Dialogue and Debate Sessions: why and how?

One of the goals of this conference is to create a platform for exploring a wide range of practices, experiences, and policy initiatives in the context of cutting-edge interdisciplinary sustainable consumption and production research. For this, discussion and reflection on the links between practice and theory is essential: sharing perspectives and experiences can add to insights and concrete steps towards forming strategies for transformational change.

Dialogue and Debate Sessions are therefore an integral part of this trans- and interdisciplinary conference. By stimulating interaction and active participation, such sessions allow participants to transcend traditional speaker-audience roles and gain ownership of the theme of the session. 

The possibilities for designing such a session are endless and there is no one true format. However, in order to guide and aid you in designing a successful Dialogue and Debate Session, we have prepared some inspiration and tips & tricks for you. Note that these are merely examples, other formats are welcome as well.

Lightning talks

There are several variants of lightning talks, but they all have a common denominator: they are short and concise talks that take no longer than a few minutes. By keeping it fast-faced and sharp, the message behind the talk can strike the audience like lightning. The short length of the presentation pushes the presenter to boil down their research to the very essence of what it is about, without overloading the audience with too much information. Some lightning talk formats discourage the use of slides, others use them as a visual aid to their message. 

Pechakucha

Pechakucha means “chit-chat” in Japanese, but despite this name, this format centers more around visuals. A pechakucha consists of a slide show of 20 slides which are displayed for 20 seconds each whilst the presenter is speaking. The presenter does not control the slides, and is therefore forced to move on as the slide show continues. It ensures a flow in the presentation and is often used in storytelling. Other variants of pechakucha have more or less slides, and therefore vary in length (e.g. Ignite). This website allows you to create pechakucha slides, and it provides additional examples.

Takahashi Method

Another format that uses slides is the Takahashi method. Each slide consists of a maximum of three words only, in bold font and set in a very large type. This way, the message comes across clearly, without distracting the audience from the presenter’s talk. The creator of this format, Masayoshi Takahasi, believed that bullet points in a presentation force the audience to read, thereby taking attention away from the presenter. By only having a few words visible on the screen each time, the audience is left with nothing to do but listen, whilst simultaneously having the key message imprinted on their retina. 

Monta Method

A more interactive format is the Monta method, based on a format often used by a popular Japanese tv showhost Mino Monta.  In his show, Monta often used a board that posed a question and an answer, with (parts of) the answer covered by tape. After letting the audience think of possible answers first, Monta would reveal the answer by dramatically removing the tape. Presentations with this method use this ‘reveal’ aspect to elicit curiosity from the audience, as well as active participation by having the audience guess the answer first. This way they are more emotionally engaged with the topic. 

World café 

One of the more interactive formats, a world café session, allows for dialogue when dealing with larger groups. Participants are divided into small groups and placed at tables that simulate a café setting. By creating an informal environment, participants are welcomed to participate in small-scaled dialogue. The session often starts with a host explaining the etiquette and the theme in question, after which conversational rounds of around 20 minutes start. Each round and/or each table focuses on one (part of the) question, in order to guide the conversation. After each round, participants switch tables. One person stays seated to give a short recap to the new table guests, which ensures continuity. At the end of each round and/or at the end of the session, participants can share insights that came up during the table conversations. This allows participants to see the perspectives and insights harvested in a broader light, thereby creating a notion of collective wisdom. Often, world cafés use visual aids to support this collaborative synthesizing process. Watch this short video to get a better idea of how to organize such a session.