SteemPH Meet-Up Caravan 3rd Stop - Antipolo, Rizal

March 26 was a good day for a meet-up. Ruah and the rest of SteemPH Antipolo couldn't have picked a better time to hold the Annual AntipoloFest.

_{Missing a few from the group, as some of them were taking the pictures for us}

My family of four started our 42 kilometer journey a few minutes past 6. It's not summer just quite yet and so there lingered a misty chill in the air. A bleak sun was peeking through a gray sky, but I was not deceived. I knew that just after an hour or so, the sun would be up. True enough, it wasn't long before the its glorious rays were blinding us while we cruised along the express way. It was a Monday and so heavy traffic is to be expected in EDSA. We took a more difficult but faster route and we were able to grab breakfast before proceeding to Rosalinda Resort, the venue of the first ever AntipoloFest. We arrived before 8am and we were so pleased to see that a lot of people were already there. Their energy filled the hall. The shrill excited voices of their little ones filled the air, they were eager to start their dip in the pool early.

We finally met @ruah, who is leading @steemph.antipolo. We have long wanted to meet him as he was one of our "batchmates" in Steemit. He got into the platform around the same time as @steemitph and I. We've regularly been in contact with him in the past few weeks in preparation for this meet-up. @toffer, Ruah's partner in building their Antipolo community, was there too. Theirs is a big group and we were happy to meet them all in person. We also got to meet @beyonddisability and @johndp, the ones responsible for the long and well-written posts of their communal account.

_{Photo from The Steemph-Antipolo First Ever Steemfest by @mariejoyacajes}

Setting up took less time thanks to the participants' helping hands. We were able to start our discussion at around 8:30 am. After leading the prayer, Rafael @beyonddisability, introduced Red and I to our cheerful audience.

Red started with a brief introduction of the SteemPH Meet-Up Caravan and a list of topics that will be discussed to set the expectation of the group. We both agreed that he should be the one discussing the technical side of Steemit and so he covered the topics like the blockchain (what it is, why it was created, and an overview of how it works), different blockchains (bitcoin, etherium, and steem) and their uses, POS versus POW versusDPOS, and the importance of Witnesses in Steem as a DPOS blockchain. He also discussed the different apps that are working on the Steem Blockchain, such as Busy, DTube, eSteem, Steepshot, and Utopian.

As for me, my task was to make sure we discuss some of our lessons from @steemnest with regard to content creation. We shared our vision for the Philippines to be known for quality content creators. We explained how posting quality content is important whenever we use the Philippine tag and how we can all benefit from creating content that we can be proud of. We went through the process of using the proper commands for photo alignment, something that they can also find in @steemnest's post SteemNest In Action | Joining the First Stop of the SteemPH Meet-Up Caravan. Red and I took turns in showing them different text formats and in explaining how important it is to find your Niche, and to engage in people that share the same interest.

Both Red and I also touched on our SteemPH family and the different projects that we are working on individually and as a group. We told them about past projects in different parts of the country, the @steeph.curator and its aim to reward quality content creators, our upcoming Homesteading Brigade in Davao, the future meet-ups in Cebu, Laguna, and Pangasinan that we have planned after our meet-up in Davao.

A lot of time was spent on answering the questions from our audience. They were a delightful mix of curious and wit, with a dash of enthusiasm for learning. Through their questions, topics like bidbots, powering up, bandwidth, and the current phishing attacks were discussed. I was quite nervous about hosting a meet-up for a big group as I dreaded not being able to answer questions from them but I am happy to say that we were able to address all their queries.

After the discussion, we had time to just be ourselves and take pictures with the group. They also played a funny game where the winning group got SBDs. It is very apparent that theirs is a friendship that has a long history, and it's nice to see that friendship brought into the Steemit platform. Even their kids were playmates and my youngest daughter, @littlesteemitph, had fun with them at the pool.

I felt deeply honored for the group to provide us with our own room. The room is for SteemPH members who might attend the event. It was huge and no doubt would have been able to accommodate the Core and all of the leads. There might even be room for all the SteemPH endorsed witnesses. We used the room freshen up a bit after the presentation, before we enjoyed the warm food that was served. The organizers did a marvelous job, from choosing the venue to picking the delicious dishes. With people like them at the helm of SteemPH Antipolo, I can only think that theirs is a group to be reckoned with and I am excited to see them grow further in time.

Once again, thank you @steemph.antipolo for inviting us to AntipoloFest. I look forward to seeing you all again!