VIVA Knowledge Cafe (Gurteen Knowledge)

I recently ran a knowledge cafe workshop in Kuwait hosted by Bibi Alajmi and sponsored by VIVA - a Kuwaiti mobile telecommunications service provider. As with all my workshops, it went well and reinforced for me that the Knowledge Cafe works in any culture - given the right environment people love to talk. It also introduced me to the Kuwaiti dewaniya which was a lovely cultural surprise.

While there I also ran a Knowledge Cafe organised by VIVA for about 20 senior executives and CEOs from leading companies in Kuwait, including Zain, Wataniya Telecom, Gulf net, Fast-telco, Zajil Telecom, Mada Communications, Samsung Dealership, Hayat Communications, Future Communications Company, Quality Net, UPS, KNET and Kuwait Concierge.

The topic of the Cafe was "What are the future possibilities for the Kuwaiti MobileTelecoms Industry?

There was some interesting conversation, followed by even more conversation over lunch. You can find the Viva press release if you are interested.

I wish I could say more about it but clearly the conversations were confidential. What I did learn though is that using a Knowledge Cafe to bring senior executives together from different companies to have conversations over common interests with no predetermined outcomes is a very powerful tool indeed. There is a story here that I hope I may be able to share at some point.

If you are interested in Knowledge Management, the Knowledge Café or the role of conversation in organizational life then you my be interested in this online book I am writing on Conversational Leadership

VIVA Knowledge Cafe

Posted to Gurteen Knowledge-Log by David Gurteen on 28 June 2012