The MarketingCafe

A participant on one of my Knowledge Cafe workshops in London last year was Andrew Armour. Andrew has since taken my Knowledge Cafe process, adapted it for a Marketing context and dubbed it the "MarketingCafe". Here is what he says about in his blog.

A MarketingCafe works by continually re-mixing small group conversations (ideally only three to a table) focused on carefully constructed open questions.

It's a structured way to generate the kind of great conversations you may have with good colleagues in the pub, hotel lounge or café, rather than those found more often in the boardroom -- or brainstorm.

Participants are encouraged to ask more questions rather than jump in to solve the question as more curiosity not instant solutions is the aim.

The loose, small group format helps the more confident to take a step back and therefore allows the space for the often introverted, technical and creative specialists to contribute more.

The Café is deceptively simple and yet highly effective.

Credit: Why we need more conversation and less brainstorming by Andrew Armour

If you wish to learn more about his process then see his blog post Why we need more conversation and less brainstorming. and take a look at this earlier post of his Stimulating Conversation And The Marketing Cafe

The great thing about the Knowledge Cafes process is that it can be adapted to all sorts of ends while still sticking to its core principles.