When announced the India Steemit Accelerator #2 at Bangalore, I was wondering if I could get in touch with him and arrange a similar event in my hometown of Pune.
I have benefited quite a lot from Steemit and I really want to bring on board all of my creative musician friends to the platform. But then I realised that before I can properly convince anyone else, I need to know as much as possible about Steemit and the blockchain.
I am the kind of person who would want to understand what I am getting into first so that it becomes easier for me to explain to anyone else.
Though I have been on Steemit for over a month now, there are still things which I was struggling to understand.
So I decided to go to Banglore for the event!
Now it is very difficult to get last moment train tickets and flight tickets were pretty expensive. Hence I decided to travel by bus.
Pune to Banglore (or Bengaluru as it was renamed) is more than 800 Km. It takes 13+ hours by road!
Since this was my only option, I booked a 6 pm Bus on Saturday.
Apart from the snoring uncle in the seat next to me because of whom I hardly got any sleep, my journey was smooth. I reached Banglore at 8:30 am and took a rickshaw to the venue: Robert Bosch India HQ.
I arrived at 9 am. Since the event timing was 10:30 am, I was the first one there! But the guards at the gate were kind enough to let me in and I freshened up and waited at the reception. While waiting I jotted down a few questions which I wanted answered about Steemit, the blockchain and other related subjects.
People started coming in at 10:20 am and I met Meghan aka . He was setting up for the conference and was very warm and welcoming. I immediately felt like I am meeting an old friend.
We waited while others turned up. I met people I knew from Steemit and the India Discord channel like ,
,
and others.
Btw, people from India, this is a good time to plug in the Indian Discord channel. Go Join : https://discord.gg/UeD5U8Q
We started at 11 am with a round of introductions by everyone and then began the conference by explaining in detail about blockchain and steemit.
A wide variety of topics were covered from complete basics of steemit and account creation to networking, experience sharing, legalities of cryptocurrency in India and lot of Q&A.
I asked a lot of question but Meghan and everyone else answered them patiently and without getting irritated. Thank you! :)
Post the event we took some great pics which I am sure Meghan will share.
I still had time to spare as my bus back was at 6 pm. So took me to a moto themed cafe where all the biking enthusiasts from the event were hanging out.
Big thank you to
for making me feel at home and part of the group, helping out with the cab and just being generally nice! :)
I've come back (enduring another 13-hour bus ride and another loud snoring uncle) with a lot of things to process from the learnings. And most importantly, making new friends! ✨
I should also say that this entire trip was sponsored by the money I earned right here on Steemit!
Next Steps:
My aim is to get as many Indian musicians I can onto the platform! It's a great way for creators like us to get noticed and have immediate interactions with audience and fans (and earn in the process!).
I will be working on gathering some people who are already interested in the platform and arrange an accelerator event in Pune with Meghan's help.
A big thank you to
and the team for organizing the event!
I hope many more Indians will join Steemit and we can actully have a Steemfest India, say next year? 😁 ✨
Banner image (and the standee design you see behind my selfie with ) by
.