Knowledge cafe on KM in R&D, October in Philadelphia

I just spoke to Barry Hardy of Douglas Connect, who are organizing Advances in Information, Communications and Knowledge Management Support Systems for R&D:

We are holding a 2 day Community of Practice Workshop on “Advances in Information, Communications and Knowledge Management Support Systems for R&D” to take place 15-16 October 2007 at Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, USA. The workshop will have a strong emphasis on peer-to-peer discussions with each workshop session involving a facilitated Knowledge Café discussion. ... We will discuss and share experiences with current information and communications technology (ICT) supporting R&D, to discuss current requirements and short term needs with electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) systems, collaboration support and knowledge tools supporting R&D, and to create a shared vision and roadmap for next generation knowledge management (KM) support systems. A wiki will be opened prior to the workshop to commence group documentation of supporting materials and to help to populate the workshop program with introductory materials, suggestions, ideas and experiences.

Barry has written up a summary of a similar event held in Basel in April, Knowledge and Leadership knowledge cafe.

I'm interested in this event, both for the content and the format.  They are looking at having conversations, rather than traditional stand-and-deliver presentations.  And they are expecting to keep the event relatively small to enable everyone to participate.