World Café method: explanation, setup and example questions

What is the World Café method?

World Café was developed in the 1990s by Juanita Brown and David Isaacs. The idea is that the best conversations often happen informally, as in a café. The setup mimics that atmosphere: small tables, a relaxed setting, paper on the table for writing and drawing. The difference with an ordinary discussion is the structure of rounds. Because people move, every participant carries ideas into a new group. After three rounds everyone has spoken with ten to fifteen others and patterns become visible that no single table would have found on its own.

When should you choose World Café?

World Café fits when you want to explore broadly and build support, not when you need a decision within an hour. It works well for strategy sessions, staff meetings, public participation and conferences where you want to involve the room actively. It works less well when the group is smaller than about twelve people, or when the question mainly needs expert knowledge that only a few attendees have.

Step-by-step: how to set up a World Café

1. Write one central question and a sub-question per round that builds on it.
2. Work out the number of tables: participants divided by five, rounded up.
3. Pick a host per table who stays seated, summarises and briefs newcomers.
4. Plan three rounds of 20 to 30 minutes, with five minutes to switch.
5. Close with a 20 to 30 minute plenary harvest where patterns are named.
6. Agree beforehand who writes the report and when it will be shared.

Good World Café questions

A good question is open, relevant to everyone at the table and just challenging enough. Avoid yes/no questions and questions whose answer is already decided. Build the rounds from exploring to deepening to making it concrete.

Common mistakes

The most common mistake is trying to do too much in too little time. Ten-minute rounds feel efficient, but the conversation never gets beyond first reactions. A second mistake is skipping the harvest because time ran out; participants then feel their input disappears. A third is a table host who starts chairing instead of listening. Give hosts a short briefing: welcome people, summarise what was said earlier and then mostly ask questions.

Setting up the room

The room largely determines how the conversation goes. Use small round tables or high tables for four to six people and space them far enough apart that tables do not drown each other out. Put large paper and markers on every table so people can write and draw while they talk. Show the central question on a screen or on a card on each table. Quiet background music during the switch helps keep the pace, but turn it off as soon as the round starts. Plan a fixed spot for the facilitator, with a view of the whole room and a clear signal for the end of a round, such as a bell or dimming the lights.

An example two-hour schedule

A schedule helps you guard the time, precisely because World Café feels relaxed. This setup works well in practice for groups of 30 to 150 participants.

• 0:00 to 0:10: welcome, purpose of the session and explanation of the ground rules.
• 0:10 to 0:35: round 1, exploring.
• 0:35 to 1:00: round 2, deepening, after a five-minute switch.
• 1:00 to 1:25: round 3, making it concrete.
• 1:25 to 1:55: plenary harvest, where table hosts briefly share what stood out.
• 1:55 to 2:00: close and explanation of next steps.

Capturing the harvest

Paper tablecloths and sticky notes look great but are hard to process. After a session with fifteen tables there is a pile of paper that takes someone days, and the nuance of the conversation is already gone. You can assign a note-taker per table, but that person then no longer takes part. An alternative is EchoSphere: one phone per table records the conversation, the moderator sees live what is going on per table and per round, and afterwards a summary and presentation are ready. You can read more on the World Café software page.

Frequently asked questions