What is a Pecha Kucha?

We were recently introduced to the idea of a Pecha Kucha in NMD 100. Previously, I had no idea what they were or what they were supposed to be. At first they felt like glorified PowerPoint presentations, but I eventually realized that they were designed to start a conversation. If you have never heard of this style of presentation before, I would recommend taking a look at some of the ones listed on http://www.pechakucha.org/.