TLDR:
Six days ago ticket sales for SteemFest started. I'm quite happy with the sales sofar and see about 7 early adopters buying tickets every day, most of those are actually "Long Haul" tickets from USA and Canada! I guess it's because it's now the right time to book cheap flights, for example via SkyScanner.net
This week I had great chats with 
Hive account@kevinwong who will be DJ'ing at the end of the Conference Day 1 after 
Hive account@tatianamoroz Album Release show. Kevin has been a very talented music curator as far as I can judge based on his (many) entries on 
Hive account@radiosteem :)
I spent some time on getting the VISA for 
Hive account@infovore (Nigeria) straight... Wow, this really confronts me with the hassle he has to go through to get to Amsterdam for a couple of days... I needed to write an official invite, get his hotel reservation already set, a 'Schengen Travel Insurance' and already got him a 'speakers ticket' so he can present all that data when he is due for his appointment this monday!
Furthermore I had a call with 
Hive account@firepower about setting up on-site support and liveblogging during the event. Hive account@firepower really got some firepower during the call, as somehow he managed to electrify himself while recharging his computer on a power outlet... Luckily it all ended allright with a nervous giggly, you can only have after these kind of events ;)
With 
Hive account@anduweb who generously offered his help we worked out the Support Pages for SteemFest. Those pages truly become a resource for all questions you might have about the event.
Then, wow! 
Hive account@good-karma offered to make the mobile app for the event. As an experienced mobile devver, you know him from the eSteem mobile app (iOS updated yesterday again!) I am really looking forward to this. One can say, hey it's 2 days, what need is an app for. But since many of you are coming from outside The Netherlands, and 'roaming' is still kinda an issue, we are envisioning an offline map of Amsterdam and ofcourse program info...
Yesterday I had a quick meeting with 
Hive account@cass and we discussed the mobile app, as he will make design for it. Great to meet him again in real life as he is becoming an Amsterdam regular :) heisse scheisse Cass! Then I went off to some 'growth hacker' event to meet some 'internet peoples'... Bizar that no one still knows about Steemit. I'm planning to change that with all I can and I think SteemFest will definitely be of help.
Next to this it was all about short nights, many chats in Steemit and then today I could happily announce a new batch of names for SteemFest.
Hive account@allasyummyfood, UK: Youtuber, chef and steemian
Hive account@anwenbaumeister, USA: Project Curie, yogi, gardener and lover of all
Hive account@riverhead, USA: witness, crypto stuff and maker DAO- Hive account@kevinwong: Dj, Project Curie and etherpunk
Hive account@svk: witness, bitshares, crypto frontender
Hive account@pharesim: witness, maker of steemjs lib, pevo.science
Also, we've introduced an interesting group offer where you get 10% discount if you order 4 tickets at once, for you and your Steem friends, read about it in the announcement post. With the four of you, if you are in good standing, I'd recommend to book your SteemFest Volkshotel Package in (1/2) of the 20 twin bedded rooms, if you wanna stay for almost zilch in the official hotel... (47.50 per night per person if you split equally). Of course if you are a couple you can just go for a double room.
Ps. Did you already see the updated SteemFest.com
