The Hive and DBuzz Team from Davao City, Philippines represented by Chris Rice (@chrisrice), Ed Umbao (@philnews.xyz), and Ron David (@rondavid) meets for the very first time a long-time Hive user and prominent figure in the HivePh community, Romeskie (@romeskie).
Significant Moments Before the Informal Meetup:
Everything started when HivePh admin and veteran Hive user @romeskie asked me through HivePh Discord about our schedules here in Metro Manila. I told her that we will be staying here for one or two weeks and revealed to her that we will have another event to attend in Paco, Manila.
(L-R) @rondavid @chrisrice @romeskie @philnews.xyz Inside Seattle's Best
According to Romeskie, her hometown is in Paco, Manila, and was even interested to join us there but later on she realized that she already made a prior commitment to attend.
Romeskie told me that she will not be available for the June 25, BasketballCon event in Paco, Manila organized by a Filipino but Australian-based community builder Marco Selorio, so we decided to schedule our very first meeting, an informal one, within this week.
The meeting was arranged and we decided to have a meetup at the Bonifacio Global City since Romeskie's place is in Taguig City. She told us that she will be available around 2:00 PM on June 19, 2023, and the place will be at Seattle's Best coffee shop located at 9th Avenue in BGC, Taguig.
Informal Meetup with Romeskie:
We traveled from our place at Ortigas Center at around 1:28 PM but we were stuck in traffic on our way to Bonifacio Global City, the taxi driver also found it hard to locate the place because of some one-way traffic on our way to BGC but we were able to arrive a little late at around 2:16 PM.
Before we left our condo unit at Ortigas, by the way, we stayed at a unit owned by one of DBuzz investors and founder of Targetron.com, PJ Entrepreneur (@pjentrepreneur).
I think at around 2:23 PM Romeskie arrived at Seattle's Best Coffee Shop at BGC, but before that, she already told me through Discord that maybe she will be late because of the unforeseeable traffic on her way to the venue.
Although this is the very first time that we meet Romeskie, I can sense in her eyes that she was excited to see us, I haven't seen her in person and I keep on browsing and navigating Hive of her introductory post to know her better but due to the huge number of posts that she made, I was not able to find her introductory post.
Chris Rice, the Founder of DBuzz introduced himself to Romeskie first and offered some iced tea to drink. We were having some conversations while one of our team members, Ron David was taking some photos outside and later on joined us at our table inside the coffee shop.
The cheerful HivePh admin, Romeskie shared some of her experience as an advocate of Home Schooling in the Philippines and told stories about HivePh, the first-ever meetups at the Lobo Filipino Tavern in Makati City, and in response we also shared some of our experience in terms of marketing for Hive in Davao City and other parts of Mindanao.
During the conversation with Romeskie, Chris Rice shared some of the activities initiated by the Hive Davao Team through DBuzz like the one we attended earlier in Mati City, the FrolicBlock event, and the latest one here in Manila, the Bull or Bear NFT Debate.
As a blogger, I also shared my experience in blogging and writing online since the year 2010, and Romeskie also revealed that she was once a ghostwriter that really excites me because we are having some connections in writing.
Romeskie asked me about the reasons why I was not able to write to Hive for the past years despite the fact that I was onboarded through Steem in the year 2019 by Chris Rice. I think I should need to write a long post for this one in my personal account, Ed Umbao (@edumbao) which I will be writing soon.
Just a summary of my personal story, I was onboarded in the year 2019 on Steem but because I was earning enough from blogging through Google Adsense, I never got interested in it. I only wrote for Hive at first through short-form through DBuzz in February 2023, when my earnings for Google Adsense dropped. I also stopped blogging extensively and only wrote during my free time because I had a day job in the government before.
Central Square Mall at BGC High Street, Taguig City
Highlights of our Meetup:
Aside from sharing personal experiences with Hive and the things we shared through Hive and other platforms in the Hive blockchain, we have some conversations about future plans for Hive to thrive here in the Philippines.
Chris Rice shared a video of our activities in Mindanao promoting Hive and a video from Tiktok user Tony Rebamonte promoting Hive on Tiktok and other social media channels. Due to the fact that the sounds of the video were inaudible, the DBuzz Founder asked Romeskie if she knew a quiet place to have some conversations like a not-so-crowdy restaurant around the area.
We decided to go to the Central Square Mall at the heart of Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, Metro Manila. It is a premium retail and lifestyle destination at BGC High Street. It is a tiny mall by Philippine standards but here's a catch, the display, and the products offered are quite expensive and you will surely be surprised, it's better to experience it by yourself.
We were able to find a quiet place to stay and enjoy some pizza at an Italian restaurant named Va Bene Pasta Deli located on the 3rd Floor, Cinema level or same level of 4DX Cinemas inside Central Square Mall.
The restaurant has a relatively bigger dining area inside but our group decided to just enjoy our food with an outside table. I did not ask Chris Rice about the food that he ordered, but the pizza was great and I was not focusing on the expenses but on the experience of meeting somebody who is already influential in the HivePh community.
We continued our conversation with Romeskie telling different stories like the home-schooling activities she did with her daughter, and Chris also shared his experience with his son from Davao City.
One of the most significant highlights of the informal meetup was the opportunity to meet Romeskie as she shared stories about her daughter particularly the things that she said that as parents we should lay down the rails for our children and let them experience the beauties of nature around us.
Romeskie also plans to have more meetups and collaborations with the Davao Hive team, and the Hive users in Cebu and she is looking forward to connecting with more Web3 communities here in Manila or in other parts of the country.
Overall we are having a good time, a fruitful conversation, and a meaningful meetup even if it was spontaneously agreed upon. We parted ways maybe around 5:00 PM because we have some other things to accomplish during the day.
Va Bene Pasta Deli Italian Restaurant
Expressing Gratitude & Looking Forward to More Meetups:
Thank you @Romeskie and the HivePh community for giving us the opportunity to connect with you here in Manila and we are looking forward to more meetups and activities in the near future.
I would also like to express my gratitude towards Paul Jones Entrepreneur (@pjentrepreneur) for giving us a place to stay here in Manila. He hosted us in his condominium unit at Ortigas Center, Pasig City.
Paul Jones Entreprenuer is one of the most vocal supporters of DBuzz and Hive in Mindanao, he is the owner and founder of Targetron.com, a company offering services on finding local businesses near specific coordinates and providing detailed contact information worldwide.
Chris Rice and PJ Entrepreneur
Image: Source
Photos are mine taken through Chris Rice's iPhone unless otherwise stated.
Hi, everyone! My name is Ed Umbao, also known as @philnews.xyz here on Hive. I am the former co-founder of PhilNews.Ph, one of the leading news sites in the Philippines, and the current founder and owner of PhilNews.XYZ.
I have been blogging since 2010 when I was working as an OFW in Saudi Arabia. I became a member of Hive in 2019 and posted only two articles before returning to short-form blogging through D.Buzz in February 2023