Knowledge Cafés and Communities of Practice There is a difference

What is the difference between a Knowledge Café and a Community of Practice (CoP)?

Etienne Wenger defines a Community of Practice as a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.

A Knowledge Café, on the other hand, is a highly flexible, face-to-face conversational process that can be used in many different situations to bring a group together for an open conversation with a particular purpose.

A Café can be run as a one-off event, for example, to explore the impact of a new technology or as a regular series of events, for instance, a series of talks/cafes on a specific theme or a variety of different issues.

A Café or a series of Cafés does not constitute a CoP. And although a series of Cafés for people with a common interest may appear very CoP-like, in reality, a CoP will adopt many different ways of interacting rather than just the Café format. e.g., less-structured conversations, open-space technology sessions, and online discussion forums.

In summary, the Knowledge Café is a powerful conversational tool that a CoP can use, but it is not the same as a CoP.