Hey Steemians!

Its my last day here in Lisbon as I type out the draft for the reflection i have after a few days past the event. I'll probably be only able to publish the post by the time i reach Malaysia. (edit: yep, by the time I've reached Malaysia, cured my jet lag, done all my other stuff, it is a few days well past when i drafted this post)

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I can confidently say it's one of the highlight of my year if not my life thus far. Steemfest it's just that amazing.

Granted, personally, 2017 has me witnessed much growth in many areas of my life, it's a year of forming a proto-manifesto for myself and the year i have completely eradicated any self doubt and trails of depression left from the a few years back that I have suffered. Though that is a another topic deserving of it's on post some other time.

Steemfest2 is icing on the cake, a final nail in the coffin for second thoughts and doubts. I am very comfortable to say that in a few years time, looking back i will say Steemfest2 is a critical point inflection point in my life sets my purpose in stone. A purpose that, now, i have set myself to achieve no matter how long it takes.

A different perspective

Growing up a small town in a third world country, I would never imagine a necessity nor opportunity to go to a conference in Europe (much less a cryptocurrency one) in a million years. Living my "normal" life, its just not attainable.

After meeting the people and experiencing the vibe from everyone around me, i have come to the realization that a conference of such nature is absolutely necessary for people who are the active members of the Steem Blockchain.
There's no ROI on the value of "priceless".

I have powered down half of my SP in order to afford an airline ticket, prepare for expense, and sponsor a ticket for my friend @vaelriey who joined with me during the conference.

Financially speaking, it's a shit move. I've basically spend the rewards of on average 4 months of what i did on Steem for a retreat in a beautiful country.

There's no investors there ready to throw money, there's no business intergrators, nothing that will suggest Steemfest itself to be a "business-y" conference. But the experience of being there, to finally meet and shake the hands of Steemians I've only ever communicated online was a felling like no other.

So what are my takeaways for Steemfest2?

As a person who had never flew international flight, never flew to europe, never attended a cryptocurrency conference, didn't attend Steemfest 1.. It's an amazing experience, in case you haven't heard it a thousand times. Besides the fellowship with fellow bloggers that think alike and each has their own special story, besides the unending flow of wine and beer (seriously @roelandp, how did you do it),
besides the amazing locale and endless good pictures, I've learnt so much from this trip.

1. There's so many community initiative and there's so much opportunity to collaborate

It's almost impossible to keep up to date of the initiative that's going on and to find the right people that wants to support what other's are doing by relying solely on the online platform itself.

For example, I have connected with @immarojas, a community manager for TeamPH, the #kr-community delegation (thanks @ramengirl, @roychoi, @successtrainer for the authentic korean Ramen!! @vaelriey loves it!!),
@anomadsoul and @pgarcgo from project @cervantes who done amazing stuff to build the Spanish speaking community, and learning the initiative in #kr-community by @hansikhouse. Not to mention the lovely conversation with @roxane and @oroger where I learn so much from @roxane herself on the things #fr community is doing and how i can apply it to #Teamamalaysia.

_{It was so great to meet with @Roxane because her initiative for the #fr community resonates so clearly with me in #teammalysia, it was so cool to learn what she is doing}

_{Picture with @jerrybanfield, who is responsible for bringing in at least tens of thousands of new Steemians onto the platform.}

No doubt #Teammalaysia is still growing, we literally started the initiative on a whatsapp chat less than 4 months ago.

We are in our in our infancy and I can only imagine the things made possible by the Steem Blockchain in my small country of Malaysia. I want to see this enterprise succeed, for that to happen, there needs to be much much more ahead of us, paths need to be forged and roads paved.

And like the layers of the Lisboan cobblestones sidewalk, we as a whole must labour with love to build the necessary foundation to make this happen.

_{Looking at the lisbon sidewalk really got me blown away, imagine the hundreds of thousands of manhours needed to align those stones one by one.}

Everyone is a contributor, We cannot wait for "someone else" to get the job done if we can do it. And speaking of which..

2. There needs to be more communication from Steemit.inc and other app developer on the Steem Blockchain

Yes, i know i've just said we need to be proactive and not wait on the sidelines.. let me expound on that.

Steemit is the first app build atop the Steem Blockchain, and for that they will have to be the de-facto entry point for for beginners into the Steem ecosystem, at least for quite some time. Imagine how the in the early days the interenet is only possible for the the average people through Netscape (shortly after AOL). I believe Steemit.inc will serve that purpose for the Steem Blockchain, which is not a bad thing!

But serving the purpose they serve, it's quite sombre to realize that they are working on so many things but if not for their panel during Steemfest, no one else would know about it!! In fact, many people still aren't aware of what Steemit.inc is doing or get the idea behind the re-branding of Steemit.inc (which after hearing @ned's explanation, i fully get it) simply because the message isn't communicated as well as it should be!

I know, Steemit.inc being an app development company and it makes sense currently to focus on actually creating a product rather than spending too much precious resource into marketing and branding. Though the time is fast approaching to change that way of thinking. Steemit.com's size is reaching significant level, the only way now to proceed in terms of growth is by marketing the message, You have a great app!!

Other's has gone full herald-mode with way less of a usable product and is somewhat succesful. I'm glad that the team behind Steemit.inc is beginning to consider marketing in their next stage. It's about damn time.

And let Steemit.inc serve as an excellent example of what to do for the many dozens of app developers on the Steem Blockchain!! There are so many powerful product but not enough marketing to communicate the product to the prospective users! There are literally up to 400,000 potential users ready to try out what you've developed if they only hear about it.

I am glad to be able to attend Steemfest because i can meet up with some of the developers and get a refreshing presentation of what they are offering to the Steem ecosystem.

3. Steemians, no matter how lofty you think they are, are still regular humans like you and me, just approach anyone and they are more than happy to talk to you.

It's no secret that I hold some Steemians in very very high regard. In fact most of us do, some Steemians here are literally celebrities within the space. I'm not gonna name names but you know who you are from the way i literally fanboy over you (my apologies for that hahaha).

But despite the attention they have received, I can say that all of them are very down to earth and easy-going. It's such a relief that like what i've been telling people, engagement is something they focus very much and it shows, it's how one grow ones network, no matter what "level" one may be.

Take the time to come up with a meaningful conversation, no matter online or face to face, Steemit is a very human platform and Steemfest is it's version on steroids. You literally can get high on humans, just imagine 5 days of non-stop socializing, talks (and boozing, owh my goodness, the boozing.) and i still have the energy to jump up down and around all through to the last day. I've met enough people to last my social quota for the next 2 years.

Bear in mind that i am an introvert by nature. Of all the people i've talked to, none of them gave me a feeling of superficiality or gave "cookie-cutter" conversations, you know, like how sometimes you talked to a politician or some half-famous artist and gets left with some yucky aftertaste in the mouth...

If you have any questions, just shoot them an email or a comment, some can even be approached as easy as through steemit.chat!

@vaelriey, @soldier and @mrs.steemit looking pretty in the selfie, unlike ugly me being myself, LOL!

4. My Story isnt unique and is prevalent all throughout the Steem community

Have I told you the story of how the Steem Blockchain is changing my life? not yet? huh, i should. i'll tell it in greater detail for another time but the gist is that it is entirely possible to not only change lives but potentially whole communities through creating value on the Steem Blockchain.

We've seen especially how it's working now in Venezuela, with the story of @oscarcc89.

@oscarcc89, whose dedication to Steemit had the whole @cervantes community unilaterally sponsor his travel to Lisbon for Steemfest. I was told he will do his best to attend Steemfest3 and even pick up english so that we can converse easier!

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When people say "the power of the Steem blockchain", it actually goes way beyond what they've imagined. Far from being a faucet/social platform, the Steem blockchain really is what Bitcoin has set out to do in terms of "banking the unbanked". Face it, there's no way third world country people can afford to use Bitcoin anymore. It's been perverted into this speculative asset for the new elites who made made their fortunes off the cryptocurency boom.

Like the banking institution, We're seeing Bitcoin resist change, innovation, and straight up play dirt politics akin to the very institution Satoshi Nakamoto set out to topple. I challenge you to prove me otherwise, I challenge you to show me that Bitcoin is not an asset of which whale traders use to move markets and profit by the millions, prove to me that bitcoin is actually being used by the everyday people for day to day transaction.

That does not happen with Bitcoin.

It happens however, with Steem. Personally the only reason I have not yet gone full Steem adoption is only because the community around me hasn't reached an inflection where the network effect kicks in.

But once or twice from what i witnessed, Teammalaysia has had cases of settlement via Steem. Don't have money and wants, me to pay for your cake? pay me in Steem!!

In fact, i have bought a Steem cap for @gardenofeden!!

We will see very soon (if we have not already) the instances of Steem's very own Andreas Antanopolous (damn, i'd like that).

But for now, It's been encouraging enough to know that like me, there are a few Steemians that i personally know off that has not used a single cent of their fiat job money to afford their trip to Steemfest. Are you surprised to know that there are Steemians like myself that have bought their tickets (either by Steem or by sponsor), afford their airline from powered down Steem, have cash for expenses, and accommodation all from what they were given by the Steem Blockchain?

Their story is only the tip of the iceberg of what Steem can do. I believe we will see very soon what akin to a paradigm shift of using Steem to sustain ones life.

Steemfest is a highlight of my year. Seeing the talents and passion around this space makes me more than confident of the foundation to build the platform. I guess its the reason a majority of us went there. Well, with the ending of the event, i think we all got our answer.

Here's to another successful year on Steem and everyone involved, Let's grow and watch each other grow to new heights and may we meet each other again in Steemfest3.

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I'm @awesomianist

Stay Awesome!