Europe Cafe

The Europe Cafe is organised for participants to explore core issues of the presentations in more detail by discussing them in small table groups. The discussion is held in multiple rounds of 30 minutes and is concluded with a plenary. The Europe Cafe takes place in a creative process set during the afternoon session of the Forum.

Interactive dialogue with experts and participants on the following topics:

The Philosophers:

• Gerhard Hauser, CEO, Architect DI Hauser
• Hannes Posch, Managing Director, Clean Energy Solutions / AIC
• Eberhard Rhein, Advisor at the European Policy Centre
• Eric Woods, Senior Education Reform Expert/Team Leader EU Education SWAp Project,
  Kosova Education Center (KEC)

The Consultants:

• Robert Bodenstein, Chairman Management Consulting & Vice Chairman of the Professional Association of Management Consultancy and Information Technology (UBIT)
• Robert Krimmer, Senior Advisor on New Voting Technology, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) & Office for Democratic Instruments and Human Rights (ODIHR)
• Wilhelm Reismann, Partner, iC consulenten ZT GesmbH
• Josef Wolfbeisser, Managing Director, KWI Consultants & Engineers AG

The Europeans:

• Ana Coelho, Director of EU Affairs, ACC1Ó – Catalan Agency for Competitiveness
• Helmut Durinkowitz, CEO, IDEE Consulting
• Valeria Kaneva, Managing Director, Q-consultants
• Josef Robl, President, European Council of Engineers Chambers (ECEC) & Austrian Consultants Associations (ACA)

The Globetrotters:

• Sylvia Beamish, EU & IFI Project Implementation Spezialist
• Panos Panagopoulos, President, European Federation of Engineering Consultancy Associations (EFCA)
• Stefan Posch, CEO, Innovation-Coaching
• Vassilis Smokovitis, Senior Manager, Deloitte Belgrade

Guideline for Participants

At 16.00h, the afternoon coffee break will lead in to the innovative communication setting that is the Europe Cafe. In this session, ECCF participants will divide into 16 tables of max. six people in order to consider the forum’s main topic in four discussion rounds, each looking at a slightly different aspect of the topic. Every table will be led by a prominent table host. The participants will have the possibility to choose the topic they would like to discuss on a first come, first served basis. The moderator/coordinator will ensure that there is an even distribution of participants.

For each of the four sub-topics

   1. The Philosophers
   2. The Consultants
   3. The Europeans
   4. The Globetrotters

there will thus be four tables topics with different hosts. After 25 minutes, the ECCF participants will change tables. They will be able either to “migrate” to another sub-topic or stay on the same sub-topic but move to a different table, with a different host and a different group of interlocutors. However, all hosts remain at their table.

The hosts will lead the conversations in what they consider to be interesting directions and be responsible for summarising the most important questions and solutions that have arisen out of previous discussions on their tables and for briefly recording these in writing on the “Table Cloth”. Hosts’ notes will be collected at the end of the session and used in the preparation of the write-up of the event.

There will be a total of three rounds (two table switches). At the end of Europe Cafe the hosts will have 10-15 minutes to finalise their notes but in particular also to discuss the outcomes with one another. After these exchanges, one speaker will be nominated to summarise the outcomes of the tables that considered his or her sub-topic. In this presentation, all significant points on the topic that were discussed on the individual tables will be mentioned. Each of the nominated four speakers will have exactly five minutes for the presentation called “Flash-Lights”.

Programme