My Steemcampuk 2019 experience

I am writing this after driving home from Leicester with my mind buzzing from all the conversations today. Whenever I get together with other Steemians I learn new things and get ideas of what I could be doing to help the platform. I have already done a brief post where I mentioned who was there.

That list was not quite complete as we recruited a new Steem user today. George (on the left below) works for Leicester council and was invited along by @shanibeer. He was interested in what possibilities Steem could offer the local governments and community. He has been involved in social media and blogging before, so he has some ideas, but Steem is a different animal. Some of us spent the first session with him explaining what Steem is, which can be quite hard. @starkerz was able to help him create an account in minutes using Steem Ninja. He is now @knightswood and already has his first post.

Lunch was in the cafe of the Phoenix which was the event venue. They have a couple of cinemas and host other art events. There were some guys doing video editing in a room near us. Our room is used for all sort of technology experimentation as it contained 3d printers, a VR set-up and other devices. Interestingly there was an Amiga 500, a Spectrum +2 and an old iMac on shelves there. It reminded me of The IT Crowd. I had a great lunch of veggie enchilada and sweet potato fries.

I managed to combine the day with a couple of Steem-related challenges. THe first of these was after lunch when I did my #Seven77 push-ups, which is a Steem promotion set up by @NathanMars where people post a video on Twitter. I managed to get @revisesociology, @starkerz and @goblinknackers to join me and @redrica had to get in there too.

After lunch I joined a session instigated by @starkerz on what @oracle-d are doing. Part of that is to get businesses to invest in Steem. They can do this to reach a new audience. He rightly says that the Steem price is unlikely to improve much without people buying a lot of it. We need more people like him promoting the platform as a place to do business, but it needs a specialised approach as it is so different to what people are used to.

It was a very social event where everyone got to speak. The format is very loose and you can make of it whatever you want. It was bookended by introductions at the start and thoughts for moving forward at the end. I am sure others came away with new ideas too.

We moved on to a nearby pub for drinks and even more conversation. As I was driving I just had a small glass of Jackpin Pale Ale from the local Framework Brewery. A very pleasant and fruity beer. I include this for the #BeerSaturday challenge run by @detlev, which is celebrating 100 weeks!

I expect there will a few more posts about this, but some have already appeared:

• @redrica has some pictures.
• @gillianpearce describes how an unconference works.

We had two fine videographers there in @ashtv and @rod.crisafulli, so I hope to see some footage soon. @dronegraphica also took some drone shots outside.

It was a long, but enjoyable day. Now I need an early night as I am running a half marathon tomorrow. You can expect a post about that of course.

I will end by saying that anyone can organise an event like this. Even if just two Steemians get together magic can happen. The bandwidth of a physical meeting is far higher than what you experience on-line.

Steem on!

The geeky guitarist and facilitator of the 10K Minnows Project.

• I'll buy guitar picks for Steem
• Get a Wirex Debit Card to spend your crypto.
• Get some passive income with Mannabase
• Get paid to search at Presearch
• Battle for cards on Steem Monsters or drugs in Drug Wars
• I have Steem accounts to give away to worthy people!