First Meet Up in Manila, Philippines
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.
I found this through the Steemit Talk Podcast, and I have to say, that I really have mixed emotions about this. On the one hand, it's great that Steemit is gaining traction in the country. But, can this really be called an "official" meetup? I mean, is there really an official sponsorship or was this just an informal gathering. Out of the 8 participants, only 3 were members, 2 of which are related and 1 is, I'm not sure about this, not even a Filipino. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome that @surpassinggoogle has adopted the Philippines as his home. This to me, sounds more like a recruitment drive for new members.
I guess the exclusion of the other Filipino members is what gets to me. It's hard to stake claim over anything without gathering at least majority of the members. There's a Philippines channel on chat, but no one hardly ever uses it for its intended purpose. I've mentioned a call for unity before there, but no one even paid that any attention. I suggested that we all support each others' posts by not only voting, but also interacting in each others' comments section to draw in more readers.
That, to me, is the difference between us and other countries. They seem to be more united, there are informal structures in place and they seem to be much more organized. It's a pity because we have such a huge potential, but there are no recognized figureheads, and most of us just seem to care about our own posts.
In any case, nice effort though, and good luck with future gatherings.
Maybe this is just a start-up and could not be called "official" as of now... I also noticed that the Steemit Philippines' FB group has only 8 members... "Great things come in small packages" as many would say... Please do correct me if I'm wrong about my thoughts on this. :)
i left a comment just above to explain things a bit
Sure, I guess that's one way to look at it :)
it is the beginning of formal, there was sponsorship, even my transportation was paid for. it felt nice. @hulkbuster will tell you more and that part will unmix your feelings. it was pretty sponsored!
Oh, that's great if it was sponsored then! It's nice that it was covered by Steemit as an official function. Though, I wouldn't say my feelings would be unmixed in retrospect.
yep, i read the remainder of your comment and it makes so much sense. only that concerted effort will fix things. after the meetup i thought the same things. really gathering the philippine community of steemit together is hugely powerful but the first part is, do we know all the philippines steemians. i just saw @hulkbuster for the first and his bro as well and before that, i only knew a few and i am sure the same applied to @hulkbuster. it starts there! and i think this meetup restarts it. @allmonitors is doing something to gather us together. if this effort is concerted like you and i and several others wish, then this is huge. hopefully, this sparks up something big. a discord channel would work better than steemit.chat in this case or perhaps back to conventional facebook. @hulkbuster has a facebook page. i dont think there was any intention to exclude. for me to attend, i wonder how i was even known to be in ph
Oh, sorry, let me rephrase. I didn't mean for it to sound like you guys were excluding others. I meant, the non-inclusion of the others, since you guys were the only one who attended, and I only found out about this when your post was mentioned in STP.
yep, i understood you perfectly. i only joined impromptuly as well. we are almost saying the same thing. it is only after the meeting that i started to see oh, it can work. before the meetup, i didnt know anything about being part of a filipino community of steemians. i was mostly on my own, till recently, did i see that this interest existed and until now, i'm seeing your own interesting or knowing that you are in the philippines. i am surprised i was known to be in filippines. it is quite easy to miss out on this things except one is known to write about the philippines etc. @allmonitors for instance, i didnt really know he was in the philippines until i saw a contest of his that mentioned that results will be based on the philippine lotto and before then i knew just a few others and especially one username that posts mostly on philippines history. i didnt even know @hulkbuster. so basically, he must have faced the same and not have known fully all the steemians in the philippines on steemit but this post can spur the change and it is pretty easy. at the very least, it has become evident that you are here and i doubt that you will not be in the nect meetup or involved. i was only part of the meetup that day, as i learned it will be in manila and not too faraway from me. before then, i can have been said to be in some isolation. i didn't know there was aim for a community in PH. i understood you.
Awesome! :D I'm glad we're on the same page regarding that. Yeah, I do agree that the level of anonymity here makes it hard to spot the location. It's a double-edged sword. As such, I'll be including the "filipino" tag in my future posts, and I will change my signature to fit the initiative.
perhaps! we'll talk more. Perhaps, this weekend, i will be able to say hi on steemit podcast. i am usually there and couldnt have known @jedau to have been in ph.
Thanks for backing me up @surpassinggoogle! :)
it was interesting to back you. anyone would. anyone would admire you really, school + this, and you are already all grown. tis all good!
Knowing you from our conversations during the meetup, I can tell that you're strong and smart. I admire you for that :)
Hi @jedau. I appreciate what you expressed.
Filipino members of Steemit were invited. We even have an FB group where I posted there. They were either just busy or away from Metro Manila that's why they weren't able to come. I also reached out to other members through steemit such as unhorsepower777, immarojas, and allmonitors.
I apologize 'cos I missed your profile. In the meantime, please join these groups: 1 | 2. I hope this post will reach out to the others.
The meet up is a mix of gathering members and inviting nonmembers to join.
By the way, we may not be as united as others but we'll get there :)
I appreciate the invite. Maybe it's best to stick with communicating on the platform itself and not on FB, if we want Steemit to thrive. We actually stumbled upon each other on steemit chat a while back, but not much interaction since.
I'm always excluded in lists of Filipino users on Steemit that I've seen, so I've grown a bit used to it :) It's good that you guys are gaining traction though, I'm happy for your progress.
You won't be anymore. Starting now.
I also can't remember having to talk with you on Steemit chat. Sorry for forgetting.
I see no traces of our chat on steemit.chat. Was it on the @philippines channel? Maybe it was another person.
I distinctly remember your name, and because you're one of the few Filipinos I've interacted with here. I think it's in a promo channel. Don't worry about it, man. I have this curse of being easily forgotten :D
We're looking forward to meeting you soon, sir @jedau. We would love to hear from you.
Sure. Thanks for the invite. I hope that I could get a chance to attend some day.
Are you within Metro Manila sir?
I live in Cavite, though I do go to Metro Manila from time to time.
I think we can cover your transportation cost for the next meet up. Can you tell me how much is it? Thanks!
Interesting.
@hulkbuster Please keep me updated with the meet-ups.. I'm just around Manila til July this year. :)
Hello @kuaneun! It's great to hear from you. I'll be posting the dates of the meet up on these FB groups: 1 | 2.
Edit: Oh wait ^_^ you were the one I messaged 2 days(?) ago :)
Yep... :) I'm in Manila during weekdays... :)
Got that :) Thank you!
Well done guys..there'll be more numbers next time around.
Any meet-ups anytime from march 31st till April 1st? Family matters doesnt allow me to stay longer. Or let me know of other times?
I'm planning to have one to two meet ups per month @immarojas :) However, there are no official dates yet. Join these groups for updates: 1 | 2.
We're looking forward to meeting you po :) You were one of the first filipinos I saw when I was just new in Steemit.
oh ok..do you know @englishtchrivy??
mataray yan but she's ok ;)
Can anyone help me on how to show the hidden active key to transfer steem??
you will go to your profile, then click on wallet, then permissions, then on the extreme right side beside active key, you will click on log in to show hidden active key. i think you will need to login on the next login box to have the hidden active key appear
it doesnt accept my login key nor master key :)
how about ur password?
posting and master keys..even the owner key arent accepted
gosh this is shocking. did you save your password somewhere like in your email. cos your password should work. did you copy past it?
i have got the master key written everywhere ;)
Under Wallet tab, click "Permission". From there, you'll see the "Active Key" word. To its right, just click "Log in to show".
its asking a key before showing it.all passwords arent being accepted.
Even the master password po?
yes..its an invalid password
That's strange. Sorry po, I have no more solutions to provide ate @immarojas.
I've heard before that @englishtchrivy is pinoy. Is she in the Philippines right now?
She is..we both arent based in pinas thu. dapat ba andito kami??
Ahh. Hindi naman po. I just wanted to ask :) I was wondering since she uses a different language at her blog name (profile).
It's great that the two of you are home po. Ate @immarojas, where will you reside most of the time during your stay in the Philippines?
i don't think that's foreign..can just be a combi of her name and her inlababo partner ;)
i usually stay near vigan as my mom's here, so mla is a bit far to my liking.
ahh I see :) That's sweet of them
Noted po. Basta I will notify all of you asap regarding the details of all upcoming meet ups.
really good job guys i hope more and more people join both your meetups and steemit. Yesterday i was wondering that i see way to many new people introducing here that are from philippines so i hope in your next meet up there would be at least 20-30 people
Where @krizia was? :P
Hi @filotasriza3! Yeah, I hope so too :) I'm planning to have 2 meet ups this month that can accommodate 12 people each.
About @krizia: She wasn't around Metro Manila on that day that's why she wasn't able to attend. She had some technical problems in Steemit, btw. The only way to solve it was logging in to eSteem - the mobile app for Steemit. But then both of us have no android phones/iPhone. The problem with her profile was on her settings - she can't update it.
still affects me till now, the steemit issue in manila. i always have to do a work around to post. there is some server issues. this weekend will have to do a github submission about it
@surpassinggoogle I think you can address that issue at steemit.chat on #help. My friend had a problem awhile back and they were able to provide solutions. By the way, include the fact that it happened also to me while using my internet stick during the meet up. But it works well now with PLDT internet at our house. It might have something to do with the consumption of data.
Resteemed as part of my initiative to make "filipino" and "philippines" known or perhaps get a better number of audience :)
Thanks po @allmonitors! :)
So awesome @hulkbuster! I'm sorry I wasn't able to attend.
@hulkbuster It's nice to see my fellow pinoy steemians Go and more power guys! we can do it. Hope to join sometime.
Just saw this post and I find it amazing! :) I'm a newbie here. Started June 2017. This happened 3 months before I existed in Steemit. New people and lots of growth has happened ever since this post. We were able to do a very successful meetup hosted by @steemph people - great organizers! And we had a total of 37 attendees! A lot more than we expected too! We're getting more support as we launched @steemph. We're aiming for more than growth. We aim to uphold Filipinos and Philippines the right way, the Filipino way.