The irony is that I am considered a whale, but plan to spend all my money on building tools to help people in steem. Makes it quite difficult in addition to think that plane tickets alone will be over 1k.

Love the initiative, but will not be going until there is one much much closer to me :P

Luckily though we have hangouts every week that have no geographical or monetary barriers!
https://steemit.com/beyondbitcoin/@officialfuzzy/guest-signups-beyond-bitcoin-hangout-174-9-25-16-rsvp-to-friday-s-hangout-refer-projects-for-rewards

Every Friday at the server and hangouts that played a vital role in the very creation of steemit.