I stayed with Hive account@honeydue (to whom I will be forever grateful) during the fest. So on the evening after I arrived, which I wrote about here, I ended up going back with her instead of going out that night. Which was the smart thing to do apparently, since those who did go out, didn't get home till early hours of the morning.
The plan was to have an early night, but we ended up talking so much, and before we knew it, bedtime was 3 am...

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Some views of Conference Day 2

The morning wasn't easy, but I still managed to get up, hop in the shower, throw down the coffee that was ready for me (what a luxury!) and we were off to the Diocletian palace, where day 2 of the conference would be. Unfortunately, I didn't get to take a lot of pictures of the day, mostly because I was just so happy to be there, and didn't want to ruin it by having the camera in front of my face all day.

I listened to some of the speakers, but also missed a few, because of the same reasons as above. For me, meeting and connecting with other Hiveans is always much more important than actually listen to all the speakers. I'd rather connect with them in person, and watch the videos later.

The first speaker I saw, however, was Hive account@yabapmatt of Splinterlands, who told us about the developments and plans for the game. It was nice to see him there and I had a short chat with him later too. He's a really nice guy and very approachable, which is nice to see.

From a little further away, so you can see some of the background

Then I listened to Hive account@arcange talk about all the projects he's working on, which was more than I actually knew about.

I took photos, but unfortunately, some of it is hard to read, but with a bit of a search, I'm sure you can find it if you want to know more (and you don't already).

And a little more about Arcange's journey on Hive:

And one just for the view, which was beautiful.

Then he also told us about some of his more personal things of the past year or so, which I won't get into now (you can watch the videos if you like) but this really hit hard. This man is one of the people I really look up to on the Hive Blockchain, and after meeting him at every Hivefest I've attended (which is 6 now) I see him as much more than just a fellow Hivean or even a friend. I see him as family. So to hear him talk about this now, while we don't see each other all year and he doesn't really talk about it in that year, is quite tough to hear. Also because I could relate to it in a way. Especially when he mentioned that at some stage he was about ready to throw the towel in the ring...Well, I for one, am glad that we still have him around, to do what he does.

Oh, and just to mention this: the guy didn't just come to Hivefest like any normal person would, by plane, or by car or something. Nope, he rode his motor bike all the way from the other side of Europe to be with us in Split. I know it was quite the journey, because he kept us up to date, but I can't even begin to imagine it to be honest. Respect!

More photos of his speech.

Did you know this man was behind ALL of this? I sure didn't!

This last sentence on here probably resonates with many of us.
Toxic behavior and harassment have no place on Hive, or anywhere for that matter.
And I agree, this needs to be addressed.

Some Impressions

I will leave it at this for now, because I do have a few more photos of other speakers that I'd like to share, but I don't want to overdo it all in one post.
These two were only some of the speakers before the break at lunch.

Takeaway so far: We might at time feel very connected with some people on our beautiful chain, but we don't always know about everything that goes on in their lives. This is quite normal, I think. Everyone has their own lives and ups and downs, and we don't always share everything here. But maybe this is one of the things this platform should be for. To tell others about these things. I for one, will come here and pour my heart out at times, and it works like therapy. And then I forget, and keep to myself, to brew on everything that goes on in my life, all by myself. It doesn't need to be that way. Even though many of us are strangers, especially if we haven't met in real life, I think Hive has so many people who are supportive, are willing to lend an ear to listen, and many offer good advice. Also, we can get different points of view from people from all walks of life. I've experienced this many, many times. We're a community, and I've felt this community spirit often.
I think we can do a lot for each other as a community, we should all remember that.

OK, enough about that. I'll leave you with a few pictures I took along the way, walking to and from the event.