Hi Hive account@smooth, first I'd like to say thanks for the opportunity this contest presents.

My name is Rowan, Hive account@raj808 on steemit. I have been writing nearly every day on steemit for over a year. My blog is made up of a wide range of content including, short stories, poetry, travel articles, scuba diving articles, articles relating art and comedy posts.

I have just passed my 1 year steemit anniversary (2 weeks ago) and in that time I have been involved helping to improve many steemit communities, as well as the platform on the whole.

Everything I've done.... Hmnnn, get ready for a list 😉

• Curie curator - I have been working as a curator for Hive account@curie for 10 months now (since late October 2017), helping to reward undervalued content on steemit by hunting down exceptional content. Curie is an essential mechanism for user retention on steemit and, I feel, it's us curators who keep those cogs oiled. All of my earnings from curie have been powered up and I have never taken anything out of steemit apart from 40 or 50 steem 7 months ago when the market was at its peak.

• I am involved with Hive account@isleofwrite behind the scenes as a resident curator, keeping track of the excellent creative work that the members of that community produce and recommending for curie curation when possible.

• I worked as a fiction/poetry mentor in Hive account@promo-mentors for 4 months. During this time I helped many steemians with full proofreads of their work. I studied creative writing in university and prided myself on giving comprehensive editing advice to the same level that we were taught in university writing workshops.

• I ran a segment on the Monday night show Hive account@whaleshares called Literary Corner. In this segment I invited some of the most talented creative writers (in the fields of poetry and fiction) on to the show to discuss and, in some cases, perform their work. This show also rewarded these steemians with large whaleshares upvotes helping encourage and reward quality on the steemit platform.

• I have been involved with the Hive account@comedyopenmic community a little with helping promote their Spanish section and with an upcoming judging role.

• I have recently become involved with Hive account@sndbox as a cohort member and am actively contributing to their community with content and hopefully soon by writing a few articles for the Hive account@creativecrypto magazine.

• I also have become involved with an amazing writing contest, and community, called Finish the Story Competition. This is one of the most fun creative writing catalysts I've found on steemit, if you are stuck for creative inspiration, this contest will sort you out every time. Also, there is a dedicated, friendly and tight-nit community of writers around the comp which really makes it something special. Check out the link to learn more about the competition. I have contributed by writing one of the beginnings for week 22, have helped out with judging and delegated some steem to the home of the competition, Hive account@bananafish.

• Finally, I have helped set up a charity (as part of the sndbox summer camp) on the steem blockchain called Hive account@projectgiving which I hope to promote at steemfest 3. This charity is a fully accountable blockchain charity with far-reaching ambitions of engaging mainstream press with our future achievements. This will, hopefully, help to drive the push toward mass adoption. I you'd like to read more about what I have done in helping build the charity, check out the Accountability Model and our first competition/Community Challenge.

I am now working pretty much full time on steemit and have put my heart and soul into the platform over the last year, and a huge amount of my creative work which has been published here exclusively. I'm sure that we are just in a holding pattern in regards to the market, but the downturn has left me struggling to be able to pay my bills and rent, let alone a ticket to steemfest. All of this work I've put in has been at a time in my life when I have been suffering with a chronic GI (gastrointestinal) condition which limits my capabilities severely. I have not really talked about that side of my life much on steemit until recently and if you'd like to hear more about these issues and what I'm doing to try and solve them, here is a recent dtube video I produced called Juice Fast for Healing Challenge.

In conclusion, I'm trying for a free ticket as there is no chance I will make it to steemfest otherwise. I would very much like to attend to promote Hive account@projectgiving, myself as a blogger, network with tech people around a creative idea I have toward bringing traditional publishing entities to steemit, learn more about all sides of the technical aspects of this blockchain and network in general while promoting both curie and sndbox.