Adding knowledge cafés to the repertoire of knowledge sharing techniques

• Overview of existing knowledge sharing techniques.
• Knowledge cafes positioned within current knowledge sharing techniques.
• Delphi technique used to expand limited scholarly literature on knowledge cafes.
• Guidelines, advantages, pre-conditions, obstacles, successes of knowledge cafés.

Knowledge cafés, a fairly new technique used to facilitate knowledge sharing, offer individuals within organisations the opportunity to interact on a face to face level with topics that are relevant to a particular organisation, and enhances knowledge transfer. One of the major impediments of knowledge cafés is that, to date, there is limited literature concerning this knowledge sharing technique. For this reason data was gathered through a Delphi study to investigate and discuss various aspects of knowledge cafés as used for the purpose of knowledge sharing. The results of the study provide guidelines, advantages, disadvantages and similar techniques to knowledge cafés. The core differences between knowledge cafés and world cafés are also highlighted. Essentially it is the aim of this article to add knowledge cafés to the existing repertoire of knowledge sharing techniques by firstly reviewing literature on the existing techniques used for knowledge sharing and then elaborating on the value of knowledge cafés as a knowledge sharing application.