My wife, Raymi, and I arrived in Lisbon later in the day on Thursday so unfortunately we missed the first few days of SteemFest2 but we’ve made up for lost time in the last two days.

We woke up and walked onto our balcony to discover a rainbow (I took this as a good omen that the day would go well.)

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This is the view from the other side of our hotel balcony. The Portuguese are very aggressive drivers. Our Uber driver today told us the the yellow lights actually mean go faster in this city. The Uber trips are uber inexpensive here, probably half the price that you’d pay in America, on average.

Marques de Pombal Square

We ate a quick breakfast in the hotel and chatted with a few other Steemians before we boarded the bus at 8:45am, to take us to the day’s venue Montes Claros.

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We spent time on gorgeous patio socializing with Steemians, both old and new before we attended our first talk of the day by Hive account@quinneaker. This year’s conference carried the same vibe as last year in Amsterdam, I was absolutely blown away by the tremendous intelligence, talent, and mutual support we have on this platform. It must be experienced to be fully understood.

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Hive account@quinneaker discussed Garden of Eden, Steemit and shared his philosophy. Quinn proved himself to be a magnetic and talented public speaker. His talk was both informative and engaging. His ability to open up totally on stage was also very impressive to someone (like me) who isn’t a natural public speaker.

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It was the day I had been long waiting for, Hive account@dougkarr, Hive account@andrarchy, and I had the 1:30pm time slot to present the HardFork Film Series teaser trailer. We were thrilled and humbled by the reception we received about our film series and couldn’t be more grateful to you all for the kind words and support you all showered us with.

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The last talk of the day was Ned’s fireside chat. He talked about the direction forward he envisioned for Steemit and took questions from the audience. The short of it is the platform will only get better in the year to come.

After this, was a little over an hour to have a few drinks and socialize before dinner. My wife and I had some very nice chats with several people including Hive account@ballinconscious, Hive account@exyle, and Hive account@ezzy to name just a few. Doug and I had a chance to hang out, enjoy a few glasses of wine, and come down off of our huge adrenaline rush we had from our talk.

Dinner was delicious, Raymi and I sat between Doug and Hive account@shla-rafia. We enjoyed a traditional Portuguese pea soup (with egg), a main course of delicious duck, sweet potatoes, and spinach, and a key lime torte for desert (and a few more glasses of wine.)

Our first full day here at SteemFest 2 was INCREDIBLE. I appreciate all of the great conversations I had with many of you. I didn't think it was possible but Hive account@roelandp and his SteemFest team made this year's event even better than the first SteemFest! Roeland, you are a rockstar my friend.

(All photos are original.)

Please follow our official Steemit account for the film series Hive account@hardfork-series. Thank you all for the wonderful support of our HardFork Film Series trailer at SteemFest2! Did you miss our last post? If so CLICK HERE to read it!

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*I am an American novelist, poet, traveler, and crypto-enthusiast. If you’ve enjoyed my work please sign up for my author newsletter at my website. Newsletter subscribers will receive exclusive updates and special offers and your information will never be sold or shared.

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