Virtual Knowledge Café Process On the Zoom video conferencing platform

The Virtual Knowledge Café process runs in a remarkably similar fashion to a face-to-face Knowledge Café. It works best for between twelve and twenty-four participants. 

This is an outline of the process I use on the Zoom video conferencing platform.

Preparation

• The host opens the Café room 15 – 30 minutes before the scheduled start of the virtual Café.
• As the participants arrive online, one by one, the host welcomes them. Some informal chat and introductions take place as more and more people enter the room.
• There is also a little time for sorting out any technical problems but once the Café is underway there is no easy way to resolve individual participants’ technical issues, and they need to drop out or fix their problems without interrupting the session.

Starting

• The host starts the Café promptly on time.
• The host briefly welcomes the participants and describes the virtual Café process.

Speed conversation

•  The host runs three rounds of speed conversation by randomly assigning people to break-out rooms, two or three people per room. Each round lasts 3 – 5 minutes.

The talk

• The host briefly introduces the speaker or may speak themselves.
• The speaker speaks to the topic of the Café and poses the question.
• Then the host briefly reminds people how the break-out rooms and the small group conversations work.

The small group conversations

•  The host puts people in their assigned rooms (tables) (3 or 4 people per room).
• After 10 – 15 minutes the host brings people back from their break-out rooms to the main room. The participants receive a message to ask them to return to the main room. If they keep speaking, Zoom automatically returns them after 1 minute.
• The host briefly welcomes people back before randomly reassigning them to new groups in new break-out rooms once again for the second round of small group conversations.
• This process is repeated one more time so that each person participates in three rounds of small group conversation each lasting 10 to 15 minutes.

The whole group conversation

• After, the third round, the participants return to the large room for the final large group conversation which is facilitated by the host.
• Towards the end of this conversation, the host asks each participant in turn to share one actionable insight with the group.

Wrap-up

• Finally, the host concludes and closes the event, and people leave.

Timing

Posts that link to this post

•  Making Better Sense of the World Through Conversation A conversation with David Gurteen, Director of Gurteen Knowledge
•  Zoom Virtual Knowledge Café On the Zoom video conferencing platform

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