Here’s a chance for Vancouver voters to look candidates in the eye.

A forum using the so-called world-café format will be held at the Ray-Cam Cooperative Centre (920 East Hastings Street) on Tuesday (October 9), from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The world-café method is designed to engage multiple participants in several rounds of small-group discussions, allowing topics to be hashed out from various perspectives. At the Ray-Cam event, candidates for mayor and council will each address the crowd for three minutes. They will then individually sit down at tables to engage people in a dialogue.

After 15 minutes, candidates will move to another table. The results of these talks will be shared from a broad perspective at the end of the meeting.

It will be interesting to see how candidates will be able to connect with the public in this type of close-range meeting. A long history of broken campaign promises has bred distrust of politicians in some voters. Candidates who come across as sincere and convince voters that their word is their bond might get an edge.

This year’s October 20 election is a crowded field, with 21 candidates for mayor and 71 candidates vying for 10 seats in council.