Steemit Came, Saw and Conquered Amsterdam!

Firepowaaah in-da-house ya'll!

Okay! So... Last I remember being this excited and in disbelief was when I had taken a corner at nearly 100 mph on a GP-spec racetrack. I had the throttle wide open on a motorcycle, knee down on the tarmac, and adrenaline rushing through my body!

WOW!

SteemFest ROCKED!!!

I've been writing this post since Monday night on my train ride back to my temporary Holland-ish abode at Delft and I'm finishing this 1000kms away in Austria! In between I have gone back and forth over hundreds of pictures, several calls, whatsapp/signal/FB messenger and Steemit.Chat DMs and read the numerous posts on Steemit about SteemFest.

I have over a thousand pictures on my phone and a million memories in my head! When I close my eyes, I feel like I'm in a cognitive hyperlapse that plays on loop, and I just cannot stop thinking about one of the best weekends of my life!

^{[L-R] @foxxycat @anyx @razvanelulmarin @anduweb @firepower (in the center) @roelandp and Freddy!}

I'm totally awestruck and cannot believe (somebody pinch me) that I was part of history in the making! What's more incredible is that I had the opportunity to play my part in creating history itself!

To everyone who directly or indirectly contributed to the success of this event: 'This one goes in the books and you made it happen!'

Steemit.com—Our social media platform came together in such an impressive way at Amsterdam that it has left me speechless!

I utilised the opportunity at SteemFest to meet each and every one of the attendees, listening and understanding their mindset, concerns, wishes and behind using this platform.

Interacting and taking feedback from the community throughout the weekend was one of my main goals as I've invested most of my time in trying to build a strong community of Steemit users globally, and I wanted to know personally from everyone about their feelings for our platform.

From my personal interactions I understood how Steemit has made a difference to several lives. I also found out that many are invested for the long haul and are doing their part to make a difference to Steemit and it's growing, thriving community!

I'm also humbled by the sheer amount of gratitude, love, affection and respect that was shown by every one of the attendees not only to me but to each other!

After months of 'online chatting' I met and befriended several amazing souls in one weekend that it's almost like I've known them for lifetime! It was great to meet all the interesting characters, diverse personalities behind these usernames! It removed any misconceptions I may have had about anyone before I made this trip.

Please know that it is your tremendous input that has resulted in the success of this event and ergo You have my undivided attention, admiration and respect!

If I wasn't there in-person I wouldn't have believed this could be possible!

It's taken me months of hard work and prep to make it here! The past weekend holds some of the most gratifying days of my life!

I hope you will stand with me and support me as I continue to build a massive community of Steemians across the world! Please drop a comment here or feel free to get in touch with me at Steemit.Chat. I'd love to hear what you have to say and help improve the platform for everyone!

It's recommended that you use Ctrl+F now and look for your name!

^{From my presentation at SteemFest}

Momma taught me to be nice and show some gratitude when someone is good to me, so here goes...

Roeland you are frikkin awesome!!!

@roelandp Thank you for putting this together. You are a priceless asset to Steemit and our entire community! I'm glad I didn't miss the opportunity to come to Netherlands. Over 3 months ago when we first discussed the idea of SteemFest I had no idea how huge this could become. But I knew it would be special and worth the effort! You pulled out all the stops and created an atmosphere of friendship and family unlike anything I've witnessed before! You brought your family to help out at the fest! @roelandp 's dad and brother and his girl made us delicious dutch pancakes and blew everyone's mind! You have some incredible ideas and I left Netherlands inspired, motivated and more than anything else knowing that I have a great friend here and I look forward to seeing you, Helen and Viggo soon! You rock!!!

Freddy, thank you so much for managing the event production in the ways that you did. You worked tirelessly to ensure the grand success of the event! I couldn't have done my job without your support and friendship! @all Freddy was managing the production and was one of the key people behind working behind the scenes. @roelandp you have awesome friends and family who support you in the ways they did to help realize this conference!

@riverhead I don't know where to begin! You've been such a great mentor and friend so far! I'm thankful for all the support and kindness you've shown me right from the very beginning. I'm so excited about the fact that we could finally meet half way across the world. It's fantastic how I connect with bikers from across the world and I've realised that I have so much to learn from you. It was great meeting you and wifey. I can't wait to ride the track at PA with you, although expect me to overtake you a few times! haha!

@ned and @dantheman Thank you for creating this awesome platform! I hope Steemit continues to evolve and that it changes and improves lives of not hundreds but millions of its users in the future. I'm glad I found Steemit where I have the opportunity to use all my skills to make a difference to every one in our community here!

To the dev team at Steemit, you guys rock for working behind the scenes to ensure success of the platform!

@smooth and and @nextgencrypto I wish you guys were here. Thanks for all that you've done and continue to do for the platform and putting up with my million questions as a noob few months ago. I've learnt so much from you both and I hope that I can someday help and support the community in the ways that you do! Im gonna work my ass off and make that happen! I'm pushing for upgrades to Steemit.Chat and hopefully you will like the upgrades in the months to come by. Maybe, someday our paths will cross and I look forward to that!

@sneak Thanks for the awesome group picture but more importantly sharing so much about yourself. I am in awe of your knowledge of the crypto world and your extraordinary skills in hacking and programming! If I could go back in time, I would tell me younger self to stick my head in code! I could relate to so many things that we discussed, especially from when we were younger! Hope to catch you in your neck of the woods in the near future! Thanks for all the recommendations for Berlin. I'm really excited to check them out! You are an awesome dude! \m/

@blocktrades Dan and Donna thank you for spending time with me at SteemFest. It was great to get to know you two. Thanks much for sharing about yourself and your city with me! I hope to see you again someday. It was great hanging out and doing the guided tour together!

@cass You're views on life and family are like mine and it's great how you go about work and having fun. I must add that I'm going to be talking about those insane Burritos for a long time to come! Folks it was legendary! I'm also going hold on to your invite for a drive next time I'm in Germany! Thanks for all your support from the very beginning and I'm excited that we met, hung out and partied at SteemFest!

If anyone wants to eat the best Burritos of their life visit:

The team at @steemitsocial @curie @robinhoodwhale and @steemcleaners for managing the show while I'm on the road! You guys rock!

Dear @firepower-Crew! I miss you all!

I've built and managed teams, executed projects before from the ground up but never before have I seen complete strangers come together from different parts of the world and work with such great compatibility, consistency, dedication and efficiency as you have! I am proud when I say this that SteemFest is a success because you supported the event in the ways that you did!

@razvanelulmarin @anduweb @anyx @sjennon @foxxycat you are real champs and go getters!

@razvanelulmarin and I have been talking regularly on Steemit.Chat for a while now. We came up with some interesting ideas for improving curation at Steemit when we curated for Team-@smooth. To meet him, get to know him was one of the best things that happened to me at the fest.

@sjennon is my friend from Amsterdam, whom I brought onto to Steemit recently. When I was selecting a team she was an ideal fit because she was a local Dutch girl and I needed someone local help with my planning and execution. We had such a great time working together that I'm looking forward to the next conference already. I'm glad that you enjoyed the SteemFest experience so much! Your experience and opinion as an outsider to the crypto world was insightful. I'm glad you have decided to stick around on Steemit moving forward.

@foxxycat first of all you are a beautiful soul and it was just amazing meeting you in person. You and Raz make a great pair and your compatibility with each other was instrumental in the success of my lil' operation! I will see you both in Bucharest soon!

@anyx is a chill dude and a cool cat! He's got some great ideas and principles in life. It was great meeting you in person. Im glad that you agreed to making a presentation together at SteemFest. It was great sharing the stage with you, hanging out and exploring Amsterdam.

@anduweb was the biggest surprise because we hadn't conversed all that much prior to SteemFest. He served as the backbone of my operation and was instrumental in helping the fest become successful. He's so great to work with and a kind dude! I can't wait to meet you in Romania along with Raz and Cat!

I want to thank @steemrollin and @kevinwong for being there when we needed some extra hands on deck! Both you guys are awesome! I'm glad we got to hang out, explore the city and get to know each other.

Thank you:

@kevinwong I hope to see you soon in Kuala Lumpur my friend! You are an amazing DJ and your music injected so much energy into me on the conference day! Thank you for sharing your music with me. I was the only one grooving in my seat on my flight to Vienna!

@mammasitta You are one of the reasons I came to SteemFest. It was great to meet you. Thank you so much for hosting me at your beautiful home in Vienna. As I sit and write this post I'm incredibly relaxed, more than I've ever been in the last 2 weeks in Europe. I feel at home and thank you for that! I look forward to you seeing you when you come back to Vienna so we can see the city together tomorrow before I leave to Zurich. I'm so happy that we could meet at SteemFest. It's incredible how we have connected despite being at different corners of the world, all thanks to Steemit and Steemit.Chat Mammasitta you're the best! much love!

@infovore and @norbu I'm sorry you both couldn't make it! I'm highly disappointed with embassies of both France and Netherlands. Many including me, missed meeting you both at SteemFest and were wishing somehow you'd be there!

@thebluepanda and @royaltiffany too bad you two lovely ladies couldn't make it. It's been a pleasure working behind the scenes at St

@heiditravels I was hoping we'd cross paths someday and I must say that you have charming smile! As a fellow traveller it was incredible to finally to meet and get to know you in-person! Wish you the best for your upcoming adventures and don't forget to hit me up on your India leg of 'HeidiTravels.' I can't wait to hear all the stories and experiences you would have accumulated by then! Thanks for bringing your friend @nomadnessie along with you to SteemFest!

@originate and @comealong you guys make such a lovely couple! I enjoyed our conversations to the max. You are an asset to the community! @originate I hope you continue doing the good work you are doing at Steemit. It's also great we share passion for the same car! I hope we can go for a drive when I come over to Virginia! It would be frikkin awesome I think! We need more motorheads at Steemit! @comealong I love your artwork! You are an incredibly talented person and I'm going to be following your work more closely moving forward!

@jamesc It was great talking to you and your wife! You are doing great work at Steemit and I hope we can meet again. Im making it my life's mission to learn DJing from you, @sneak and @kevinwong. I like the fact that you have a great collection of Vinyls and we listen to similar music. It's fantastic. My regards to Lil' J and I hope to see you in Virgina and chill to some of your awesome tracks! I hope you'll teach me some tricks with the Vinyls when we spin some funky beats on your mega collection!

@tatianamoroz You are a beautiful woman with such a lovely voice and I enjoyed your songs! I'm glad we got to hang! I admit I was a bit nervous when we first met at the lobby because I haven't met any celebs before! But then again you are so funny and down to earth that we had a great connection! I also had a great time talking to your friend Terry and would love to connect with him. I hope to see you at NYC soon! Let's make Bitcoin Great again! Booyeah!

@xeroc Thanks for dropping by at my presentation and for your work with Steemit! I hope we can continue to work together and improve the platform as we move forward. It was great hanging out with you during the Red Light mashup.

@roadscape Dude, once again thanks for helping out at Steemit.Chat. It's good to see your presence there and sometimes I feel relieved when a user asks a question and I dont have an answer to it. Thanks for stopping by at my presentation. I hope we can work together and create a solid community for Steemit. It was great to finally meet you!

@blueorgy dude you rock man! Thanks for all that you've done at Steemit so far! I can't wait to meet you in Boston someday and go for a spin in your Camaro ZL1! It was great partying with you in Canvas. I hope we can meet and hang again soon!

@allasyummyfood Thanks for letting me gorge on the truffles you made! It was great to meet you after following your work for months! I wish you the best with your work on Steemit!

@andrarchy It was a great meeting you in person. Your videos really helped me in the early days and was one of the reasons I stuck around. The discussions in your think tank channel has overtime made a positive impact on our community!

@liondani and Mrs, you both are great! Thank you for all that you've done to help everyone visiting the conference! I will see you in Greece for sure! I'm already imagining heading to Santorini now!

@everlove and @saramiller thank you for the awesome T-shirt that you gifted me and for being such lovely ladies. I apologise not making it to Yoga but I'm going to see you at the Garden of Eden in 2017 for sure! You guys are doing an amazing job in your community and ours. Wish you the very best and lemme know if you make a trip down to India.

@cardiff Sorry that we couldn't hang out much. But i'll hit you up on Steemit chat so we can connect there. Lemme know if you and your girl plan a trip down to India. I'd be happy to be your host (same goes for anyone else from here)!

@robrigo You rock at parties man! I hope you get the Virago up and running so maybe we can ride to SteemFest 2017 together! It was great fun hanging out! You're a cool dude, stay that way forever!

@timsaid I had one of the best time hanging out with you and @sjennon together at Amsterdam! Too bad that you had to leave early. Thanks for all the kind words on your voice message, means a lot to me that you sent it ! I hope we can meet in Germany soon! I have so many memories from Amsterdam and I'm glad you made it. I'll try not to mute you again on Steemit.Chat! The answer to your question, 'How do we say goodbye in India?' is that we really dont! We say generally, 'I'll see you soon' or 'I'll be back' in hundreds of languages.

@knozaki2015 I'm glad we could meet and party a lil. You're a cool dude and I really like the way you go about your updates on Steemit. Supa-fast! Hopefully, we can cross paths again!

@onceuponatime It was simply wonderful to meet you in person sir. You're one of the few who have been to India and enjoyed it there! I'm glad my country was able to offer you some amazing memories to last a lifetime! The next time I visit Manali, Rohtang and Kullu I'm going to send you some pictures to refresh your memories of these places! I'm glad we met and I look forward to seeing you at SteemFest America!

@nanzo-scoop Great to meet you in person. I'm sorry we couldn't catchup for too long but I'm gonna make up for it at the next SteemFest.

@donkeypong, @repholder (at Steemit.Chat) and @laonie Thank you for always supporting my work and having my back! Couldn't have gotten this far without your support and guidance!

@neilstrauss It as a pleasure meeting you and hanging out by the snap cube making some really funny pictures. Your presentation was great and I learnt a lot more about the process of writing! Looking forward to staying connected!

@svk I've been looking up Norway ever since our discussion! I have it on my list for my next EU trip already! I think we need to have a meetup in India so you have a reason to come down and travel a bit. I'd love to show you some amazing places here and introduce you to some killer Indian cuisine.

@opheliafu I did not mention this earlier but my Grandfather and Step-dad are award winning artists here! My mom loves to paint and helps out at my step dad's studio sometimes. You gave me a lovely gift at SteemFest and I'm going to hold on to it forever. Thanks for the sketch when I was presenting my talk. It means a lot to me that you did that!

@daniel.errey It was great fun hanging out and partying with ya. I hope we meet at the next one!

@guerrint You are amazing and it as great to meet you in person! I'm excited to see how our Snapcube pics turned out. Stay awesome!

@lisadang It's great that you made it to SteemFest and I hope you will be there at the next one too!

@steemychicken1 You are an awesome photographer and such a nice person! Thank you so much for all your hard work and effort at SteemFest. It's only because of people like you who work effortlessly that it was a fantastic and a successful event. Thanks for putting smiles on hundreds of faces at the weekend.

@skapaneas Finally we met! I hope to meet you and other Greeks in Greece soon. I've followed your art from the begining and it's great you've stuck around and made it to SteemFest. Thank you for coming!

@mariandavp Your art is incredible and I've followed your work for a while. I'm glad we could meet! Thank you for coming!

@wingz It was great meeting you at SteemFest! I hope you will be there at the next one! Do stay in touch and I hope to catch you on chat soon!

@futurefood Great work shooting videos of everyone at SteemFest. Thank you for helping out and all the effort you've put in. I'm excited to see how the videos turn out and thank for your hanging out man! It was great to meet you!

@andrarchy I've told this to you in person but it was your videos that helped me stay put in the early days. Thanks for all that you've done for the platform and the community! I was excited to meet you in person and glad that it happened!

@gandalf Thank you for your help with Steemit.Chat and I hope we can work together in the long run. It was great to meet you and your wife at SteemFest.

@good-karma Thank you for the kick-ass work you've done with the app for Steemit and SteemFest! It was great meeting you in person and I'm glad you made it! You're an asset to Steemit and I hope someday you can help Steemit build a native app or have your's recognised as one! @all please read my buddy @droidsid's review of eSteem app here!

@picokernel Great work with the presentation and I wish you, @fabien and @ekitcho all the very best with your upcoming project. It was nice to meet you in person and let me know if I can be of any assistance!

@menta Thank your presenting some cool ideas at the fest. I wish you the best with your endeavors. I hope to see you at the next SteemFest!

@rocket.chat Your such a fun guy to hang around with but most importantly thanks for developing Rocket Chat. I look forward to working together with you to do some crazy stuff at Steemit.Chat and improve the user experience for everyone at Steemit! Thanks for coming to SteemFest and Congratulations on getting funded! Looking forward to more from the Rocket Chat team!

@scan0017 I'm so glad you could join us at closing dinner! It was great fun talking to you and I'm hoping we can stay in touch. Cheers man!

@mark-waser It was great hanging out with you at the Buritto place. Maybe someday you'll visit India again and find it vastly different to your past experience. I'm sure that you will agree that adaptability is the key to getting along and having a good time no matter where you go and what you do!

@ballinconscious It was great meeting you and you are so chilled out man! I like your attitude on things in general! Keep it up dude!

@wingz You are awesome and we finally met! Yay! Looking forward to the next one so we can hang some more!

@pkattera Dude! It was great meeting you and hanging out. I'm so glad you made it. I hope you visit India and drop by Mangalore so we can hang out from our neck of the woods. You rock dude!

@chhaylin I enjoyed your presentation and I'm glad you did it. You're story growing up was very inspiring and I'm sure everyone who was there feels the same. You've had a quite a journey through life and I appreciate all that you had to say about how we can change the future with Seasteading. I hope your vision and dream to see floating cities and changes in politics materializes in our lifetime!

@chris4210 Dude, You are a great guy to hang out with! We should stay in contact so hit me up on Steemit.Chat and let's stay connected!

@clains You are doing a great job with BitSpace and the blockchain world needs more people like you. It was great to see you at SteemFest. I hope to stay connected! Cheers man!

@ericvancewalton Great presentation and I'm a fan of your work! It was great to see you at the fest!

@ezzy and @rea You are amazing! It was fun meeting and talking to you both. I hope I can meet you both sometime in the UK! Stay smiling you guys!

@furion You have let me in on your diet secrets. I have a hard time staying away from desserts! haha! It was great meeting you buddy! I hope we can meet again soon!

@logic It was great partying with you bro! Hope to see you in the UK in 2017. You rock hard dude! Keep it up!

@mauricemikkers The genius behind the tools for Steemit. Sorry we didn't get to meet and talk for too long but thanks for all your help and contributions to the Steemit community!

@kooshikoo and @l0k1 It was great meeting you both. I'm glad we got to hang out a bit and talk stuff!

@sou1 and @michelle.gent It was just wonderful meeting you both. I'm sorry I couldn't join you at breakfast but I promise next time we're gonna have a full english breakfast together. I'm glad you made it to the conference and it was great to see your participation there!

@twinner Thanks for making it to SteemFest and it was good bumping into you at the conference! Keep posting and looking forward to meeting you again!

@val-a Thank you for your contributions to Steemit and It was nice to meet you at SteemFest. I'm glad you could make it despite all the issues and I hope you enjoyed it and found the experience worth the travel.

@meesterboomm, @fabio, @lafona, @meister, @anahilarski, @shenanigator, @sharingeverybite, @shla-rafia, @richardcrill, @hilarski @wadepaterson, @gargon, @gari, @future24, @vi1son, @anasya, @tomoaki, @shaka, @the-future It was nice to meet you guys and thank for your taking your time to come and meet me. I hope you will be there at the next one as well!

I feel like a total dick but for the life of me I can't remember the name or username of the person working with Cognizant. You were with me and Shannon on the boat ride on Day 1. If you are reading this please drop me a line thanks. Thanks for keeping us company on the boat and I hope you get to travel to India sometime soon!

Totally we had 206 registration from 31 countries for the first ever conference. How cool is that?

This post was made possible by @kevinwong's music. Lending me the energy I needed to write this down! Boom!

SteemFest is a complete success because of you and every Steemit user out there!

@adrichel @ak2020 @akareyon @allasyummyfood @amy-goodrich @anahilarski @anasya @anca3drandom @andrarchy @anduweb @anyx @arcange @bakker4 @ballinconscious @bastiaan @beamit @beanz @bendjmiller222 @bitgate @blocktrades @bloggersclub @blueorgy @boinkdance @burnin @camilla @cardiff @cass @celebr1ty @chainreaction @chhaylin @chhayll @chris4210 @clains @cliff-miller @comealong @creat0r @cryptos @cultuurfort @dan-atstarlite @danea @daniel.errey @dbrock @demotruk @dingting @dobranoc @eagleboy @ekitcho @ericvancewalton @essra @everlove @exyle @ezzy @fabien @fabio @fairytalelife @felixxx @fifigyuri @foxxycat @fruityloan @furion @future24 @futurefood @gandalf @gargon @gari @good-karma @gritzko @grumlin @guerrint @heiditravels @hilarski @ikigai @jamesc @jluv @jonnybitcoin @juanmiguelsalas @kerkyra @kevinwong @knozaki2015 @kooshikoo @l0k1 @lafona @laurent @lindseylambz @liondani @lisadang @logic @lrock @mammasitta @mariandavp @marketingmonk @mark-waser @martin-wichmann @mauricemikkers @meesterboom @meister @menta @michelle.gent @mrs.steemit @muizianer @mysteem @nanzo-scoop @ned @neilstrauss @nightowl25 @nomadnessie @onceuponatime @opheliafu @originate @ottodv @oyvkva @peperhuis @pharesim @phenom @philipp @picokernel @pkattera @pmartynov @pollux.one @prufarchy @qeysolutions @raphaelle @razvanelulmarin @rea @richardcrill @rimke @riverhead @roadscape @robrigo @rocket.chat @roelandp @s0u1 @sabinedewitte @saramiller @scan0017 @schererf @seanmeeh42 @shaka @sharingeverybite @shenanigator @shla-rafia @shortcut @shourai @sjennon @skapaneas @skorek @sneak @sompitonov @spectral @spiz0r @staalmeester @steemrollin @steemychicken1 @svk @tarekadam @tatianamoroz @terrybrock @thailand @the-future @thj @timsaid @tomoaki @tonnykeef @twinner @utz @utz @val-a @vi1son @wadepaterson @wesley90 @wingz @wmougayar @xanoxt @xeroc @xochicotta @yasien @zymer

Thank you for making it and everyone that uses this platform for supporting SteemFest.

Thanks to Job Staal - @staalmeester and his fabulous team at VolksHotel and also the staff at Tobacco Theatre for making this event a success.

If you are in Amsterdam be sure to book a guided tour with Tanja (Tanya) from Whats Up With Amsterdam She led our guided tour for the Red Light District. She's absolutely incredible, her knowledge of Amsterdam beats Wikipedia. Her guided tour is just fantastic and one of the best amongst all my experiences in Amsterdam! She's a lovely woman and a fantastic travel guide. I'm so glad I made it to the tour!

Thank you for backing @roelandp's vision and helping SteemFest with your generous donations!

@bhuz @svk @smooth @wackou @cass @pharesim @val-a @steempty @abit @steemboost @complexring @datasecuritynode @peerplays @steemdrive @blueorgy

Thank you for funding @t-r-f

@liondani @bhuz @christoryan @christoph3 @mrwang @ballinconscious @konstantin @donkeypong @joseph

There are many who needed that little extra help in funding this trip including myself and your contribution will go a long way in helping us!

I haven't slept more than a couple of hrs each in the past few days and I couldnt sleep last night out of sheer excitement! I've been working on this post for last couple of days now!

I'm inspired and motivated to play my part in taking this incredible platform and our community to the next level.

At @steemfest, I was part of something unprecedented! Thank you @steemit HQ for the SP and helping put this together!

Today, I'm in Austria where wonderful and kind hearted Steemian @mammasitta is hosting me but before I sign-off on this post, I recommend that you read all these posts:

^{Excuse the typos... and}

See you all again in 2017 at SteemFest America!

If you like my work, please share my posts and follow my blog to support me.

Steemit Veni, Vidi, Vici! SteemFest 2016—Together, WE made it happen! Thank you Steemians!