SteemFest³ Updates - First names announced - Ticketshop open - Let's fire it up!

TLDR:

First Names SteemFest Announced, tickets now available via the updated website.
SteemFest's Hotel Deals Still Available: from € 55 / room / night (incl breakfast) - Book before mid September or prices go up and availability runs out as rooms become available for the general market again!

Smok Wawelski on Flickr
Smok Wawelski by Mariusz Kucharczyk on Flickr
Hey hey! I am heading to Kraków this weekend for venues inspections, meetings with all suppliers and to put some bears in cages.

Prepping for the third iteration of SteemFest is well underway and with help of great sponsor's managed to get the plankton/minnow ticket price IMHO pretty affordable again. SteemFest is not an event for making profits, but an event for the community. Sponsorship funds go towards lowering the entrance fee for the plankton & minnow ticket, but I kindly ask you, if you have some Steem to spare, or did well last year's December (remember, remember those days in December?) to not abuse the plankton/minnow price and opt for a higher levelled ticket price closer to cost price.

Ticket price dynamic schedule - you know what price you get:
Last year 1/3rd of the bookings of the event came in the last 7 days prior to the event. That literally brought in unnecessary stress and costs because of last minute changes with catering and transportation logistics. If it is just up to me it is totally fine to book last minute, however the Chefs and such want to know prior to the event how much food they need to order :)
So this year, to force you into planning ahead, and hopefully preventing last-minute planning a dynamic schedule is implemented.

Current prices from now to Friday 21st of September - 23:59 UTC Ticketshop
Increase 1 21 September - 19 October 20% of costprice increase
Increase 2 19 October - 6 November 20% of costprice increase
Walk up rate 7 - 11 November 20% of costprice increase
Please visit the completely updated SteemFest website which includes first program details, map of the venues, first speakers (many more to be announced) and links to the ticket shop / integral crypto ticket buy mechanism.

Btw. as a tradition, just like past 2 years, @knozaki2015 immediately when the shop opened. Pretty bold!

SteemFest tickets starting at € 277.77 until 21 september 2018
This year's minimum ticket price is a bit more expensive then last year, but still (IMHO) very attractively priced - The raise of € 66.66 - € 111.11 is due to forecasted & confirmed less sponsorship income, caused by bear markets.
That said, the 'Plankton Ticket' € 277.77 is priced at about 1/2 of the costprice of your attendance, thanks to the support of Steemit.inc and the sponsorship of @scorum.community, @steemmonsters and @smooth, who like the idea to have an event to be as inclusive as possible. Please thank them! - @SteemFest is still open for sponsorships btw.

@T-R-F - Travel Relief fund for SteemFest go-ers
Be sure to also read more on the @t-r-f page about the Travel Reimbursement Fund, I've just donated 1000 Steem to that account which gets distributed after Kraków to all applying attendees. Anyone is free to donate some to this community driven travel fund dedicated to SteemFest go-ers.
What's included in this price:

opening drinks night
2 days of conference incl lunch, dinner & drinks
4 nights of social events
closing dinner incl unique tour
tbd some activities in the weekend
swag.
livestream & recording for people who can't make it
I kindly ask, if you can reasonably afford it to look into options of buying another 'Ticket Type', for example the 'Regular Ticket' priced at 100% of the cost price of your attendance or even higher levels. Check out the SteemFest site's ticket section to learn more about all ticket types. Note that all tickets are equal by means of what you can do with them. Everybody is a VIP, it is just a matter of how much you contribute towards the event.

Buy your ticket with crypto or fiat.
Like last year you can buy your ticket again with crypto. This year the options are SBD, Steem and BTS through SteemFest site's ticket section or with BTC, E-banking and Credit-cards via the SteemFest Paydro ticketshop
Manual Crypto Payments done through the SteemFest site in SBD / Steem / BTS are processed minimum every day at 10 AM CEST and 22 PM CEST by checking our email inbox and validating the incoming transfers on the @steemfest wallet (and the @steemfest wallet on Bitshares). Then we mail you a coupon code to claim your ticket. (you still need to claim your ticket after we mail you the couponcode!)

First Names SteemFest Kraków:
I'm happy to announce the first names for the 2018 edition of SteemFest:
@ned, USA - CEO Steemit
@oliviadejeu, RO - Content creator and founder of Oh Kimono
@dollarvigilante, MX - Anarcho-capitalist, libertarian and freedom fighter against the state & central banks
@joeparys, USA - Online instructor with 350,000+ students, entrepreneur, world traveler
Presentations, workshops and performances will generally last about 20 minutes max, unless more in-depth time is required. Yes, also this year's event will be streamed live.

(Many) more names and location updates to be announced soon. Expect more frequent updates from now on :)

Don't forget to book your SteemFest's Hotels Package for € 55 / room / night including breakfast via the options below

Win tickets & accomodations to SteemFest 3!
@smooth is throwing a contest for 2 tickets: https://steemit.com/steemfest/@smooth/steemfest-ticket-contest
@steemfestdreams is running a contest and you can still participate: https://steemit.com/steemfest/@steemfestdreams/there-is-still-time-to-enter-the-steemfest-dreams-contest
@openmic and @blocktrades + @anomadsoul contest: https://steemit.com/blocktradescontest/@luzcypher/your-chance-to-win-a-steemfest-ticket-plus-accommodations-giveaway-sponsored-by-blocktrades-and-openmic
@spl and @blocktrades + @anomadsoul contest: https://steemit.com/busy/@anomadsoul/blocktrades-steemit-poker-league-steem-fest-ticket-accomodation-giveaway
@thewritersblock and @blocktrades + @anomadsould contest: https://steemit.com/steemfest/@anomadsoul/blocktrades-the-writer-s-block-steem-fest-ticket-accomodation-giveaway
Well, that's it for now. I'm about to pack my bag and hop on a plane to Kraków!

Have a nice weekend!
Greetings from Amsterdam,

@roelandp

Liquid rewards from this post will go to organising @steemfest

SteemFest's ticket reductions are made possible by generous donations from:
@steemit @scorum.community @steemmonsters @smooth