Greetings to the Steemit Community!
Philippines just had its first meet up on Thursday, February 23, 2017 at the Eat. Cafe, inside V Hotel, along Adriatico Street, Malate, Manila.
There were a total of 8 people who attended out of the countless people I invited: 5 of the attendees haven't heard of Steemit or even blockchain technology. The remaining three attendees are members of Steemit namely @hulkbuster (me), @surpassinggoogle (Terry), and my brother @migo25.
Some of the goals of having these meet ups are to:
- form and develop a firm physical community for Steemit's early adopters,
- conduct grassroot conversations, and to
- introduce Steemit to other people through invitations
The meet up was sponsored by Steem Inc. I think that's the same with the rest of the meet ups.
Our community here thanks @ned for his kindness, support, and efforts. Thank you so much sir.
Describing the event: The conversations were almost nonstop because of all the storytelling by the members, as well as the questioning brought upon by the interest and enthusiasm of the guests.
Dinner with (from left to right) Chris, @surpassinggoogle, @3 of the 5 guests, and @migo25 - my brother
Taken before the presentation.
And so it begins...
The meet up started at 5 pm when I and my brother introduced ourselves with a waiting guest.
I and my brother had conversations with the young man as I tried to finish my powerpoint presentation and as we waited for the other people to arrive.
About an hour and a half later, the elevator opens...
I saw this tall man which I immediately knew because we've been friends on Facebook since January (I think) and I've seen his photos.
As I first saw him, I told myself, "Oh wow, he's real." I then asked him, "@surpassinggoogle, right?", to which he affirms.
He then went to the other people and introduced himself. I told my brother: "He's @surpassinggoogle!".
We talked about our experiences, our personal lives, the events and other people on Steemit.
7 PM
The sun went down and it was 7 PM -when some of the remaining guests arrived. At that time, I began my presentation.
The target of my presentation was between the guests and the members of Steemit, but much closer to the latter.
I talked about blockchain technology - I told them that it basically does the important roles of centralized financial institutions (i.e recording transactions), it's protected by cryptography thus secure, distributed in a peer-to-peer fashion, and on top of that - a database (capable of storing anything which can be coded).
From there, I jumped to Steemit where (as I know), what is being stored on its blockchain aren't just tokens with monetary value, but also posts/content. I then added that Steemit is kind of a combination of: blockchain technology, concepts in finance/economics (i.e. owning assets), social media, and pre-determined math formulas.
During the presentation.
More on the presentation.
Continuing my presentation, I told them about STEEM, Steem Power, and Steem Dollars - the three tokens in Steemit. I also added what they can do out of this new system (e.g. posting, commenting, curating, speculating, investing, buying/selling their good and services, etc.) to earn the tokens.
Finally, I provided them tips based from my experience. I told the listeners about projects that may help such as Project Curie and Steem Guild, that it is important to use SteemTools, to store their passwords in many ways, and to develop relationships with other early adopters, and etc.
The presentation aided the guests to discover the weight of Steemit's potential with the Steem blockchain and learned noteworthy tips.
However, the presentation was also just not tangible enough...
My presentations were somehow abstract that the other guests asked for a more tangible explanation. As I stated, my evaluation on my own presentation was that the target was more focused to the members.
It's a good thing that @surpassinggoogle and my brother @migo25 were there, and that I loaded my internet stick. What happened next is that I handed the microphone to @surpassinggoogle, and he started sharing his experiences as a blogger in Steemit. The guests listened well, so nice one, Terry! :) You gave the most stories. My brother who also had some exposure by using Steemit also provided answers and thoughts to the guests. So, thanks a lot bro! Finally, I used my internet stick to show them the Steemit website - to which the guests had a chance to explore and thought of more questions - they were an inquisitive bunch and I was so glad that they were because I also learned a lot. I felt happy.
Terry (@surpassinggoogle) talking about his experience as a user of Steemit. I'm the one on the left.
Dinner and Informal Conversations
After some storytelling, we had our dinner and informal conversations. Even during dinner, our talks were still continuous. We were having a great night. Some of the guests thought of what they would post - their passion. Some of them thought of sharing what they learn in school and delivering it in layman's terms. Some of them would explore the kind of posts being produced. Some, to their amaze, thought a lot about anonymity, their posts being permanent and highly secured, as well as having a digital wallet.
Dinner time. We had creamy pork with mushroom, creamy vegetable medley, rice, chicken cordon bleu, and brownies - they were all delicious and made by Chef Erik Capaque.
Some of the guests sharing ideas.
A special story
I would like to share a special story which happened during our dinner. There was this tourist who innocently went inside the venue to get food. He thought that he was using a sort of coupon. I saw him and noticed that he was about to be approached by a lady taking care of the venue. The man already has his food and was already about to eat so I and Terry just told the lady that it's fine to have him with us. Besides, there were a lot of food and space - capable of accommodating around 20 people. Terry asked the man if he has time because we thought of presenting Steemit to him. He gladly says "sure" and later on we had him join our table. So we made a new friend and hopefully a new member of Steemit. We told him that it would be a good idea to share his travels around Philippines on Steemit, during his stay here in three weeks. He's from Switzerland, as far as I could remember, and his name is Chris.
That's me, Chris - the tourist, and Terry (@surpassinggoogle)
And so it ends...
The first meet up in Manila, Philippines (or possibly the first in the Philippines) ended at 9:50 PM. We said our byes, looking forward to our next meet ups. If we can have at most 12 attendees next month, I think we'll be able to conduct 2 meet ups. Upon leaving the venue, I handed money to Terry for his transportation expenses. I promised that any member of Steemit within Metro Manila, who will attend will be granted with free transportation.