For the Erasmus+ programme, a multiplier event is an event organised to share the intellectual results of a project with a large audience. Multiplier events are national and transnational conferences, seminars and other events organised with the purpose of disseminating the intellectual outputs produced by the project. The costs incurred in the organisation of multiplier events can be financially supported. One such multiplier event is the World Café.
The World Café
The World Café strategy uses collaborative groups to investigate a large case or issue and work toward solutions. Participants are asked to analyse, synthesise and evaluate the effectiveness of solutions and respond to group decisions. It is also a method for creating a collaborative learning conversation around questions that matter to you and your students. World Café is a great way of sharing knowledge, generating ideas and constructing dialogue with both large and small groups (either students or older adults).
The Benefits of the World Café
The World Café environment makes use of an informal cafe setting for participants to explore an issue by discussing it in small table groups. Discussion is held in multiple rounds of 20-30 minutes, with the cafe ambiance intended to allow for more relaxed and open conversations to take place.
Methodologies such as the World Café approach allow teams and communities to develop through the sharing of ideas in respectful, inclusive and non-hierarchical environments. At the same time, the role of theory and expert knowledge is not diluted in any way.
The World Café method is particularly useful in Erasmus+ projects, when you want to be sure to explore a topic from multiple perspectives, to also make sure that everyone in a room contributes to a conversation and/or to encourage participants to make new connections. Groups of students sit at “café tables” around the classroom and discuss a prompt or question provided by the teacher. The world café has been chosen as one of the methodologies in many Eramus+ projects, for enabling the different stages: hosting, listening, participating, and collective action.
As well as speaking and listening, individuals are encouraged to write down some of the discussion results in order to inform participants at a subsequent table on a specific topic. Although pre-defined questions may have been agreed upon at the beginning, outcomes or solutions are not decided in advance. An underlying assumption of World Café events is that collective discussion can shift people's conceptions and encourage collective action, even in the field of Erasmus+ projects.
We hope the above information is useful to you. For any further information on Erasmus+, we encourage you to get in touch here.
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