From March 2013, two Vienna coffeehouses will turn into the meeting places for a novel type of social encounters between travellers and locals. 

The Vienna Coffeehouse Conversations, a series of monthly events held in English, will bring travellers and locals together in 1:1 conversations in traditional cafés.  A menu of questions will help participants share their views on travel, friendship, compassion, inspiration and more. “The Vienna Coffeehouse Conversations enable travellers to re-invent the world-famous and UNESCO-recognised Vienna coffeehouse culture, echoing a time when Sigmund Freud, Gustav Klimt and Stefan Zweig met acquaintances in cafés to exchange ideas and debate”, explains co-organiser Barbara Grüll-Cação from  Vienna Austria travel site Vienna Unwrapped. The topics for conversation are arranged across a three-course Viennese meal and coffee.

Masterminded by Oxford University historian Theodore Zeldin, the event concept used for the Vienna Coffeehouses Conversations has been designed to encourage meaningful encounters between strangers.

The two locations, Café Museum and Café am Heumarkt, represent the best of bohemian, literary, contemporary Vienna. The city has a rich tradition of lively, late-night discussion, which the Coffeehouse Conversations will add to. The food reflects the Habsburg era sweep of central Europe, with influences from Italy right up into Poland.

Eugene Quinn, of Viennese cultural event group space and place, sees this as an opportunity to go deeper than on a typical city visit. “We staged two sold-out events for locals in April, and decided to liven things up by introducing international participants. We invite people from around the world to come and get to know more about Vienna, and make a new friend. At the end of each event, there is a get-together for all invitees, to encourage some international friendship.”

Theodore Zeldin's Conversation Meals have taken place as part of street festivals, in art galleries from London to Singapore, and at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Registration for Travellers

http://www.vienna-unwrapped.com/vienna-coffeehouse-conversations.html