Steem Summit Cebu was a blast! Learning about Blockchain, Kryptonia & Superior Coins; Meeting @surpassinggoogle in person and celebrating Success, Talent and Friendship!

Hello fellow amazing Steemians! I am proud to say that the Steem Summit held here in Cebu last April 22, 2018 was a SUCCESSFUL one! I haven’t been able to attend such activities for a very long time and the #steemsummit did not fail me. I am writing to you especially to my friends @chameh, @adeline24, @gingfriend20ph, @mhelrose, @momshie85 and the rest of the gang who wasn’t able to attend; that through this blog you will be able to witness yourself what unfolded during the whole event.

The Steem Summit happened at ASPACE located at Crossroads, Cebu. I arrived around 12:40pm at the venue. Upon entering, I felt shy for a bit because I really didn’t know anyone there! But the amazing organizers welcomed me and made me feel at home.

Steem Summit organizers @ybanezkim26 and @rewritethings spearheaded the registration.

Souvenirs were also distributed during the end of the event.

An obligatory photo with the steem summit backdrop.

Well, since I didn’ t know in person a single soul there, the solution was simple. I made friends! And the first person I made friends with was @carlitojoshua. I actually greeted once I saw him enter the venue. I recognized him right away since he is pretty active in the community. Thank you @carlitojoshua for sticking with me all throughout the event. You are such an amazing person. You’re just 15 years old and yet you are already here in Steemit. I can see you have a bright future ahead of you.

The venue was pretty cool! It was my first time to check the place. The ambiance really set the mood for everyone. The winners for the photography, travel posts, art, and poetry contests were all acknowledged with their works posted on the wall.

Winners for the DSLR and Smartphone Photography Contest.

Winners for the Travel Posts Contest.

Winners for the Curied Posts Contest.

Winners for the Poetry Contest.

Coffee to keep us alive.

Center stage

I’m proud of my work for having won champion for the DLSR photography contest. But having heard someone babbling the whole time that the other photos were far better and deserving than mine, it made me sad for a bit. I RESPECT his opinion however though it would have been nice to hear words of appreciation and encouragement instead. For me, it is important to build a spirit of camaraderie between fellow photographers and celebrate the success of each and every one, winners or not so that the community will continue to thrive and succeed. Anyways, still my heartfelt gratitude for the steem summit organizers and panellists for making it possible to share my work to others. My intention for joining the contest was never to win but to share what I had felt and experienced from travelling to other places through my photos. To @wdoutjah, thanks for uplifting my spirit. I will definitely do better.

As the people started to fill the area, fellow steemians were also engaged in getting to know everyone else. The program started at exactly 1:00pm. @thegaillery hosted the event and she did a great job! She was a stunner!

The event was then followed with an opening prayer led by my new found friend, @carlitojoshua. It was an intense 10 minute preparation for your impromptu prayer, right?

Then it was time for our international speakers, the Senn brothers for their talk about @kryptonia, #blockchain and #superiorcoins. They made us understand how the blockchain works and how @kryptonia and #steemit have a symbiotic relationship. I can’t explain to you in details about this one for I myself am still learning. Michael Senn who came all the way from Honduras also gave me free 100 coins for downloading the superior coins app that day!

Blockchain Technology discussed to us by Nathan Senn.

Nathan Senn teaching us about Blockchain and Krytonia.

Michael Senn discussing about Superior Coins.

Fellow Steemians listening the discussion by the Senn brothers.

They were seriously listening to Nathan and Michael.

After the Senn Brothers shared their knowledge, the second part of the program started. It was highlighted with the talent show, awarding of winners, and inspirational; talk from fellow Steemians.

It started with an amazing performance from the @steemitbeatbox. Hats off to you, guys! I am now a fan @jaderpogi and @jackobeat! You guys have a jaw-dropping talent!

The @steemitbeatbox cebu community.

And who wouldn’t feel the love from the music offered by @jembee? I bet a lot of steemian ladies from the event were swayed with your soulful voice! I am definitely looking forward to hearing your other original compositions. There were snacks provided and I really appreciate the budbud @mikeyurnero shared to us.

Singer, songwriter @jembee performing with his guitar.

There was also an amazing song rendition from @queenlyka. Now I wished I started singing when I was still a little kid. Probably I could sing just like her then!

This talent show was followed with an inspiration talk from @stewart-suarez from the @steemph.negros community. Thank you @stewart-suarez for sharing your steemit journey with us.

Then our very own Cebu core leader @jassennessaj shared about the state of the Steem.ph Cebu community and its progress. Thank you as well for leading the @steemph.cebu to where we are right now. I’m pretty sure our community will go far, inspire more to join and reach their dreams.

Then everyone went silent for the astonishing pole dance by @anneporter. Everyone was definitely fixated by the powerful yet graceful performance she shared to us.

Steemian @morken then shared to us about the reasons why we should be passionate with steemit. I love how he delivered to us his message and learnings. It was witty and fun!

Up next was the inspiring video messages from @vonoroi, @hansikhouse and yours truly, @surpassinggoogle.

@hansikhouse

@surpassinggoogle

Each one of us listening intently to the video messages.

Then the program ended with the awarding of winners for each respected category together with @thegaillery and @ybanezkim26.

@ligarayk for winning 1st runner up for the art category
@wdoutjah for winning Champion for the smartphone photography category

And yours truly for winning Champion for the DSLR photography contest.

The program ended around 5:00pm and everyone else started to go home. @carlitojoshua and I decided to stay since the venue was allotted for the event until 7:00pm. This gave us the opportunity to meet heartily other fellow Steemians who decided to stay as well. And true indeed, I met these awesome people who made the experience more exciting!

To @aljunecastro, it was nice meeting you in person! Congrats to the both of us! I’m pretty sure @adeline24 is so proud of you.

To @nikkabomb, small world, right? Who would have thought? And what was more amazing is that we are so much alike. We are definitely going to be great friends!

To @panoramicview, @rimarkable, @olaivart @smaeunabs, @nikkabomb, and @junebribe, thanks for just being awesome!

I guess it pays to stay in the cinema and watch the credits of the movie until the end. Why did I say this? Because I was one of those lucky people who get to witness @surpassinggoogle’s arrival. And this was all because I stayed until the end. He actually told one of the Steemians that he sent someone in his behalf. And all the while I was telling everyone that he probably sent someone to give us food. Then guess who arrived at before 7:00 pm?

It was our boy, Terry! Everyone rushed to meet him by the entrance. How I wished I was able to record a video of our reaction when he arrived because all of us were just surprised! We even joke around that his name should be changed to “surprisinggoogle”! We were star struck. We hurriedly had our photos taken with him. @jassennessaj was the happiest of us all. You could see it all over his face.

Mandatory group picture with @surpassinggoogle.

Then we started what we called our @surpassinggoogle Special Session. He shared to us things about life, his steemit journey, that women are all beautiful, how to treat women, his vision for steemit, #steemgigs and #teardops and a whole bunch of other things which he is passionate about. What truly amazed me was how he remained humble despite how blessed he is right now. He was so genuine in talking to each one of us.

You could see how happy we were to have this rare moment with him. The others were also informed to come back and a few did. We spent about an hour talking to him before we left at 8:00pm and had dinner with him.

Terry in the house!

Our stay at the Aspace was over so we had to transfer to another venue. So we had our final photo session with Terry before we left. He even signed our photos! Seriously, he was like a celebrity to us.

Terry signing my winning photo!

Happy kid here.

Photo opt with @surpassinggoogle together with @nikkabom and @olaivart

Final group shot with our boy, Terry @surpassinggoogle together with those fellow steemians who were able to catch up!

Our stomachs were now all crying in despair or probably it was just me, so we decided to transfer to Trattoria da Gianni to continue our session with Terry while having dinner.

Pesto for me.

Making our bond stronger over dinner and sharing stories.

@themanualbot, is this a disapproving look or are you just trying to keep it cool?

Joining us were @iamqueenlevita and @ninyea who didn’t object when I decided to make them a part of the strong independent women team I created together with @nikkabomb.

It was an awesome event and it ended perfectly with Terry’s surprise visit! I am running out of words to describe the amazing experience I had during the Steem Summit and I hope everyone else enjoyed as well!

Thank you Terry for everything!

Thank you to our sponsors @donkeypong, @maefe30 and @krptonia for making this event possible!

To you who is reading this right now, I will pass on to you what @surpassinggoogle personally said to me.

“YOU ARE AMAZING!”

See you are around and always remember,