AsiaLIFE

A biweekly event held in Phnom Penh—and now also in Siem Reap—provides volunteer speakers with a stage, a microphone and six minutes and 40 seconds to share a topic of their choice. Mai Lynn Miller Nguyen finds out what it means to be part of the Nerdgentsia.

This era is starting to feel a bit like that 1984 film “Revenge of the Nerds.” As Silicon Valley success stories like Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg can attest, it’s become very cool—and lucrative—to be geeky.

Even Phnom Penh has embraced nerdishness. Every two weeks, Nerd Night, a celebration of specified knowledge, is hosted in the capital. Five speakers take part in each event’s line-up, offering up a potpourri of information and entertainment.

“It’s sort of like the modern opera,” explains Yi Wei, one of the organisers. “It’s a social thing, you want to hear your colleagues and peers on stage, you want to hear a good story. You see people you know but sides of them you don’t know.”

There’s no rehearsal or curation, but there is one rule. Speakers must follow a format of 20 PowerPoint slides, shown for 20 seconds each, a methodology created in Tokyo for the long running PechaKucha (Japanese for “chit-chat”) Nights.

Since launching in Cambodia this year, Nerd Night has included topics such as moustaches, quantum physics, housing rights and the power of embarrassment, as well as interactive sessions like collective songwriting and live drawing. If you don’t arrive early, it’s tough to snag a place to sit.

“It’s kind of the only thing to do on Monday night, yeah?” jokes Roswell Thomas, another organiser, to explain Nerd Night’s appeal. “Hey, we’re better than that!” interjects Wei.

That seems to be the general consensus, as around 200 people attend each event. Drink specials and music from DJs Warren Daly and Alex Leonard are also part of the lure for the crowd. Organisers refer to the increasing numbers of regulars as the “Nerdgentsia”, one of several clever wordplays they’ve adopted.

“We’re expanding on the word ‘nerd’,” says Mike Hahn, the event’s founder and “Traffic Controller” in charge of general management and technology. “It’s not necessarily someone geeking out over something, but it’s an opportunity to show your uniqueness, what drives you or just something you’re interested in.”

The idea to launch Nerd Night in Phnom Penh arose on a tuk-tuk ride, a common starting point for bright ideas in this city. Hahn, who like Thomas (“Zuckerberg Fellow,” responsible for social media and publicity) and Wei (“Head Huntress,” overseeing speaker coordination and relations) is a twenty-something American, was reminded of a Nerd Night event he’d attended in college. He mentioned it to his fellow passengers, who immediately latched on to the idea.

“I remembered how great it was hearing other people’s stories, very quickly, very fast, and how well people responded to it,” says Hahn.

One week later, Nerd Night launched in Phnom Penh. The first event, held at the end of January, took place at Equinox, but Nerd Night functions as a travelling show. Past hosting venues have included Lotus Blanc, Score, Mao’s and, most recently, Pontoon.

“The venue shapes the atmosphere, we try to get a good sampling of environments for people to enjoy,” says Wei. “I think it’s part of the mission of getting people to sample different ideas and experiences, whether that’s from speakers or being in a place.”

As what was originally envisioned on a small scale has turned into one of Phnom Penh’s most popular ongoing affairs, finding a location big enough to host all the town’s Nerds and provide for its audiovisual rider is proving more of a challenge. The enthusiasm for Nerd Night has risen beyond the expectations of the organisers, who no longer panic about coordinating speakers and filling up the venue for each session.

Although the expat community has made up most of the speakers and audience members, the organisers are trying to draw in more of the local population. In May, an all-Khmer Nerd Night took place at Meta House, and the organisers aim to include at least one Cambodian speaker at each event.

Nerdmania is growing, as an event inspired by the Phnom Penh edition initiated in Siem Reap last month, organised by Jen Enrique, Stephanie Boegeman and Chris Lewis. To be held once a month, the premier Nerd Nite—note the difference in spelling from Phnom Penh’s version—drew around 60 attendees.

Explaining the event’s immediate popularity, Boegeman says, “I think it speaks both to the nature of a small community—word travels fast—and is also symptomatic of a thirst here for mentally stimulating events which don’t revolve around work.”

Both in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, Nerd Night is providing a forum to spread ideas and build connections. Thomas says, “It’s nice to have a crowded social thing that is about talking. It’s so easy for big parties to devolve into everyone screaming over some loud music and eventually you stop hearing people at all.”

Embrace your nerdy side. All the cool kids are doing it.

Interested in speaking? For Nerd Night Phnom Penh, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . For Nerd Nite Siem Reap, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .