The café for everywhere

Imagine you are sitting in a cafe in Nuuk on Greenland, taking part in a debate on this autumn’s new books – taking place in Copenhagen. Or suppose you are on the Faroe Islands discussing your job with colleagues being on Iceland - face to face.

The Café Pantopia is based on an idea of connecting the technology of our time with the human need for meeting and communicating with each other.

- We want to create presence irrespective of geographical distances. Pantopia means everywhere, says project manager Brynhild Næs Petersen. She is the creator of Café Pantopia project, together with Hanne-Louise Johannesen and Simon Løvind. With a broad network they now have finalised a report of nearly 100 pages. Their pre-project finished in august 2009.

Four cafes in four cities

Their plan is to open a Café Pantopia in four cities in the western part of the Nordic Region: In Nuuk on Greenland, in Tórshavn on the Faroe Islands, in Reykjavik on Iceland and in Copenhagen in Denmark, across the vast distances created by the Atlantic Ocean.

Four cafés in four cities, with a same menu and a possibility to communicate with a videoconference connection to the guests in the other cafés.

Sitting in the café in the Nordic House in the city of Torshavn at the Faroe Islands, Brynhild turns on her PC. Via Skype she gets in contact with Hanne-Louise sitting in her home in Copenhagen, Denmark. They see each other on the screens, they laugh, talk and drink a cup of coffee together - sitting in two different countries.

-Skype takes us half-way, men not far enough. Most of us are social individuals, and like to be in motion and meet each other. We also have a need to communicate through other channels than telephone or a computer, says Hanne-Louise.

Belonging – and distance

Brynhild was born and raised on the Faroe Islands, but has studied in Copenhagen and lived there for several years. This taught her something about belonging and geographical distance.

- Education and work forces many of us to spend a lot of time away from people who are close to us. We from the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Iceland, for example, must often travel to Denmark or another country for higher education. When you live far away from your homeland, you suddenly get start having two homes: One “at home here” and one “at home there”, she says.

- Iceland, Greenland, Denmark and the Faroe Islands have strong relations since a long time ago. We want the cafés to strengthen the common identity that exists, but at the same time also touch upon some prejudices, says Hanne-Louise.

The report points out both the culture and the business function of the café concept. The concept is characterized by the possibility for the rooms to “merge” in a visual way. The café concept stands on three pillars:

* Food service: The four cafés have their foundation in the ingredients and traditions from the region, however with some "fusion" between the individual country's traditional dishes and the variety of seasons.

* Culture: The cafés will offer various forms of cultural events: Debates, exhibitions, meetings with authors, common TV-watching when the Faroe Islands beats Germany in soccer, live interviews with artists releasing a new CD. Also meetings between family members and friends in the four cities are possible.

* Business: The cafés will provide facilities enabling transatlantic meetings.
With the help of a professional videoconference system participants will be able to have traditional meetings, while the number of flights over the Atlantic is reduced, benefiting in saving of costs and the environment. Many small and medium businesses can benefit from such a solution, but cannot afford to buy and operate the technical equipment.

The initiators to Cafe Pantopia have asked Peter Martin Petersen from the Faroe Islands to set Pantopia into a context by writing an essay.

Long journey to the Faroe Islands

On the basis of old letters he describes a fatiguing journey made by the young Danish priest Hans Berlin Kaarsberg and his wife Regine, from Denmark to the Faroe Islands with the sailing ship “Hector” in 1833. They travel from Copenhagen on 28 October 1833, with the hope to arrive at the Faroe Islands before the winter storms start.

In a letter dated on 3 February 1834, and sent from the small own of Mandal on the south cost of Norway, the priest writes that the ship has gone to the harbour because of bad weather, and that they now hope the weather will be better.

They have to stay there for five weeks before they can continue their trip. When they leave Mandal, they hope that they “with God's help will get a short and happy journey to the Faroe Islands”. But there is more bad weather in sight, and spring has come before they finally arrive to the Faroe Islands. Kaarsberg writes home to Copenhagen that they "thank God fervently that he has preserved our lives and our
health."

Strong ties

The description of the exhausting journey tells something about the dynamic links between areas in the region, but also something about the development during the 170 years that have passed since Kaarsbergs travel.

The project report also includes a survey indicating a public demand for the cafés. The initiators have created a budget to document that the idea is economically sustainable.

If the financial, technical, visual and practical issues are solved, they hope to open the café doors in 2011.

Café Pantopia could have contributed to making the priest Kaarsbergs journey in 1833 at least a little easier.

The project has received short-term network funding from the Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme.

www.cafe-pantopia.net