The Learning Cafe, REAL@Caledonian opened in 2001 in the Library on Glasgow Caledonian’s City Campus. The cafe was one of the first of its kind providing a venue for conversational learning with 200 seats and 80 computers. The emphasis was on group work, project work, and problem based learning – the technology was there if needed but this was not an internet cafe, it was for people to exchange ideas and learn through conversation and interaction. It was a space for people that made technology available but was not dominated by it. As well as being available to Glasgow Caledonian University students it was also open to the public as part of the Glasgow REAL Learning Network, which had at that time over 115,000 registered lifelong learners. The Learning cafe was visited by many University groups and people from other organisations from the UK and other parts of the world. It provided a sound basis for planning the spaces in the Saltire Centre that was opened in 2006