The ESBICM Café

Convivial and thoughtful gatherings of the ESBICM Faculty Network — where serious conversations happen over coffee, in the spirit of a café gathering rather than the formality of a meeting room.

What the ESBICM Café is

The ESBICM Café is the name we give to gatherings of the ESBICM Global Critical Care Faculty Network. Whether the meeting is online or in person, when our Faculty come together — to discuss a new paper, to talk through a clinical scenario, to plan a programme, or simply to catch up on the work each of us is doing — the gathering is called an ESBICM Café.

The name reflects the spirit we want at the table. The work is real. The discussions are real. But the setting is light, the pace is unhurried, and there is room for warmth alongside substance.

The character of the Café

A Café is not a meeting in the usual sense. There is no agenda counted in minutes, no set order of business, no formal proceedings. People bring themselves — with a cup of coffee, wherever they happen to be — and the conversation finds its own pace.

That said, the Café is not idle. The discussions are substantive: recent papers, clinical cases worth thinking through, evidence that’s changed practice, programmes the community is working on, and questions about where ESBICM is going next. The Café simply trusts its participants to take these subjects seriously without needing the scaffolding of a formal meeting to do so.

This is deliberate. The members of our Faculty Network are professionals who already attend their fair share of formal meetings. The Café is the place where colleagues can talk about Critical Care without it feeling like more of the same.

Who is at the Café

The Café is for the ESBICM Global Critical Care Faculty Network — the Research Faculty, the Educator Faculty, and the NextGen Faculty — gathered together. The full Faculty Network is invited, across all three tiers.

From time to time, ESBICM may also invite a special guest to a Café — a visiting expert, an Advisory Board member, or a distinguished figure whose presence would enrich the conversation. Such invitations are at ESBICM’s discretion.

The Café is not open to the wider membership. It is, by design, a Faculty Network space.

What happens at the Café

There is no fixed format, but a typical Café might include some mix of:

• A look at recent papers, landmark trials, or guidelines worth discussing
• Clinical cases or scenarios that participants want to think through together
• Conversation about ESBICM’s ongoing programmes — courses, content, the community
• Ideas, questions, and proposals about where ESBICM is heading next
• Stories and shared experience from the everyday work of Critical Care

Some Cafés will lean academic, others operational, others reflective. Each Café finds its own shape based on what is on people’s minds at the time.

Format and frequency

The ESBICM Café is convened as occasions arise. There is no fixed schedule — when there is something worth gathering for, the Café is called.

The format is mixed. Some Cafés will be online; some will be in person; some may be hybrid. All of them, regardless of format, are simply called the ESBICM Café. Faculty members will be notified by the ESBICM Office in advance of each gathering, with the relevant date, format, and joining details.

Coordination and contact

The ESBICM Café is coordinated by the ESBICM Office under the Operations Director, with the substance and direction of each Café shaped by ARC and SPEC where relevant — for academic and programme content respectively. The Founder President may also propose or shape Café gatherings as the spirit of ESBICM directs.

For questions about the Café, please contact the ESBICM Office via the contact us page.

How the Café came to be

The ESBICM Café was first introduced on Ganesh Chaturthi, 27 August 2025, as a discussion space for the most engaged members of the wider ESBICM community. As ESBICM has matured — particularly with the formalisation of the Faculty Network and the launch of the Mentorship Forum — the Café has evolved into its present form: a Faculty Network gathering, in the spirit of a café rather than a meeting.

We are grateful to those early members who helped shape the Café in its first chapter. The spirit they brought — curiosity, generosity, and a willingness to think out loud with colleagues — is the spirit that continues to define the Café today.