From Sunday’s column:

PechaKucha Night Southwest Virginia founder David Verde sent me a message that the events scheduled for this year “are being postponed until future notice.”

In a “pechakucha” event —- a name from the Japanese word for “sound of chit-chat” — speakers give a PowerPoint presentation on any topic, though the presentation must conform to a rigid format. You may use only 20 slides, and you may spend only 20 seconds speaking about each slide.

Verde’s events were officially endorsed by pecha-kucha.com with an agreement that he would hold four sessions. Three were held in Roanoke, and one in Blacksburg in August (at which I gave a presentation).

Verde wrote that the 2012 events only broke even, leaving no funds to continue with in 2013. Expenses have had to come out of his own pocket if sponsors, donations and ticket sales proved not to be enough. “I lucked out last year that I didn’t have to be responsible for paying any large out-of-pocket costs.”

At present, he hopes to hold one event in Roanoke and one in the New River Valley each year, but he’s not scheduling them until he “finds a reliable way to make each event financially independent.”

Verde also writes and shoots photographs for The Roanoke Times Style Street blog.