Chocothon Washington DC
Event Information
Description
CHOCOTHON is a collaborative platform, a sustainable innovation initiative that aims to empower and connect cocoa farmers and create new opportunities for them and other value chain stakeholders in cocoa production, reducing supply disruption risks.
With the precious support of the World Bank and Valrhona, the World Cocoa Foundation, the Trade for Sustainable Development (T4SD) project of the International Trade Centre (ITC), The Google Food Lab (GFL), Future Food Institute (FFI) and the Business School Lausanne (BSL) invite you to a 2-day hackathon to collaborate on creating, prototyping and birthing hardware and software tools which address some of the greatest challenges of cocoa farming.
Teams will have the opportunity to present their solutions to the top cocoa companies, governments and NGOS working on sustainable cocoa during the annual World Cocoa Foundation Partnership Meeting on 25 October.
The winning team will win 3000$ prize to bring their idea to reality!
Join our mission as a Hacker, Designer, Developer, Volunteer and/or Mentor!
For any further information please email us at chocothon@futurefoodinstitute.org
AGENDA
23rd OCTOBER 2017
9:00 am. OPENING WELCOME DESK (registration / distribution hack-kit / breakfast / networking)
10:00 am. INTRO SPEECH: FRAMING THE ISSUE // WARM UP! // PRESENTATION OF EVENT AGENDA AND GOALS
10.30 am. WORLD COCOA FOUNDATION KEY NOTE SPEECH
11:30 am. LET’S HACK! BEGINNING OF WORK // TEAM FORMATION
1:30 pm. LUNCH
2:30 pm. TEAMWORK
6:00 pm. VALRHONA KEY NOTE SPEECH
7:00 pm. DINNER
FIRST PITCH: RESUME GROUP WORK
24th OCTOBER 2017
9:00 am. BREAKFAST & NETWORKING
9:30 am. GUESTS’ SPEECH
10:00 am. TEAMWORK
1:00 pm. FINALIZE THE PROJECT
1:30 pm. LUNCH
2:00 pm. FINAL PITCH
4.30 pm. WORLD BANK KEY NOTE SPEECH
5:30 pm – 6:00 pm. AWARD CEREMONY
25th OCTOBER 2017
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Teams will have the opportunity to present their solutions to the top cocoa companies, governments and NGOS working on sustainable cocoa during the annual World Cocoa Foundation Partnership Meeting on 25 October.
THE CHALLENGES
CHALLENGE 1
Climate change and deforestation is threatening the sustainability of cocoa. There is an opportunity for better crop monitoring and agroforestry tracking throughout the cocoa farming process through better data. How might we leverage remote sensors and available technologies to improve data tracking to support decision making and improve transparency?
CHALLENGE 2
Cocoa farmers need to diversify their activities, which means producing other crops to make the most out of their lands, enjoy diversified diets, ensure ongoing and regular incomes (outside cocoa seasons) as well as enhance the agricultural biodiversity. In this case they will also need to access market channels that bring them closer to the consumers, and help them secure alternative incomes. How can digital technology help famers get access to the market to get alternative and regular incomes?
CHALLENGE 3
Real time communication to and from farmers can improve traceability, farm management, and overall efficiency. How might we create tools that facilitate the coaching and servicing of farmers?