Purpose of this Manual

This manual is designed to guide hub leads across Africa in conducting the CATS hackathons (November 1 – December 15). It serves as both a facilitation handbook and a developmental framework, helping hub leads host their hackathons in alignment with regenerative principles and the broader vision of the Cardano Africa Tech Summit.

Each milestone of the hackathon represents a developmental stage from understanding the potential of place to translating insight into functioning prototypes. As a hub lead, your responsibility is to ensure that this journey remains grounded, inclusive, and contextually relevant.

The manual will help you:

Structure each phase of the hackathon around learning arcs and regenerative practices.
Facilitate inquiry, collaboration, and community engagement.
Balance technical development with sensemaking, storytelling, and reflection.
Document and evaluate outcomes in a way that honours both process and product.

Role of the Hub Lead

Hub leads are not only organizers, they are stewards of learning ecosystems. Your primary responsibility is to hold the coherence and integrity of your hackathon as a living system: to connect people, nurture collaboration, and create the conditions for meaningful innovation to emerge, rooted in place.

Your role includes three interrelated dimensions:

Facilitation – Guiding participants through the learning arcs, creating inclusive and participatory learning environments.
Coordination – Managing logistics, communication, and timelines, and liaising with the continental support network of mentors and technical partners.
Documentation and Sensemaking – Capturing insights, patterns, and stories in the publishing stack that contribute to the collective understanding of the projects.

Hub leads are therefore trainers, hosts, connectors, and learners. You are cultivating both technical capacity and community wisdom.

How to Use This Manual

This manual is both a roadmap and a reflective companion. Each section includes:

A clear overview and objectives.
Guidance for facilitation and holding space.
Practical activities and expected outputs.
Documentation and storytelling guidelines.
Checklists to support your implementation.

You are encouraged to adapt the content to your local context while maintaining the integrity of the regenerative framework. Use it as a living document, record observations, add local insights, and share learnings back with the continental network.