WHY MEETUPS?

This time last week, we where preparing for the anticipated Ibadan Meetup, which took place on the 24th of February, 2018. This post is not going to talk about the awesomeness of the meetup or its impact on the Nigerian steemit community.

After considering the amount of preparation put into a meetup that lasted for approximately 5 hours (longer for some people). I asked myself this salient question; "why a meetup?". I have an idea about the amount of the preparation and commitment put into this meetup by different committee members (both financially and otherwise), because I was a member of that committee.

One of my invitees after examining the whole event asked me "who is paying for all these?". He was surprised to see substantila amount spent on a meetup and speakers that traveled from far places to speak for less than 15 mins at the event. Honestly, putting myself in his shoes and every other participant that shared that opinion, its surprising to see people from different background and status come together for a single purpose (steemit).

While writing this post, I tried looking for the meaning of meetup. I saw different definitions, but the definition by; http://www.dictionary.com/browse/meetup was more like what I was looking for. it states that, meetup is a "meeting, especially a regular meeting of people who share a particular interest and have connected with each other through a social-networking website"

WHY MEETUP?
I was in a lecture about organizational development some weeks ago, and in the course of the lecture the lecturer opined that one of the demerits of social media is that it has disrupted interpersonal relationship. Also, during that same week I was listening to the radio, and the presenter was discussing about the disadvantages of social media networks, it was also pointed out that it has disrupted interpersonal relationship i.e the way people communicate with one another.
You may agree or disagree with that viewpoint, but at least you will agree that they have a strong argument.

Aside from the fact that steemit meetups are done primarily to expose non-users of the platform to the incredible and endless benefits that steemit platform has to offer, it also helps existing users of the platform to connect with other steemians on a personal level. As a result of the meetups, I have been able to connect with other users of the platform. I can't begin to mention their names, its's endless.

Meetups help you to put a face behind those names you've always been hearing , and connecting with them makes the platform more real to you.
I met a fellow steemian @endowedqueen at the just concluded Ibadan meetup who traveled all the way from Delta State (it's about 7-9 hours drive to Ibadan) just to attend the meetup. Several other participants at the event also traveled from far places to be at the event.
These people understand the true essence of a meetup.

My advise to you, attend meetups, it will make your steem journey easier.

Thanks for reading, I hope you're convinced and not confused that meetup is essential to the growth of steemit community.