It was dubbed the world's first Pecha Kucha meet the mayoral candidates event and the unusual event provided a few things often missing from election campaigns - fun, laughter, plenty of personality, a bit of heckling and Renaissance paintings.
The Pecha Kucha evening, at Forum North on Wednesday, saw 11of the 12 Whangarei mayoral candidates show their "vision for Whangarei" in the traditional Pecha Kucha fashion. They showed 20 slides they selected, with 20 seconds to talk about each slide.
All 12 Whangarei mayoral candidates - Stuart Bell, Glenn Chapman, Crichton Christie, Vince Cocurullo, Shelley Deeming, Sheryl Mai, Greg Martin, Isopo Samu, Stan Semenoff, Warren Slater, Warwick Syers and Graham (Ash) Tadman - were invited to the Forum North event, with only Mr Martin declining because of family commitments.
Organiser Matt Keene said it was a format that appeals to many who are not "traditional voters" and gave the chance to see candidates perform in an arena that may be well outside their comfort zones.
And at the end of the evening a straw poll was conducted of the roughly 350 voters who attended and of the 286 who voted, the unscientific poll saw Ms Mai pull in 125 votes, followed by Mr Tadman with 49, Isopo Samu 33, Warren Slater 27, Shelley Deeming 20, Crichton Christie 12, Stuart Bell 9, Stan Semenoff 6, Warwick Syers 3 and Glenn Chapman and Vince Cocurullo with one each.
It was Mr Tadman's flamboyance, humour and series of slides showing his favourite Renaissance paintings that raised the most laughs and cheers on the night as he veered from the beauty of the dresses worn in the paintings to the fact that several of the kings - and one queen - depicted lost their heads.
The event also had NZ sign language experts translating the candidates' words for the district's deaf community. The event was filmed by Channel North and can be viewed at www.tvnorth.co.nz/channelnorth.
