Coffee Shop Conferences
Coffee shop conferences are great ways of bringing a convention out into the community.
They provide a relaxed, informal platform for discussions and presentations. Check out some examples of coffee shop conferences which have taken place across the city in
UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative Conference
Unicef UK’s Baby Friendly Initiative conferences bring health professions together to network and hear presentations on a wide range of issues associated with supporting successful breastfeeding. It’s Europe’s largest conference on infant feeding and brings professionals and others involved in the care of mothers and babies together. Glasgow Convention Bureau initiated and facilitated a coffee shop conference whereby keynote speakers hosted an informal Q&A with parents in a local café. This was promoted via local groups and GP surgeries to reach parents across the city.
European Public Health Conference
The EPH Conference aims to contribute to the improvement of public health in Europe by offering a means for exchanging information and a platform for debate to researchers, policy makers and practitioners in the field of public health and health services research. Wishing to leave a lasting legacy on the local community, we helped EPH organise a coffee shop conference at a museum in the city which was a short bike ride away from the main conference venue, the Scottish Event Campus. Keynote speakers and delegates took the city’s NextBikes to meet the public at a city museum where the coffee shop conference was being held, and gave interactive presentations and discussions on getting active.
For the seventh European Public Health Conference, we aimed to do something that we’d never done before. We wanted to take our talks beyond the conference rooms and into the community.
Glasgow Convention Bureau took our idea and made it personal. They helped us host two unique events which allowed our delegates to interact with locals and raise awareness of key health issues.
This left a lasting impression on our delegates and the city which has completely changed our approach to all our conferences going forward.
