^{I'm also sending this one to the SteemFest email list}

TLDR:

• First Names SteemFest Announced, Ticketshop opens
• SteemFest's Volkshotel Package Now Available: € 285 / room / 3 nights - Book before 12 October!

Wow, such intense 10 days.

It all started with meeting Hive account@cass here in Amsterdam last week Wednesday who unknowingly made me finally take the plunge to really go and make SteemFest #1 a reality. Before that I had been working on visiting the hotel, several conference venues, boating companies and the aforementioned chats with Steem HQ and early users, but I still had to decide to take up the challenge.

So I took one day off at the beach with my gf and our baby son and then on Friday 10th september I decided to race to Germany to get identified for opening a dedicated Hive account@steemfest bankaccount which is also connected to 'express bitcoin' trading on this german Bitcoin.de trading site. Quite funny to go in and out of Germany for getting a completely legal thing as a bankaccount, but it still felt as if I was driving with a car full of gold towards some offshore country :)

After previous weekend I had the final days of another stint: 'a hackathon' I co-organised. During that event's pre-drinkers night I was actually sitting in a corner typing the 'SteemFest Announcement Post' . The event went by, with great hacks and mega hot weather. From now on it is SteemFest until 14 November (check out day).

Then it all took off. I got gazillions of offers for help, great! Also some answers for press were requested via the PR agency (wow such official omg) and had some more skype meetings and steemit.chats :) I also had to confirm the Conference Day 1 Venue, immediately making me liable for € 4.000 in rent.

Last Thursday I went to visit most of the locations for the Conference Sunday "Unconf Red Light Mashup" event in the heart of the oldest neighborhood of Amsterdam. It will be great IMHO, snacky sessions and activities in various intimate settings. You pick where to go and see the city while you do so, but still have everything around the corner.

Yesterday I met with Hive account@futurefood and talked about his project and a proposal to do in-depth one-to-one video interviews right after a speaker comes of the stage at the SteemFest. I really like the idea, to give back some extra and meaningfull content (next to the livestream) to homestayers and for future reference, and I hope the speakers also like to join in :)

After that I had a Skype with Hive account@tatianamoroz about her upcoming plans and she is definitely going to make it! She will fly directly to Amsterdam after visiting the Buenos Aires conference the week before.

Yesterday I began setting up the ticket sales structure. Next to having the ability to buy tickets for SBD (see instruction in this post) you can buy tickets with 'fiat' money, PayPal, as well as Bitcoin through the SteemFest Ticketshop.

You can buy a regular ticket for 144 SBD by utilising Steempay:

1. Read these steps carefully.
2. Click the below button to pay 144 SBD (not Steem!).
3. The steempay page opens and shows you a MEMO text.
4. FIRST! Mail that MEMO text to steemfest@gmail.com including your Steem Username and optionally First & Lastname (if you dont give it we will just put your Username on your ticket).
5. Follow the payment instructions of the SteemPay page: Wire 144 SBD to Hive account@steemfest with the given MEMO Text (which you had just mailed to steemfest@gmail.com .
   
   
   

Manual Steem Based Dollar Payments are processed minimum every day at 10 AM CEST and 22 PM CEST by checking our email inbox and validating the incoming transfers on the Hive account@steemfest wallet. Then we mail you a coupon code to claim your ticket. (you still need to claim your ticket after we mail you the couponcode!)

First Names SteemFest Amsterdam:

You can expect a presence and presentations by the following people (random order):

• Hive account@ned, USA - CEO Steemit

• Hive account@infovore, Nigeria - creator of the SteemMag series

• Hive account@tatianamoroz, USA - singer/songwriter, podcaster and bitcoin aficionada

• Hive account@xeroc, Germany - Longtime blockchain expert and developer of Piston

• Hive account@heiditravels, USA / Portugal - travel blogger and surfer

• Hive account@ericvancewalton, USA - writer of poems & novels such as the trending Alarm Clock Dawn series

Presentations, workshops and performances will generally last about 20 minutes max, unless more in-depth time is required. Other items will include: a 'Whale' panel and a 'Developer' apps pitch session and the Appy Hour in which you can shop by developers of several apps.

(Many) More names to be announced soon!

Read the full 'First Names' Post here >

Book your SteemFest's Volkshotel Package for € 285 / room / 3 nights ^{€95 per night} before 12 October 2016

"Volkshotel is a place for single moms. For Stockbrokers and punk rockers. For dandies and poets. Dishwashers and Underwater Welders. For biologists, night bloomers and artists. A place for everyone. Volkshotel creates meetings and the meetings create Volkshotel. This is a hotel of the people. This is Volkshotel."   ^{source: Volkshotel.nl}

For SteemFest we have found a great hotel with 130 rooms available. It's called the (SteemFest) Volkshotel and has been built in the renovated former editorial offices of national newspaper "De Volkskrant" (hence the name).

Read the instructions on how to book the SteemFest Volkshotel Package here >

Words of thanks

Next to all the help offered, this week the Hive account@steemfest account got some surprises in!

• 1000 $BD by Hive account@nextgencrypto, thx!
• 5000 $BD by Hive account@wackou, thx!
• Countless promotions by Hive account@shla-rafia on the streets!
• SteemFest Tickets Give-Aways by Hive account@infovore in the new issue of SteemMag

Plans for coming week:

• Filling in the program slots sofar
• Call for Speakers announcement (prepare your ideas, but wait a bit, we already have quite a big program)
• Investigating the wishes regarding the 'Travel Reimbursement Fund' via a Google Form
• Gazillion skypes, steemit.chats and so on.
• Maybe a little kitesurf session when the wind picks up
• Visit my former job (last one with a boss) the TodaysArt Festival (11th edition), where I'll be speaking at a 'Decentralize' session. Yes, I'll be sure to mention SteemFest :)

Have a nice weekend!
Greetings from Amsterdam,

Hive account@roelandp