On 8 September 2026, the design ceramics workshop “Raunas Ceplis” hosted the first gathering dedicated to the hosts of the Smiltene Municipality Home Café Days, entitled “Around One Table”. One month after the culinary journey across the municipality, the hosts met to share their experiences, discuss what had been accomplished and jointly gather ideas for the following year. The discussions were also joined by the heads of parish and joint administrations in whose territories Home Cafés operated this year.

This year, the Home Café Days in Smiltene Municipality took place on 8 and 9 August, when 22 Home Cafés opened their doors to visitors. The hosts welcomed guests with their own specially created menus, a variety of activities and stories about their places, offering an opportunity to discover Smiltene Municipality through its people.

The “Around One Table” gathering was also an opportunity to thank the hosts for their contribution. Ervins Labanovskis, Chair of the Smiltene Municipality Council, and Līga Ozoliņa, Coordinator of the Home Café Days in Smiltene Municipality, presented each Home Café host with a certificate of appreciation for their contribution to the Home Café Days and for strengthening the sense of community in Smiltene Municipality through their hospitality, warmth and the stories of their places.

This time, the hosts themselves had the opportunity to become guests and reflect on the event without the usual bustle around the café tables. Each participant shared their experience, talking about what had worked best this year, what had surprised them or proved challenging, and what they would do differently next time based on what they had learned. The evening’s hosts, Agita and Edmunds Ciņi from “Raunas Ceplis”, also shared their six years experience taking part in the Home Café Days.

An important part of the evening was the “Table of Ideas”, where participants discussed three questions in small groups: what should definitely be kept, what should be done differently in 2027, and what the Home Café hosts themselves could do together.

The hosts highly appreciated the organisers’ communication and support, the visits to hosts before the event, the joint publicity activities, as well as the creation of photo and video materials. Several groups also expressed a wish to continue holding joint meetings for hosts both before and after the Home Café Days, giving them an opportunity to get to know one another, share experiences and discuss practical matters.

Looking ahead to 2027, the hosts suggested starting the promotion of the event earlier, making the need for advance registration even more visible, adding precise location coordinates to the café addresses, and reaching out more actively to audiences in Estonia.

One of the most frequently discussed topics was closer cooperation among the hosts themselves. Participants suggested creating a shared communication group, keeping one another informed about updates, recommending other nearby Home Cafés and places of interest to visitors, and finding ways to encourage guests to visit several cafés in a single day.

The first “Around One Table” gathering proved to be a valuable exchange of experience for both the participants and the organisers. The municipality will use the ideas and suggestions gathered during the evening when preparing for the Home Café Days in 2027.

It is envisaged that the “Around One Table” gathering could become an annual Home Café Days tradition, with the event hosted by a different participant each year. In this way, it would provide not only an opportunity to reflect together on the event just concluded, but also to get to know one another’s places, experiences and stories more closely.

The Business and Tourism Department of Smiltene Municipality thanks all of this year’s Home Café hosts for their hard work, the heads of parish and joint administrations for their involvement, and Agita and Edmunds Ciņi for their warm welcome and hospitality at the first “Around One Table” gathering, which everyone could experience at “Raunas Ceplis”.

 

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Written by: Santa Sinka, Head of the Entrepreneurship and Tourism Department.