What's going on around the globe From the country that gave us karaoke, the Walkman and the pot noodle comes the next cultural phenomenon to trounce the planet - well, the cooler, urban middle-class parts of it anyway - Pecha Kucha. If that sounds like the noise old people make when eating sticky rice, you're in the right part of the anatomy. Roughly translating as 'chit-chat', Pecha Kucha celebrates the magnificent human facility for talking. The formula is simple: creative types stand on a stage in front of a paying audience with nothing but a microphone and some slides, and discuss their ideas. The catch is that they have just six minutes and 40 seconds to do it: that's 20 slides at 20 seconds each. For the unpracticed, the tongue-tied or the long-winded, this can be a tall order and part of the cruel fun is watching cool, successful people lose it. But when it works, a Pecha Kucha night is the best gig in town: funny, enlightening and almost completely drug-free. Launched three years ago in the trendy Roppongi bar SuperDeluxe, Pecha Kucha is the brainchild of Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein of Klein Dytham Architecture, who say they wanted a 'casual place' where designers and artists could show their work. The formula has since spread to Berlin, San Francisco, Shanghai and several other cities. London will host the world's biggest Pecha Kucha event yet today as part of the city's 2006 Architecture Biennale. The average Pecha Kucha night can be thrillingly hit and miss. In the hit section, British designer Crispin Jones entertained Tokyo with his 'social commentary watches', which suggested some possible 'evolutionary paths' for the time-piece. Instead of telling you when dinner is ready, Jones' watches flash existential messages that remind us of our insignificance in the universe ('Remember You Will Die'). One design ('The Honest Watch') has sensors attached to the wrist and flashes 'lies' when the wearer tells a lie. Some of the entries can be soporific: one London designer recently built a presentation around 'furniture that makes me nervous' and a Tokyo otaku who brought along his joystick collection should probably have stayed in his bedroom. One presentation ended abruptly last year when the designer fainted from nerves. But those are irrelevant asides into what is becoming one of the most influential cultural forums for new ideas in Tokyo and London, as evidenced by the number of hip journalists and artists who now crowd these events. British designers Sebastian Conran and Thomas Heatherwick recently dropped by the Tokyo shindig and Habitat guru Tom Dixon is expected to attend the London event. This is a cultural rocket set for lift-off. Stadium Pecha Kucha cannot be too far off. Pecha Kucha Tokyo night takes place next on Wednesday at the SuperDeluxe in Roppongi: www.super-deluxe.com