World Cafés are very effective with large numbers of participants – at conferences, staff planning days, and large stakeholder consultations. We've facilitated World Cafés with up to 250 participants (and been involved in a World Café of over 700 people).
World Cafés are also effective for small meetings with as few as 12-16 people – like strategic retreats and planning meetings
World Cafés are used around the world for groups to share their thinking and ideas. They provide a hospitable environment for genuine conversations and constructive problem solving. Participants engage in conversation around questions that really matter to them. New ideas are generated, common issues are identified, and patterns begin to emerge and coalesce – all with a high degree of ownership by the group.
Jenni Dunn has worked in the USA with Juanita Brown and David Isaacs (co-founders of the World Café methodology) and has been facilitating World Cafés for the past eight years. She is an active member of the international World Café community and served as the World Café Steward for Australia and New Zealand from 2006 to 2008.
For more information on World Cafés, visit the World Café website.
more how we do it
World Cafés are built around the metaphor of cafés with their relaxed conversation. The methodology is under-pinned by the following design principles...
- set the context
- create a hospitable space
- explore questions that matter
- encourage everyone's contributions
- connect diverse perspectives
- listen together for insights
- share collective discoveries
The convergence is where the group shares its responses to the question. While there are many ways to capture the convergence, we generally use graphic recording.
