Public Café Procedure

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This page describes the roles, procedure and the approximate timing of a typical public Knowledge Café.

Every Café is different, and the table below is for guidance only.

There are usually four roles.

  1. The sponsor is the person who provides the venue and refreshments and is typically the driving force behind the Café.
  2. The host is usually myself, David Gurteen. I facilitate the Café process.
  3. The speaker is the person who gives the Café talk and poses the question that triggers the Café conversations. They also take part in the conversations.
  4. The participants are the people who take part in the Café conversation.

The Café itself takes 2 hours but once time is allowed for networking before and after the event – 3 hours needs to be allowed.

17:30 – 18:00 The sponsor, host, and speaker arrive. Any changes to the room setup that are necessary are made and the details of the evening are talked through.
18:00 – 18:30 The participants arrive, network and enjoy the refreshments.
18:30 – 18:35 The sponsor welcomes people and says a little about the sponsor organization and anything else that they are best suited to say about the evening.
18:35 – 18:45 The host welcomes people and runs three rounds of “speed conversation”.
18:45 – 18:55 The host briefly explains the Café process and introduces the speaker.
18:55 – 19:15 The speaker gives their talk and poses the “trigger question”. The talk is preferable without slides, but one or two slides are fine.
19:15 – 20:00 The host facilitates the Café process. Three rounds of small group conversation. (10 – 15 mins per round).

The sponsor and the speaker join in the small group conversations.

The host does not join the conversations but wanders from group to group, listening in and facilitating the change of tables at the end of each round.
20:00 – 20:30 The host brings the small group conversations to a close and asks everyone to form a circle with their chairs.

The sponsor and speaker also join the circle. The speaker is an equal member of the circle like anyone else but is expected to engage just a little bit more than others and to answer questions if asked.

The host is responsible for facilitating the whole group conversation as far as is necessary and keeping to time.

If there is sufficient time (and there rarely is), the host goes around the circle and asks each person in turn to share one actionable insight (an idea they have gleaned that will influence their decision making or one thing that they plan to do differently) that has come about as a result of their conversations.

Finally, the host closes the Café and thanks the sponsor, speaker and the participants for the evening. The sponsor usually adds their words of thanks.
20:30 – 21:00 Depending on the availability the room and the degree of engagement of the participants, the Café may run on to as late as 20:45 and even when the formal Café conversations are over, some people linger in private conversations until asked to leave. Usually, everyone has left by 21:00