Cardano Ambassadors Workshop Europe - Report
This report summarises and reflects on the very first Ambassador only workshop, hosted by Cardano Ambassadors in November 7-10, 2025 in Drahnsdorf near Berlin, Germany.
The Workshop had a simple goal: To bring Cardano Ambassadors together. And while doing that, to make sure that Ambassadors are able to meet and connect, to build up strong bonds with each other, to share knowledge and experience, to discuss ecosystem critical topics and, most importantly, to coordinate and synchronise individual efforts towards a collective goal, to make Cardano grow and mature on all its layers.
1) Setup
The Ambassadors community is a small, yet highly committed group of independent contributors, builders, educators and much more at the Cardano Ecosystem. The workshop therefore was designed for a small number of people. While the initial idea was to host a workshop to invite Ambassadors in Europe, we changed the scope and opened up to any Ambassadors which also attend the Cardano Summit 2025 in Berlin. This decision set the criteria for the first important thing to manage, the workshop venue which had to be:
- Able to host a group of max 25 people over a timeframe of 4 days
- Able to provide catering
- Ideally positioned not far from Berlin, yet off the grid
Initial research let us stumble over a promising location, a first online meeting with the venue owners showed a great match and the location was quickly after confirmed together with the exact dates.
Now, since the date and location was set, we published an easy website for the workshop where we displayed all needed info to get Ambassadors signing up and to plan their travel & trips.
Sign ups came in briefly after, one major setback was for a few ambassadors who struggled with visa administration and couldn't join due to visa request rejections. However, we ended up with a solid number of signups to bootstrap the first Ambassadors workshop, two members of the Cardano Foundation joining the workshop completed the initial attendees setup.
Next up, was to invite Ambassadors not only to join, but also to sign up their own sessions to present and discuss topics and projects. The First day of the two workshop session days was reserved for Cardano Ambassador sessions, the second day was reserved for the Cardano Foundation to host sessions with ambassadors to discuss the overall project as well for the venue owners which presented their project and history. With that, the agenda was set and ready to go.
And with that, the setup was very much completed, location, time, attendees and agenda has been set. Next up, run the whole thing.
2) Roll Out
Day 1.
As initially planned, the first day (Nov 7, 2025) was mainly check-in for all attendees at the workshop venue and closing the day with Lunch in the evening. The cosy and roots style of the venue allowed us to quickly have a cool and familiar setup and atmosphere, more like old friends coming together than a crypto conference style, which was an important objective of the workshop.
Day 2.
On the second day of the workshop, the first sessions took place where Cardano Ambassadors hosted sessions on 3 topics, before that yet, breakfast was served to fil everyone's belly and get everyone ready for the day. After breakfast, sessions started
- Introductions
Making the round and allowing each attendee to present themself, their work and builder journey on Cardano. Many of us know each other already for years, yet we also had a few newly appointed Ambassadors with us and giving an intro to everyone was a great deal in making folks more familiar with each other. - DRep incentives
Hosted by Simon, a session where Ambassadors discussed current challenges at Cardano Onchain Governance, especially around the incentivisation of DRep’s (Delegated Representatives), a key role within the Cardano Governance system. - Cardano Multi Asset Treasury (CMAT)
Hosted by Hinson & Felix, a session which once more addressed onchain governance, precisely the topic around the possibilities of a Cardano Multi Asset treasury which could allow the ecosystem to not only hold Ada in its decentralised onchain Treasury.
All sessions went smooth like butter and due to having awesome folks present, a lot of high quality thought, perspectives, feedback and ideas have been shared.
Dinner and Lunch, coffee & drinks during the day to keep everyone on energy and lots of side line coffee talks, chess rounds in breaks and deep chats during the day took place.
Day 3.
The third day followed the same pattern as day 2. Breakfast -> Sessions very much, yet the topics surely changed. Day 2 was dedicated to two sessions by the Cardano Foundation and a final session by the venue owners.
The Cardano Foundation session, were:
- Cardano Ambassador program - The Future
A session hosted by Sebastian Aravena, the Ambassadors Program manager. Sebastian gave a intro on the past and current situation of the program, followed by his roadmap, vision and ideas towards the next Cardano Ambassador version, a ever evolving program since 2019. - Onboarding the Next Wave: Building Communities and Driving On-Chain Transactions
Hosted by Josefine Birkigt from the Cardano Foundation Community Team which opened a session on building Communities around the globe with new objectives and ideas how Ambassadors can further help strengthen and support the Cardano community and ecosystem.
After these Sessions, and dinner passed, we opened the floor to the venue owners which shared the history and context of the venue as well as presenting future ideas on how to connect more effectively to the web and blockchain economies and communities. As a result, the workshop venue got heavily interested in Cardano, accepted to receive part of the payments in Ada, opened a wallet and at the same evening, received first tips from Ambassadors to the new venue wallet.
Bonfire and barbecue in the evening outside, wine and beer, some smokes and a holy load of great conversations finished the day, some still in deep discussions until 3am in the morning ^^.
Day 4.
The last day of the workshop was pretty simple and mainly all around check out and getting everyone together to travel to Berlin to the Cardano Summit which will start the next day. Most of the Ambassadors went as group to the villages train station and from there in the same train to Berlin where we then separated and everyone checking in at their hotels.
Everything went smooth and fine, and indeed, a success in bootstrapping the format for Cardano Ambassador Workshops. The concept has been developed and proved, now ready to be wrapped into a blueprint so that other ambassadors can easily repeat and adapt the format to follow up Cardano Ambassador Workshops around the globe.
3) Reflections
1. Less is more
Having a relatively small group over a long time (13 ppl for 4 days) while off the grid is a perfect setup with little noise and distraction around, allowing it to easily create a very familiar and intimate setup, the venue which was the perfect place with the cosy setup, rooms, catering, fireplaces etc further helped to have a space which feels more like a home than a hotel. Non-overscheduled days with enough chill time for ppl to really connect is another time proving that, at times, less-is-(indeed)-more.
2. Ambassadors are awesome ppl
We have loads of communities and groups within the Cardano Ecosystem, and the Cardano Ambassadors program is surely on the communities with an insanely high quality of members, deeply rooted and committed folks, on the ground day in and out, having a group of such ppl coming a first time together in real time was a blast, you can image the quality and depth of conversations which took place, the connections which have been built.
3. Keep it simple
For organising the workshop and everything, not more than 1 - 2 ppl were necessary. Its not needed to have a whole “Team” organising and hosting workshops. Organisation and administration can be kept as simple as possible, reducing overhead and needed internal coordination.
4) What’s Next ?
Since this project was to bootstrap the event and to validate the concept, we now indeed continue conversations with the Cardano Foundation with the objective to align together with the CF to support further Ambassador Workshops in the future and to ensure that Ambassadors Workshops stay a close collaborational effort between the CF and the Cardano Ambassadors community.
Furthermore, we will continue to explore how this low-budget workshops can be funded most effectively, either through sources such as Project Catalyst, Intersect or directly via the Cardano Foundation