The Gurteen Knowledge Café

Practicing a Knowledge Cafe

In this workshop, you will learn a little about the Knowledge Café method and get to experience one.

A knowledge cafe gathers 12 to 24 people together to have a conversation.

It typically consists of a short presentation on a topic of importance to the participants followed by three rounds of conversation in groups of three or four, prompted by a question.

Each round of conversation lasts 10-15 minutes.

The group size, topic focus and time limit mean conversations flourish and monologues perish.

All the participants then sit in a circle for a whole group conversation for about 20 minutes.

The session is concluded with each person in the circle taking 1 minute to pledge a single action that they will undertake as a result of their conversations.

Although the Knowledge Cafe can be put to a variety of purposes depending on the topic and the question, its fundamental strength is to bring the participants together to learn from each other; to strengthen their relationships, make connections, glean insights and surface ideas and opportunities and encourage new ways of thinking.