Meetups| A refreshing event.

Over a week ago, I attended my first meet up. And yes, the experience is not short of refreshing. I have decided to keep a recap or summary here for future reference and for anyone who wish to get a glimpse of what happened.

Excitement is a very nice word, but it can hardly describe my mood when I heard about the meetup in Ibadan just about 16 days ago. So much anticipation that I can hardly wait for the day to come.
24-02-2018, a day I’ve waited for. It was 2pm and the guests have begun showing their beautiful faces, the red carpet was active for about 30 mins while selected guests were interviewed. At exactly 2:40pm, 10 mins behind schedule, the MC, @mediahousent kick started the program with prayers in both Christian and Islamic manner. Distinguished and anticipated guests had also arrived, in the likes of @nairadaddy, @ejemai, @samstickks, @thelovejunkie, etc.

BLOCKCHAIN & CRYPTOCURRENCY
@samstickks kick started the rounds of lectures that would eventually prove educative and instructive. The meaning, and principle of operation of the blockchain was dissected and explained in about 45mins. A highlight of this lecture was the information provided by https://blocktivity.info that shows that the steem blockchain tops the activity chart on the crypto market, this translates that steem is a prospective investment, for anyone who is thinking long term.

STEEMIT
@tojukaka himself took on this part, where he explained the differences between steem and steemit. How and why Dan Larimer invented the steem blockchain. He addressed questions like: ‘how do I make money on steemit?’, ‘how can my post blow (reach the right audience)?’, ‘how does the author reward and curation reward work?’ and answered some random questions that saw a 3 sbd give away to those who asked. He dissected the nitty-gritty of steemit.

NEWBIE PLAGUE
“We all wake up to do different things only to find ourselves here in this same space at this time.” Those were the exact words of the next speaker ion person of Grace, @gee1, when she explained the problems that a lot of newbies have when they join steemit. A whole lot of minnows are solely interested in the reward or money they can get from steemit and gets discouraged after a few posts manage to hit 3cents, or maybe no cent at all. She highlighted 3 ways to get money on the steemit platform, which were invest money, put in work, and both. Certain dos and don’ts were not left out. She explained how to research materials and importance of referencing those materials, what and how to use right tags.

STEEMIT ETIQUETTE
Acceptable behaviors, unacceptable behaviors and the likes are what the next speaker dwelt on for the next 30 minutes or thereabout. The speaker was in person of @thelovejunkie herself. There are quite a lot of behaviors that are not right, and can affect ones reputation, like spamming someone’s posts with cliché comments or putting up unrelated links on other people’s post. Posting adult content without the NSFW tag will lead to one’s account being flagged and loss of reputation.

STACH
“I have found my steem!” -@ejemai. This forms that singular statement that will be written indelibly in my heart. A dream that was born from the desire to help others and the will power to make it happen. STeem ACcelerator Hub, was conceived by @ejemai, when he was struggling against the availability of resources to help his blogging career, and from a desire to not see anyone go through the difficulty he went through! The project helps to bridge the gap between the online and offline. A hub or an office space where steemians could come and meet other steemians and blog and socialize on free wifi and guaranteed electricity! He mentioned that the initiative has now been implemented in 3 locations around the globe: Uyo, Lagos and the Philippines. Needless to say, everyone is invited to join the movement and take advantage of the opportunity available!

PASSWORD SECURITY
The need to keep your password safe cannot be overemphasized, and it was again hammered by @ehiboss who handled that part. He educated us on how important it is to guide your password, why it is important to change password from time to time and how to keep your password safe. He also highlighted what to do if you suspect that your account has been hacked or someone has access to your masterkey. For those who use a crpto wallet, it is emphasized that 2FA, 2 Factor Authentication, to ensure that your wallet is safe.

FLAGGING/STEEM ABUSE
@gbenga highlighted why someone’s account can be flagged, and things to do to avoid being flagged by steem cleaner or plagiarism bots like cheetah. These things includes but not limited to writing original content, not posting excessively, not using abusive words at another steemians. In any case of misbehavior by the bot, or abuse by a fellow steemian, taking laws into your hands might not be the best idea, rather steem abuse on steemit.chat is the right place to report and it will be handled.

BUILDING IDEAS ON STEEMIT
The very founder of @Airclinic on the steem blockchain, @nairadaddy gave this one. He explained how he converted the idea he has and the skill he has acquired as a medical doctor into making money on steemit. He explained how to achieve similar feat by using your passion and profession to provide services that people need. Everyone who has not already done so was invited to join the air-clinic discord community and interact with others and learn more from the daily discussions as well as the 10 sbd weekly challenge.

STEEMAPPS
@destinysaid wrapped up the series of lectures by explaining why it is important to make use of the applications that are built based on the steem blockchain. These apps include but not limited to busy.org, zappl, utopian.io, d.tube, dsound, etc.
The well over 200 in attendance got refreshments while the program was on and those who stayed till the end also got slices of domino pizza. A lot of socializing took place with a lot of selfies and group pictures. I got my selfie with @mosunomotunde which eventually got me 2sbd during @tojukaka selfie challenge.

I also got an opportunity to meet @adoore-eu and she was as refreshing as i thought.

As if all of these were not enough, we got an announcement that by 4 pm the next day, which is Sunday 25th, a hangout will take place at felele and everyone was invited.
Overall, it was a nice event, one I wouldn’t think twice before attending if I was to choose again.