Back from Steem Fest | How was it AKA reflection time

It was cool over the last couple of days to see that the Steemfest Telegram group was still very alive over the days, while last year it had died faster after SF3 than you can say kha khum khaaaaaa (thank you in Thai). And therefor making a closing post about the fest itself as a final conclusion to end the Road to Steemfest posts seems totally suiting, especially since I am writing it from a plane over the Black Sea, which means I am getting closer to home Switzerland after a lay over in Holland and another train back to Lucerne. My Thai adventure for this year is over!

The prompt of this week was that @anomadsoul was asking us …. 'how was it!!!' , and by the way before anything else...thanks for hosting these posts and kudos for getting your Mexican ass over there! Kudos for everyone actually, because I realize again how much of an effort everbody made on gettig here. Even though some people were coming from 'neighbouring' countries, it is still an effort to get here and you all took it!!!

That is exactly also what makes Steem a special chain, there are a lot of dedicated people working on and with this chain, regardless of their position, wanting it to succeed. A fest like this realizes this that the Steem candle is still burning strong by a lot of people.

And yes, even though I left early (well my conclusion can be after last year and this year is that two days of attending is the max for me hahaha) I did get inspired again on stuff that I have learned. And that was not necessarily at the talks itself, (because as I had already mentioned in a previous post sometimes it was so noisy from the back that I could barely hear the speaker..manners people for crying out loud) but it was often the talks on the side or in the evening 1 on 1. and also not even always about the Steem chain but just about crypto development in general (thanks @buzzlightyear for your patience) which got me enthousiast on Steem again.

So if you ask me my honest opinion about this year? I thought there was less bang for your buck if you compare it with last year (especially with the weekend activities and if you think about how cheap you can get everything in Thailand, but I also realize very very well that this never ending bear market has everything to do in this) @roelandp still did an awesome job with the budget and stuff that he had and that is really cool.

On the talks itself I had missed some stuff. I am curious about the Steem inc talk and I will surely watch this when home on the stream. I was really curious about the SMT talk from @vandeberg on how SMTs work but this was more of a demo on that it is there then on presenting what it does (what I had hoped for) and this looked more like a walk though video on how to implement. Useful? Yes totally, just not what I had hoped on. Expectation is the mother of all fuck-ups right?? ;) From the 3speak guys I am still curious on how they will ban people showing videos of people decapitating others (maybe this is written down somewhere where I don 't know) and how they will get the project to countries where the web adresses are banned (in other words...I really hope it will work but I am just super curious)

The most surprising talk to me was from @grampo from the @waivio team who all of a sudden have a working idea versus 'just the concept' they had last year, and I really believe this is something that can work out! I am going to follow to see how it goes, because their idea is thinking outside the chain of rewards. It is thinking on restaurant discounts and the Steem vote is just the cherry on top. I like this way of thinking!

Also, last year I was alone and this year my hubby was there with me and that also does make a difference in how much you interact with others as @slobberchops knows ;) It was still pretty easy going though! But the one thing Thailand has compared to Poland (if you ask me) is that it has so many other great things to offer (sorry @gtg and other Polish kids..you dont have palmtree islands hahaa) and that was the main reason for bugging out, there was so many other stuff. And the fact that Steemfest wasn 't more interesting than other stuff….. from that you can draw your conclusion!

Nevertheless.....I still had a blast! And next year? I will just be there again, and already curious on the location!