All hugged out from steemfest and before it's even over there's talk of steemfest2

Update: thank you so much @logic for finding this photo for me! I was having way too much fun to take any pictures of my own!

Very quickly before I get into my thoughts on a steemfest sequel here's how the weekend went for me.

The first steemian I met was @guerrint on my flight from Dublin which was really wonderful as I had been getting to know her a little on steemit.chat and discord and I was so excited to meet her. I met so many wonderful people this weekend that it became honestly overwhelming. Like usernames were turning into real people right in front of my eyes. With the bonus 1900 SP I'm now a dolphin!!

This weekend has been really inspiring and motivational. I'm more confident than ever in the future of steem. I don't know where it will take us in the future, but if it can take us far away from the currently corrupt systems of politics and banking then that's something to be really excited about.

By the end of the festival people were already talking about steemfest 2. @roelandp did an incredible job with this years festival, so good that it's going to be hard to live up to. Here are my thoughts on where and when it should be.

Firstly we were in a tourist haven at a less touristy time of year. Despite the cold weather there were still tourists asking what the festival is about. This is what we should aim to achieve. Bring steemit outsiders in!

Amsterdam was a great choice to have the festival. Tourists are always on the lookout for fun festivals or events they can attend as part of their holiday. November however is not the best time of year to pull as many tourists attention as possible.

The attendees of the festival came from all over the world. People flew for days to get to Amsterdam. I flew 2 hours. It's clear from the number of people who flew across the world that people are invested (financially and emotionally) in the platform, the concept and in the community.

While I would love to some day see an Asian steemfest maybe in Thailand or Hong Kong, I strongly believe the next festival should be either in Canada or America. Places that I think would be great for the next one include Brazil, Vancouver, San Francisco or Las Vegas. Maybe we could do a run-off poll on where we have the next one, nominating only cities where we might have a team of event managers like @roelandp to help pull it together. The payouts from that poll should be put towards funding steemfest 2.

I'm not sure I can wait another year! July seems appropriate to celebrate that first ever payout when everything became real! And it would be great if we could have some brainstorming on what we should do differently with the next festival in order to make it more inclusive for the steemit outsiders.

Don't forget the bounty for that photo of me with ned! 5 steem dollars to whoever finds it for me!