About

What we do

Dialogue Café uses state of the art video conferencing technology to enable face-to-face conversations between diverse groups of people from around the world so that they can share experiences, learn from each other and work together to make the world a better place.

Dialogue Café is a platform for innovation and creativity – enabling organisations and individuals to forge new links, consolidate existing ones and create new collaborations and projects.

Dialogue Café is for individuals and organizations with a social, educational or cultural mission – such as foundations, civil society organizations, community groups, universities, schools, social enterprises, co-operatives, public sector bodies and agencies.

The first few Dialogue Cafés are now open and over the next few months we’ll be opening more. Check out Our Network to see where we’re based.

Why we do it

Dialogue Café is based on the radical but simple idea that people have many things in common and given the opportunity, they will explore their common interests, sparking collaborations and stimulating ideas that address the major issues of today. These kinds of conversations and collaborations can lead to new ways of thinking and doing: they can empower individuals and communities, break down prejudice and misconceptions and promote greater understanding and co-operation across cultures.

Cafés have long served as breeding grounds for great debates and grand designs. Dialogue Café builds on this by combining the social potential of cafés to the power of video conferencing, exponentially expanding our collective ability to problem-solve and innovate as a global community.

How we do it

With support from the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, Cisco, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Anna Lindh Foundation and a range of local partners, the Dialogue Café Association is creating a global network of physical spaces – Dialogue Cafés - which will provide access to state of the art video conferencing technology. These Dialogue Cafés will be connected through a global technology platform to enable city-to-city and multi-city activities such as workshops, seminars, conferences, concerts and lectures.

Each Dialogue Café is managed by a local partner often with the support of other partners, such as foundations, local government and/or corporate sponsors. These local partners will oversee the day to day management of the Dialogue Café.

How can I get involved?

If you’d like to use Dialogue Café then get in touch with your local Dialogue Café Manager.

Users have to book the facility in advance but this is very easy – your local Dialogue Café Manager can book the session on your behalf and oversee logistics such as connecting up to other Dialogue Cafés and placing the calls.

You can also find out what’s been happening at Dialogue Café by checking out our blog.