Conversation Café To Go
by Aria Cahir, Co-Host of the Issaquah,
Washington Conversation Café
If you are familiar with Conversation
Cafés – already hosting a Café or thinking
you’d like to – why not consider being the seed
for a new Café in a new place when you’re traveling
for pleasure or business? It’s a great way to meet
local people in the place you’re visiting. It will
make your travels more fun and interesting, and what a great
deed you will accomplish by getting a new group going and
spreading Conversation Cafés wherever you go!
Here are some suggestions for How To
Do It.
1. SEVERAL WEEKS BEFORE ARRIVAL:
Call the public library or Chamber of Commerce of the place
you'll be visiting and ask the librarian to help you locate
a relatively quiet place to meet; for example: a café
or library or community center meeting room. Restaurants
can work under certain circumstances, but interruptions
when food is ordered and served can be disruptive.
Book the meeting place for 2 weeks in
a row. If you are visiting for less than a week, you’ll
have one chance to find a host for future meetings amongst
the people who attend your Café.
If the meeting place is a café,
call the owner, explain what Conversation Cafés are,
and arrange for fliers to be available for the owner to
have on the counter, put on a bulletin board, etc. If you’ll
be meeting in a library, the librarian may be willing to
make display copies of an emailed flier, or to post copies
that you send to the library via land mail. Be sure to include
your phone number and email address for RSVP’s. (See
below for a sample flier.)
2. ACTIVATE YOUR NETWORKS:
Send a message to all your friends, asking who they know
in the community you will be visiting, and asking them to
help spread the word. This is the brilliance of the internet.
You can also announce your upcoming trip
on the CC listserv. Someone in our circle of hosts may have
a contact in the place you're visiting. That contact may
be able to help you find a place and organize the new CC.
Another effective strategy is to look
up the local professional coaches association and chapters
of groups like the America Society for Training and Development
and O.D.N. (Organizational Development Network. You can
send an email to a couple of the board members and ask if
they will help spread the word.
If you are REALLY motivated and have
the time, check to see if there is a Craig's List in the
city you are visiting (www.craigslist.com). Click on the
city you are visiting, and then on “groups.”
3. AS PEOPLE RSVP, ENCOURAGE
THEM TO BRING FRIENDS, and to make copies of the
flier and pass them out.
4. BRING ALL THE NORMAL “STUFF”
TO HOST THE CC: Agreement cards to pass out, a
sign for the table, a talking object, etc.
5. At both meetings, TRY TO FIND
SOMEONE WHO WILL HOST IN THE FUTURE. Explain that
you are an out-of-town visitor, and that a local person
is needed to keep the group going.
6. PLAN TIME FOR A MINI TRAIN-THE-TRAINER,
to help people feel comfortable as hosts. You can schedule
it for right after the Café, or at a different time
during the remainder of your stay. Give the new host your
contact info so s/he can call you with later questions.
Be sure to give him/her the Conversation Café website
url. Leave wallet cards and supplies as appropriate.
7. Please CONTRIBUTE YOUR SUCCESS
STORY to our growing archives.
Here's the flier I used to get the Issaquah
Conversation Café going. Complete it with pertinent
information.
A Conversation Café is starting
in Issaquah!
Join us in the small meeting room at
the Issaquah library (10 W Sunset Way, 425-392-5430) any
or every Monday night from 7 - 8:30, starting May 10,
to discuss a variety of current topics.
Conversation Cafés are open,
volunteer-hosted, drop-in conversations among diverse
people with varying views who share a passion for engaging
in conversation with others. By agreeing to a few common-sense
ground rules, and opening ourselves to the minds and ideas
of others, we have the potential to broaden our horizons
and to let the shared ideas inspire us in our daily lives.
As hosts, we will bring some topic
ideas to the table, such as "community," "activism"
or "marriage," and ask you to do the same. For
example, some topics other groups have discussed are:
"What inspires you?" "What is appropriate
lying?" "Being hopeful in a time of despair"
and "What Do People Do to Lead Healthy Lives?"
We will also be looking for a host to continue this group
for future conversations (training will be provided).
For more about Conversation Cafés,
visit www.conversationcafe.org. If you have questions
or suggested topics, please call Aria at 206-xxx-xxxx
([email protected]) or Denine at 425--xxx-xxxx
See you at the Issaquah Library!
