15 Examples of World Cafe Events and Questions

I love running World Cafes!

I find them to be one of the best formats to get a group quickly connecting and cross-pollinating ideas.

But it can often be hard to figure out what questions to ask. I tell most of my clients that 80% of the hard work involved with a World Cafe is determining the correct questions.

So to help you out, here’s a list of events that I’ve run over the past years along with the exact questions I used for the gathering. You’ll notice that sometimes I come up with similar variations of the same questions that I’ve found to work really well.

I hope this provides some inspiration for your own event!

Early Childhood Education

1. What’s emerging that is new or had real meaning for you?
2. What conversation if begun today, could ripple out and create new possibilities for the future of Early Childhood Education in Alabama?
3. If our success was completely guaranteed, what bold steps might we take next? How can we support each other in taking those next steps?

Open Data Challenges

1. What is your biggest insight from the Heart Health challenge?
2. What challenged or puzzled you? What could have been done to clear things up?
3. What issues should we design future Open Data Challenges around?

STEM Ecosystems

1. What are the key components of a strong STEM workforce + learning experience?
2. Imagine our STEM Ecosystem ten years from now, when everything is just as you always wished it could be. What is different and how have you contributed? 
3. What would need to happen that would enable you to feel fully engaged and energized in building a STEM Ecosystem?

Co-Designing the Future of Healthcare

1. What are the benefits of private sector and VHA frontline employees co-designing solutions together?
2. How does co-design promote inclusivity, diversity, equity, and access to care across the health care community?
3. What does successful private sector and VHA collaboration look like to you?

Innovation Conference Debrief

1. What insights have emerged from the past three days and how will you translate them into your work?
2. If there was one thing that hasn’t yet been said but is needed in order to achieve more clarity about how we might innovate, what would that be?
3. What would need to happen for you to feel fully engaged and energized in this work once you leave and how might the Diffusion team best support you?

University Outreach Office

1. What conversation, if begun today, could ripple out and create new possibilities for outreach efforts at Penn State?
2. What objectives could be more easily achieved with increased collaboration?
3. How can we support each other in taking bold next steps? What contributions can we each make?

Statewide Arts Advocacy

1. What insights have emerged from today and how do you plan to translate them into your home community?
2. What conversation, if begun today, could ripple out and create new possibilities across the state?
3. How can we best support one another in taking bold next steps together?

Digital Textbook Affordability

1. What’s important to you about the future of PA Digital and why do you care?
2. What value is most important for you to see PA Digital offer in the future? And what role should DPLA play?
3. Who is PA Digital primarily for? And to what degree are partners able to financially support?

College Student Org Leaders

1. How do people who eagerly engage with your org differ from those who you wish you could connect with more? What prevents those people from engaging?
2. How might you stagger your asks to build belonging and ensure sustained commitment from new members?
3. What experiment could your org run in the next month that would creatively engage students in a different way?

Nonprofit Governance Structure

1. When considering the governance structure, what’s most important to you that needs our immediate attention moving forward?
2. What would someone who had a very different leadership style and set of beliefs than we do say about our situation?
3. Visualize a governance model that would enable you to feel fully engaged and energized in this work. (Draw it out on a big sheet of paper which will later be hung for the whole group to review. Please include any relevant text / arrows / images so that others can make sense of it if they looked at it on their own.)

Regional Gathering for Arts Leaders

1. What’s important to you about designing creative communities and why do you care?
2. What are you missing, or in need of more, to build your ideal creative community?
3. What conversation, if begun today, could ripple out in a way that created new possibilities for the future of our region?

Navigating How to Partner with Government

1. What current roadblocks exist that prevent outside groups from collaborating with VHA?
2. What are examples of collaborations we’d like to replicate? Why were those effective?
3. What changes could we implement moving forward to increase interest with external collaborators? How can Pathfinder provide support?

Innovation Marketplace

1. What unique value do innovative VA employee products have in the US healthcare system? And what value does VA bring to external collaborators when co-designing solutions?
2. What challenges stand in the way of licensing, marketing, and selling products in healthcare?
3. How might we better communicate the availability of these homegrown products and market the VAIPM?

Personal Journeys of Innovation

1. Within your VA journey, what problems have sparked your interest in tackling?
2. What seeds could be planted that would make the biggest difference in your ability to innovate?
3. During your time at iEX, what has resonated with you and challenged you to spread your wings to innovate?

Age-Friendly Health Systems

1. What insights have emerged from today and how do you plan to translate them into your Age-Friendly journey?
   
2. What conversation, if begun today, could ripple out and create new possibilities for the Age-Friendly Health Systems movement across VA?
   
3. How can we best support one another in taking bold next steps together?