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A World Café or Knowledge Café is a structured conversational process in which groups of people discuss a topic at several tables, with individuals switching tables periodically and getting introduced to the previous discussion at their new table by a "table host". A café ambience is created in order to facilitate conversation. In some versions, a degree of formality is retained to make sure that all participants gets a chance to speak. Alternatively, the café concept can be taken more literally, potentially with everyone talking at once. As well as speaking and listening, individuals may be encouraged to write or doodle on the tablecloth so that when people change tables, they can see what previous members have written, as well as hearing the table host's view of what has happened to that point. Although pre-defined questions are agreed 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.

The World Café originated at the home of Juanita Brown and David Isaacs in 1995 when a "large circle" conversation became disrupted by rain.

In the version used by David Gurteen (who uses the term "Knowledge Café"), the small group discussions are not led by a facilitator, and no summary is captured for subsequent feedback to the group - the aim is to maximise time spent in conversation, and so time spent on table presentations is minimised.

World Café events require at least twelve participants, but there is no upper limit. The largest number of people documented at a single World Cafe event was in excess of 10,000, in Tel Aviv, in 2011. World Cafés have been used by a range of organizations.