Closeout Report¶
1. Project Identification¶
Project Name and URL on IdeaScale:
Wada Hub Hackathon: A Local Community Catalyst
IdeaScale ID: 1300190 – the official listing where the project was proposed, voted on, and funded within the Catalyst ecosystem.
Project Manager: Tobias Fechner, Process Infrastructure Lead at Prisma, responsible for overall delivery of the project.
2. Project Timeline¶
Start Date: February 1, 2025 – initiation of Milestone 1 activities, including stakeholder mapping, outreach to prospective participants, and initiation of conversations with potential partners.
Beginning of Enrollment: March 31, 2025 – initiated preparatory workshops for the screened and selected participants.
In-person Hackathon & Intensive Workshops: May 18–31, 2025 – a focused two-week collaborative sprint in Accra bringing together developers, domain experts, and entrepreneurs. The first week focused on foundational concepts such as living systems, decentralised decision making and self-organising teams. The second week consisted entirely of market validation, product design iteration and prototyping.
Excursion to Dream Village, Dambai: Participants visited Dream Village, a living lab for regenerative practice. This experience, integrated early in the intensive, served as a catalyst — exposing participants to radically participatory, sustainable solutions and inspiring them to frame their blockchain experiments through systems thinking and deep place-based engagement.
Final Deliverables Submission: May 31, 2025 – all prototype dApps were presented and the code was submitted. Teams had one week to prepare for the pitches to the evaluation panel consisting of 5 judges from partner organisations across the fields of regeneration, funding, web 3.0 and social impact.
3. Project KPIs and Outcomes¶
Project-specific KPIs (as defined in original proposal):
1. Identification of Lead Impulses and Initial Stakeholder Engagement¶
We considered the on-the-ground "hub team" (Accra Resource Centre) as the source of the lead impulses, as they are the ones we would be continuing to develop the work going forwards, and therefore would be considered as the primary leaders of anythig after the end of the program. There were 2 core leaders identified, who signed a letter of commitment that was submitted as part of milestone 1. The users were identified through the hub team also, helping us get in touch with local communities of developers and entrepreneurs. The users of potential prototypes were identified by participants themselves during their own outreach throughout the program. Core competencies were co-designed between prisma and the hub and published onto the hub's site (the same site as this page is published on). In the end we went for 100% local developer engagement, without any external developers joining, besides those from the core facilitation team.
| KPI | Metric | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Number of lead impulses confirmed | ≥ 1 and ≤ 3 with signed letters/agreements | 2 |
| Target user base defined | At least 25 potential users identified and documented | True |
| Developer competency requirements documented | At least 3 core competencies listed | True |
| Local vs. external developer balance | % of competencies matched with local talent | 100% |
2. Community and External Engagement Preparation¶
Indeed we engaged three external stakeholders from personal networks of the core organising team, choosing to play it safe as opposed to making it more high-stakes and reaching out to organisations with a more investment-oriented objective. In the end, after the first onboarding call with participants on the ground, we also extended an "unofficial" invite to some more high-stakes contacts. The roadmap was generated internally and used to coordinate the outreach between the hub team, wada and prisma. The workshop topics were set, derived from the event outcome aims and led by the Lead Learning Designer from Prisma, relying heavily on dialogue with all partners involved. These were iterated throughout the enrolment process and influenced the emergent agenda during the intensive. Roles were clarified during a kind of "internal organisational development" phase that lasted 3-4 weeks and involved all core partners.
| KPI | Metric | Result |
|---|---|---|
| External stakeholders identified and contacted | ≥ 3, with documented engagement plans | True |
| Engagement roadmap finalized | 100% of outreach, onboarding, co-design steps listed | True |
| Workshop topics defined in co-design plan | ≥ 2 topics identified | True |
| Participant roles assigned in co-design | All roles clearly defined and documented | True |
3. Event Capacity Building and Participant Onboarding¶
Attendees were registered in Luma, across several enrolment calls, and "Meet & Greets" in which we informally interviewed applicants. In the end, we accepted everyone into the program. The representation of participants was fairly narrow, attracting mostly beginner-intermediate developers and blockchain enthusiasts, aged 20-30 years. There was a fiarly limited proportion of women to men, however, there was a huge diversity of personalities and approaches to project development, which became apparent by engaging the agency of every participant during the intensive. Everyone had a chance to bring themselves into the process and they did so with sincerity. The collaborative environment was setup prior to the event, however, onboarding and contribution only really happened once the in-person activities had begun.
| KPI | Metric | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Total confirmed participants | ≥ 30 registered attendees | True |
| Participation diversity | Representation across community, developers, stakeholders | False |
| Self-discovery workshop sessions conducted | ≥ 1 session, with documented participant feedback | True |
| Collaborative environment setup and usage | Platform live, ≥ 15 active members before event | False |
4. Event Execution and Adaptive Process Facilitation¶
The intensive was full of workshops. The facilitator team were facilitating all day, every day, throughout the weekend and beyond. By the end of day 4 we had managed to cultivate enough self-initiative and collective alignment for 3 teams to organically form. The extent to which these were indeed organic processes was evidenced by how the teams sought internal coherence for the remainder of the project, navigating inevitable frictions as they tried out self-governance practices, and stretching themselves to deliver a result they were proud of, as a team, in a timely manner. By the end of the intensive, each team had begun their development into an effective organisation. Two and a half weeks was more than enough for an in-person, all-day-every-day intensive. Fortunately this was agreed upon prior to the start of the in-person activities. Of the participants that registered and/ or attended online enrolment calls, the engagement during the in-person period was moderate. However, another learning was that it is a lot to ask of people to make themselves available full-time for two weeks. In some cases, participants had taken holiday to participate, although this was considered as an exceptionally successful level of engagement. In terms of adaptive changes, there was continuous evaluation, both formally via whole-team syncs on the balcony outside the learning space at the end of the day, as well as informally in any other moment, such as the taxi ride home, the kitchen, and in between workshops crashed-out on the beanbag. Fortunately, we had set up a voice-based reflection practice, which received over 400 reflections during the 3 week period around the intensive, which is made available online here. One improvement for next time would be to accept multiple forms of media into this system, as collating all documents of workshops and presentations after successfully encouraging decentralisation has been like trying to herd cats.
| KPI | Metric | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Co-design workshops held | Weekly for 4 weeks; ≥ 4 total sessions | True (after duration update) |
| Weekly participation in feedback sessions | ≥ 75% of participants engage weekly | True* |
| Adaptive changes made based on evaluations | ≥ 1 documented change per week, if needed | True |
| Workshop documentation and reports submitted | 100% of sessions reported with presentation materials | True (eventually) |
Note on the weekly participation in feedback: Of the 3 feedback forms used routinely throughout the intensive to gather feedback from the cohort as a whole, the 'Growth Form' is identified by our Evaluation Lead, Shik, as the most important. As is evidenced in Weekly Feedback Data & Participation Statistics, this form gathered 92% and 100% participation for weeks 1 and 2 respectively. On this basis, we are considering this KPI a pass, although note the low participation on other forms as possible room for improvement for next time, nonetheless. Shik also noted the possible cause of low participation rates as being ambiguity around incentives. This is something we will double-down on going forwards.
Cross-Phase / Strategic KPIs¶
For us, producing engaging accounts of the learning experience is very important. We haven't seen as much engagement in our material as we would have liked to and we'll address that going forwards by creating a centralised/ integrative page for a given event, sign-posting to various other perspectives/ apps. The local ecosystem engagement, in all honesty, was dire. There could have been much more action made by the local teams who were eager, but sometimes could have benefited from greater focus. The budgeting is considered a hindrance in this regard, leaving too much room for people to start thinking in terms of "what's needed to get this done?" instead of "what would be needed for the best possible future imaginable for my community?" For example, the hiring of an external videographer became a strong point of friction. Someone coming in to get the job done, with minimal intention to engage with the purpose of the process as a whole, in a role with a very qualitative output - is a missed opportunity. Contrasting that with the whole premise of self-organising and the abundance of talent present in Accra, it's a clear learning for next time to activate that role more purposefully next time around. The Cardano platform awareness was evident. With a very strong onboarding workshop that perfectly equipped participants with the essential knowledge needed to feel confident in their endeavours, almost all participants were actively thinking in terms of genuinely worthwhile real-world use-cases of Cardano. APIs were made available to help bridge the gap for the devs which were still onboarding to writing code, let alone smart contracts. Given the immense will generated for their self-initiated projects (which was a product of intention program design, not a coincidence), where they began prototyping with Cardano toolkits, it's a high likelihood that at least the first stage of their developer journeys will be with/ through the Cardano ecosystem. Feedback forms were used which recorded several reflections on their adoption of Cardano functionality in the development of their prototypes.
| KPI | Metric | Results |
|---|---|---|
| Stakeholder retention rate | % of initial stakeholders engaged through final report | Low |
| Local ecosystem engagement | Number of local actors (businesses, devs, leaders) involved | Low |
| Cardano platform awareness | % of participants who demonstrate understanding post-event (via surveys or feedback) | High |
4. Key Achievements¶
Strengthened Partnerships: Formalized collaboration agreements with Wada as the network partner, Dream Village as the techno-village partner, and ARC as the local hub, establishing governance structures and resource commitments.
Community Growth: Successfully onboarded 22 new Cardano developers, forming 3 multidisciplinary teams that delivered working prototypes, with plans for ongoing mentorship and community meetups.
Deliverable Impact (dApps developed):
-
Bin-to-cash: a Cardano blockchain-based incentivised waste disposal and recycling pipeline built on Telegram bots - creating a win-win-win model for house-holds, waste-collectors and recycling companies..
-
Carpool: a decentralized carpooling service leveraging Cardano blockchain for seamless peer-to-peer transactions to help alleviate traffic congestion in Accra - with a focus on collating employee pick ups and drop offs.
-
Bars-on-Bars: an AA-like support platform that integrates messaging, behavioral incentives, and structured mentorship programs to combat addiction in local communities - especially in schools and universities.
Prototype Delivery & Pitch: All three teams developed fully functional prototypes during the intensive phase and delivered polished pitches one week following completion of the in-person hackathon.
Field Visits & Real-World Models: Participants conducted a site visit to Dream Village in Dambai, an established permaculture eco-village designed around community-driven sustainable solutions. Inspired by Dream Village’s participatory design and local resource optimization, the cohort examined how eco-village principles—such as decentralized energy, cooperative governance, and circular waste management—could inform blockchain-based community models back in Accra.
Knowledge Assets: Produced one detailed timeline, queryable with GraphRAG.
5. The Evaluation Process¶
Preparation & Design¶
Value themes and their weights (Social Relationality, Learning, Creativity, Productivity) were co-created by participants during enrollment calls and a live “Valuing Workshop.” Extensive theoretical grounding in systemic thinking and participatory design set evaluation priorities before hands-on activity.
Multi-Modal Tracking¶
Telegram Timelining: Daily, participants logged reflections, stories, and verified value-contribution entries using carefully designed bot schemas—for example, peer-verified acts of support (Social Relationality), milestone logs (Productivity), idea sparks (Creativity), and explicit before/after learning (Learning).
Structured Forms¶
Self & Peer Evaluation: Daily forms (built with Tally) tracked interpersonal relations, learning/growth, creativity, and contribution—requiring both numeric ratings and example-backed narrative for both self and peers. Facilitation Feedback: Anonymous forms before and after the intensive captured feedback on leadership, group process, and facilitation methods. ALJ “Pulse” Forms: Sense-checking at key intervals measured changes in motivation, group energy, and expectations.
Multi-Perspectival Data Synthesis¶
Data from all forms, timelining entries, peer and facilitator feedback, and team outputs were aggregated into a graph database (Neo4j). GraphRAG enabled deep, longitudinal querying—cross-referencing peer scores with timeline entries, surfacing patterns in social support, creative bursts, and quiet productivity alike. Statistical analysis (via Jupyter Notebooks) visualized distributions, highlighted score trajectories, and empowered fair, evidence-driven decisions.
Rigorous Ranking¶
For individuals: Composite scores incorporated self/peer ratings, qualitative “power up” mentions, and verified timeline value contributions. For teams: Weighted scores, determined by the co-created schema, synthesized all data streams across Regenerative Growth, Team Potential, and Business Viability. Visualizations (bar charts, heatmaps, radar plots) documented the entire process; rankings directly determined transparent prize distribution.
6. Key Learnings¶
Successful Elements:¶
In-Person Intensive Format: The two-week in-person immersive format fostered accelerated trust, communication, and iterative development cycles.
Emergent Prototyping: Applying emergent-learning principles helped participants rapidly co-identify and refine high-priority use cases, enhancing solution relevance.
Systemic Framing: Addressing community problems from a systems perspective led to solutions with deeper, regenerative logic.
Self-Organizing Leadership: Trusting in decentralized group process mobilized collective intelligence and rapid iteration.
Field Learning: The excursion to Dream Village and street-level customer discovery proved that direct community validation is vital to refining solutions and ensuring relevance.
Improvement Opportunities:¶
Introducing a structured remote orientation phase two weeks prior could decrease the initial onboarding friction and maximize hackathon time.
Allocating dedicated facilitators for non-technical roles (e.g., project management, UX research) would support participants less familiar with agile hackathon environments.
Unexpected Insights:¶
Strong demand emerged for blockchain-based supply-chain traceability solutions among local agricultural cooperatives, indicating a strategic opportunity for a specialized follow-on cohort. Narrative depth in voice notes often flagged deeper “systemic” value than numeric ratings captured.
7. Next Steps for the Solutions Developed¶
Short-Term Actions:¶
Finalize the case-study package and push to GitHub, ARC website, and Catalyst repositories.
Schedule and promote a virtual demo day with partners and potential funders to secure pilot commitments.
Medium- to Long-Term Plans:¶
Expand the Action-Learning Journey model to additional Ghanaian hubs (Kumasi, Tamale), leveraging refined facilitation frameworks.
Pursue follow-on Catalyst funding, corporate sponsorships, or grant opportunities to support a second cohort and deepen community engagement.
8. Final Thoughts and Comments¶
The Accra ALJ broke new ground in participatory, systems-driven innovation for Cardano adoption in Accra, Ghana and potentially beyond to other parts of West Africa. Deep preparation, theory grounding, and real-time evaluation set a new standard for value-based programming, and the collaborative process—grounded in lived experience, multidimensional data, and transparent decision-making—yielded results that endure beyond the project’s close. This work demonstrates that when facilitation bridges context, participant voice, and rigorous evaluation, the outcome is not just prototypes—but an ecosystem capable of self-renewal, growth, and continued impact.
9. Links to Resources¶
ARC Website: https://www.arcaccra.com – hub information, upcoming events, and community contacts.
Prisma Docs: https://docs.prisma.events/ – program overview and emergent-learning methodology.
IdeaScale Proposal: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/1300190 – original project submission and community feedback.