Q1 - 2018 SteemPH Meet Up Cararavan Summary

It's been an interesting journey so far for the SteemPH Meet Up Caravan. It all started with a simple thought of bringing existing Steemians from my province in Bulacan, and get to know other individuals who are as passionate about Steem and Steemit. It quickly evolved to what is now a quarter long journey. We are now 1,500 Kilometers away from home, and have just completed another meet up near the southernmost part of the Philippines.

"Humanizing the Steemit experience through bringing communities together." ~ SteemPH Meet Up Caravan

Because this project is powered by you, the Steemit community, we are sharing this update of what we have done so far with the support you entrusted us with.

The First Meet Up - Bulacan

Bulacan was the first meet up we hosted. It all started with the thought of bring existing Steemians in Bulacan together, and potentially creating a local sub-community under our @SteemPH family. The Bulacan meet up had the least number of participants, but they all turned out be engaged and excited about getting a ***@SteemPH.Bulacan started.

We took tons of learnings from the Bulacan meet up, that allowed us to improve the next meet ups under the SteemPH Meet Up Caravan.

Distance & Venue

Because the meet up was held in the same City we live in, this was the closet and most convenient for us. We have in fact dined at Bahay na Tisa a couple of times before the meet up. It barely took us five minutes to get to the venue from our residence.

We love the homey ambiance of this restaurant, and we had a perfect spot to set up our projector and speakers.

The Participants & Discussion Flow

When we got to the place, there were but a couple of participants and we started getting worried that people might not come. A few minutes from the supposed schedule of the meet up however, we were joined by about 12 other participants. While the participation was low, we love how the discussion was more intimate.

Because the main objective of this meet up was to get a @SteemPH.Bulacan set up, we focused on giving an in-depth introduction to Steemit and @SteemPH. We used the video created by our friend @monkeypattycake from @SteemPH.Manila.

Accounts Created & Other Support Initiatives

I have created seven accounts for the attendees of the Bulacan meet up, and to support the growth of @SteemPH.Bulacan. The accounts created includes a communal account recently launched in Introducing SteemPH Bulacan.

_{"Bulacan is the melting pot of the past and the present, being known as a province rich in history, culture and tradition. With great pride and honor, we introduce to you SteemPH – Bulacan, the newest hub under @steemph. @steemph.bulacan is a community account which aims to provide assistance and support to both new and old Steemians in and outside of Bulacan while ensuring to promote the tourism within the province." ~ @SteemPH.Bulacan}

Both @dandalion and I are extremely pleased that after a couple of from the Bulacan meet up, the Bulacan community is now set up with an amazing lead @enjieneer supported by her core team.

Cost

Between the rental of the venue, the food, the tarps for branding, and the souvenirs, the Bulacan meet up cost was 7,000.00 PHP. Such a small amount in exchange of getting a budding community supported.

The Second Meet Up - Cavite

The Cavite meet up all started with a comment from @watersnake101. He expressed interest in organizing a venue where Cavite Steemians can get together much like what we wanted for the Steemians in Bulacan. We took him up for his offer to help organize one on behalf of the SteemPH Meet Up Caravan, and his efforts made the Cavite meet up not only possible, but also a success.

Distance & Venue

70++ Kilometers from our residence, the drive took two and a half hours to get to the venue. We had the entire second floor of Café Moraco to ourselves for the meet up. There was available internet at the venue unlike the one in Bulacan. This allowed us to access some of the materials that are in our Steemit posts, and the Steem and Steemit related tools that may help Cavite Steemians' experience in the platform more enjoyable and productive.

The Participants & Discussion Flow

In this we focused on dApps built in the Steem blockchain, automation tools, and blockchain explorers. Having seen brilliant content creators from Cavite, we did not see a need to cover content creation as much as in the two other locations. We were surprised though that the participants have very little knowledge about the other applications they can use like @busy, @dtube, and @utopian-io. We covered these in detail, and also discussed how they can automate some basic Steemit activities using SteemAuto, and uses of the blockchain explorer SteemD.

Towards the end of our presentation, we were delighted by the amazing singing voice of a Cavite Steemian @okaereyes while enjoying our meal.

Accounts Created & Other Support Initiatives

I have created nine accounts for Cavite. I will check the accounts a couple of months from the meet up so I can undelegate the temporarily delegation, and use the same Steem Power to create more accounts for other locations of the Caravan.

Cost

The expenses between the venue, the food, our gas to get to the venue, and the souvenir was around the same amount as the Bulacan meet up, 7,000.00 PHP. We were extremely please with the better attendance, both by Steemians and non-Steemians, and we only had to spend as much.

The Third Meet Up - Antipolo

Antipolo is our favorite meet up location yet. Not only because the existing community instantly warmed up to us, and we felt like we are part of @SteemPH.Antipolo, the participants were also most participative and seemed very eager to learn.

Distance & Venue

One other reason why we love this meet up was that it was held in a private resort. This gave us the opportunity to enjoy and relax before heading back home. The drive was roughly two hours from our home in Malolos, Bulacan to Antipolo, Rizal being about 50++ KM apart in Manila traffic.

It was a good thing the meet up was scheduled in the morning and we were already on the road before the rush hour. I've been in a nearby private resort a couple of times and was pretty familiar with the location, and we found Rosalinda Garden Resort - Antipolo in Google Maps so we did not have difficulty finding the place.

The Participants & Discussion Flow

The Antipolo meet up was very well attended, there was well over 40 Steemians who were present. The Steemians were joined by their families including their kids. Having spoken with @ruah the lead of @SteemPH.Antipolo quite a few times before the meet up, we were told that members of this community were regular contributors to @utopian-io and have very little exposure to other types of contents. We focused the presentation around some key aspects of content creation, like finding ones niche, image alignment and text formatting, and the @SteemNest lessons.

The participants were very receptive and we have seen several posts right after the meet up applying what they have learned.

Accounts Created & Other Support Initiatives

Because @SteemPH.Antipolo is already existing at the time of the meet up, they have already created their own mechanism to on-board new members without having to go through the long wait-time. The only thing we had to do from this perspective was to temporarily delegate 20 Steem Power to one user @jamherras1. During the Q&A he asked why he is not able to perform some basic activities, and it tuner out to be because he only had .5 SP.

Cost

Because the whole event was organized by the existing community in @SteemPH.Antipolo, we did not have to worry about the venue and the food. We love this meet up because of this reason too. We handed out 8,000.00 PHP to the lead of @SteemPH.Antipolo to cover some part of the expenses for the event.

Credits:

SteemPH Meet Up Caravan Banner - @oppaniayu
Bulacan Meet Up Participants Group Photo - @ninjace
Cavite Meet Up Participants Group Photo - @watersnake101
Cavite Meet Up Participants Group Photo - @dandalion

If you would like to support initiatives on community building and enrichment, kindly check out @steemph, @steemph.cebu, @steemph.iligan, @steemph.davao and @steemph.manila

Consider casting your witness votes for @precise, @steemgigs, @cloh76.witness and @ausbitbank who have been adding invaluable contribution to the community.

To cast your votes, just go to
https://steemit.com/~witnesses

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