World Cafe 2 - Lecture

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Comment by Kazuaki Katori on August 2, 2009 at 5:29am

This video was taken in December 2007, when I hosted a World Cafe sponsored by Ginza Community College, a networking organization organized by Mr. Toshikazu Suzuki. It was shortly after I myself and Mr. Daisuke Kawaguchi did translation of "World Cafe" into Japanese language, when I received e-mail message from Mr. Suzuki asking me to host a World Cafe for his group. He also requested me to give them a short presentation on the history, underlying principles and tips for hosting a World Cafe.

In those days I was living in Osaka, but I was delighted to accept Mr.Suzuki's invitation and went to Tokyo, because I knew that those who once experienced a World Cafe would be fascinated by the energy generated by Cafe participants and want to be a host by themselves.

When I arrived to the beautiful meeting room just in front of Tokyo station, about sixty people were waiting for me. They were mostly young business people, consultants, and NPO activists.
The question used for the event was "How can we restore connectedness in urban communities?" which really was their question that matter.

I still remember all the energy and excitement swirling in the room. They really enjoyed the Cafe, and at the end of the event that night, Mr. Suzuki announced that he intended to use a World Cafe as a basic communications infrastructure for their meeting, which they actually did after that.

Sometime after that day, Ginza Community College was reorganized into Asia Pacific Partners (APP), and Mr. Suzuki moved to Vietnam to expand their network. But still they continue to have monthly meetings using World Cafe meeting method.

And as I anticipated, some of the participants of the Cafe started to host their own World Cafe in their organizations and communities.

So this was one of my early day’s missionary efforts to extend the practices of World Cafe. But this is certainly one of the most memorable events for me. I really thank Amy for finding this precious video and uploaded for us.