World Cafe

Brief Description:

The World Cafe is a method which makes use of an informal cafe for participants to explore an issue by discussing in small table groups. Discussion is held in multiple rounds of 20-30 minutes. The event is concluded with a plenary.
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Description:

The World Cafe is a creative process set in a cafe setting. The event either takes place in a actual cafe or else the room is set up to resemble one as much as possible: participants are seated around small tables with tablecloths and tea, coffee and other beverages. The cafe ambiance allows for a more relaxed and open conversation to take place. Often participants are provided with pens and are encouraged to draw and record their conversations on the paper tablecloths to capture free flowing ideas as they emerge.
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Participants discuss the issue at hand around their table and at regular intervals they move to a new table. One participant (the table host) remains and summarises the previous conversation to the newly arrived participants. By moving participants around the room the conversations at each table are cross-fertilised with ideas from other tables. At the end of the process the main ideas are summarised in a plenary session and follow-up possibilities are discussed.
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The choice of question(s) for the cafe conversation is crucial for the success of your event. In general it is useful to phrase the questions in a positive format and in an open ended format to allow a constructive discussion. If participants do not find the questions for discussion inspiring the event is unlikely to be successful, it can therefore be good to develop the question together with some of the intended participants.
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Used For:

The World Cafe has been used in many different settings. It is good at generating ideas, sharing knowledge, stimulate innovative thinking, and exploring action in real life situations. The informal an deep conversations that the World Cafe encourages can lead to improved relationships between participants and between wider groups.
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Suitable participants:

The World Cafe has been used by a wide spectrum of participants, ranging from community members to global business executives. The flexibility does not mean that it is not important to think carefully about whom should be invited. The method has been used with groups from 12 to 1200 participants.
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Cost:

The cost of a World Cafe event varies widely. If the venue is an existing cafe and the process only involves a few dozen participants the cost can be very modest. For large events involving hundreds of participants and a special venue costs can quickly reach thousands of pounds. As the World Cafe does not require a large number of trained facilitators it can be a cheap way of running creative meetings.
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Time Requirements:

A World Cafe does not have to difficult to organise. The time required to organise the event depends on how easy it is to recruit the participants and how complicated the logistics are.
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You should allow at least three or four hours for a World Cafe event. If you have an ambitious topic you may want to have a series of events.
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When To Use / What It Can Deliver:

You should use a World Cafe when:

• you need to engage large groups in an authentic dialogue process
• you want to generate input, share knowledge, and stimulate innovative thinking
• you want to explore action possibilities around real life issues and questions
• you want to conduct in-depth exploration of key strategic challenges or opportunities

The World Cafe process can deliver new thinking, meaningful conversations, an inclusive and relaxed atmosphere and deeper relationships and mutual ownership of outcomes in an existing group
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The process can give a group a sense of their own intelligence and insight that is larger than the sum of the parts.
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When Not To Use / What It Cannot Deliver:

You should not use a World Cafe when:

• you have a predetermined solution or answer you want to reach
• you want inform your participants rather than have a two way conversation
• you are looking for very detailed and focused discussions about a particular plan

The World Cafe process cannot deliver clear and accountable direct decisions, detailed plans or a statistical view of different opinions.
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Strengths:

• Creative process for developing new ideas
• Informal and inclusive
• Has the potential to be cheap and easy to organise

Weaknesses:

• Requires a clear and relevant question
• Cannot be used to make direct decisions

Origin:

Organisational Change
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Although the knowledge that the informality of a cafe is a good setting for meaningful conversation is several centuries old, the World Cafe methodology was written by Juanita Brown and David Isaacs in 1995.
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Case Studies:

• Public NanoCafe series (CaseStudies)

Related Methods

• 21st Century Town Meeting
• Appreciative Inquiry
• Area Forums
• Citizens' Summits
• Consensus Conference
• Conversation Cafes
• Deliberative Workshops
• Focus Groups
• Future Search
• Open Space
• User Panels

Restrictions In Use

Further Information

Brown, Juanita and David Isaacs. (2002) The World Caf�: Shaping Our Futures through
Conversations that Matter (Mill Valley CA:Whole Systems Associates.)

http://www.theworldcafe.com

Popular Methods

21st Century Town Meeting

Citizens Jury

Deliberative Polling

Open Space

Participatory Appraisal

Participatory Budgeting

Webcasting