashion Phest is open to the public. Tickets are $50 in advance, $60 at the door, and $25 for students under 21 with valid ID. For invitations, tickets, and general information, call (215) 670-4323 or visit www.phashionphest.com.

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