You should choose the venue for a Knowledge Café with care.
Often, you do not have a choice of venue, but if you do, the following should be considered.
If the Café is organizational, can you run it off-site away from one of the standard meeting rooms, or if on-site, maybe in the staff cafeteria?
Possible interesting venues are a boat, a café, a restaurant, a bar, or even a reception area.
I once ran a Knowledge Cafe at a University in Barcelona. When I entered the room I observed that the chairs and tables were in nice neat lecture style rows and bolted to the floor.
I thought I had a problem until someone pointed out that there were a large number of Cafés across the road from the University.
So we upped-camp and moved across the road. One of the proprietors was more than happy to let us have an upstairs room and we had the added bonus of a good coffee and a selection of other refreshments.
— David Gurteen
Join one of my upcoming Knowledge Cafés or workshops and explore Conversational Leadership in practice.
Engage in thoughtful conversation, challenge assumptions, and connect with others working in knowledge, leadership, and organisational change.