Even though a lot of #steemfest updates have probably already crossed your feed, the conference has actually just started today and I just attended my last talk, which might also have been one of my favourites - but more on that later.
[Steem is ON FIRE!]
Steemit with Ned and Andrarchy
The day opened with a Q&A where 
Hive account@andrarchy did the Q and 
Hive account@ned did the A - a lot of Steemians have been giving input about what they wanted to know of Ned Scott, and this input was grouped in questions - basically about SMT's, The new 'Destiny' project that has been announced by Hive account@ned recently, and a look into the future.
From this talk I learned that Hive account@ned is really waiting for apps that thrive as he puts it (as opposite to just 'survive'), and I believe his new company will create several apps, not just one, and it will be focussing on the ease of use of Facebook and Instagram. Where Steemit.com has been the first app that we have been able to use and experiment with, learn from, Destiny will focus on 'making communities better' - between the lines I understood Hive account@ned is impatient enough to simply start developing the apps he wants other people to make - waiting for competition because we need awesome apps to get Normies 'home', with us, here on the blockchain.
PAL and SteemMonsters with Aggroed
Ned was followed by 
Hive account@aggroed, who illustrated his personal story of being kicked off Facebook over end over again, every time when he had just collected about 2000 followers, and found his home on Steem: even though he created the same kind of content as on Facebook, he didn't get kicked of - even after reaching 2000 followers ;-). Through a few resteems by dedicated Steemians he got an actual following, and also exponentially grew his account, which was his 'aha moment': these people had built something with their time and effort, and with that they had helped him grow, and it didn't cost them anything to do that. Which is why he started the PAL network with a staggering 21000 members - what?! Pretty impressive numbers. Of course 
Hive account@steemmonsters was discussed, with a mind-blowing marketcap today of 1.3 million dollars! This is a project that was only 'mentioned' in a 'I would like to make a game' kind of way in april this year, and yesterday evening Hive account@aggroed mentioned to me he believes before Christmas he will have sold 1 million dollars worth of Hive account@steemmonsters.
[Bonus: Aggroed's Call To Action to all of us!]
Utopian
Next, Utopian, which laid out it's plans for 'Utopian Version 2', where the platform through which contributions are published will be further developed into a professional profile page, like LinkedIn, publishing your contributions and scores, and where people can find other professionals for tasks for their own projects. I'm a huge fan of Utopian since they have created a thriving business on the blockchain, supporting those with knowledge and from what I can see constantly improving on their work processes - optimizing the community. Very much looking forward to what V2 will bring, and if any developers or knowledgeable Steemians are reading this: they want to make the deadline of April 2019, but could use help - follow 
Hive account@utopian.tasks to see where they can use a hand.
Curie with LLfarms
Not specifically about 
Hive account@curie, but more broadly speaking about curating, 
Hive account@llfarms made her pitch about lifting more content 'up'. Even though amazing apps like Hive account@steemmonsters are developed on the Blockchain, content is still what we're known for, and also still what 'people see first'. If people arrive on steemit.com or one of the other condensers but are not immediately seeing, like in a storefront, what we have to offer, they will leave, not join the Blockchain, and never get to know 'what's behind it all'. This is a huge missed opportunity, and curation is the way to lift our best content makers up, and show the outside world what can be achieved by being here. A pretty important message and very relevant in our recent 50/50 content/curation discussions.
[Super impressed by the stubbornness of Hive account@llfarms - she just kept talking, even though technology wasn't really on her side today!]
Oracle-d
Man, this is pretty amazing. 
Hive account@oracle-d is something I will do more research on after the SteemFest craziness is over, and I'm not sure if I understand all that this project is working on yet, but I felt the passion and amazing ideas coming from the team, trying to get investors buy STEEM, hold STEEM, and through tasks that are then reviewed by Hive account@oracle-d upvote high-quality contributions. The one that spoke most to my heart because I'm involved in a soccer school for underprivileged kids was the example where a famous soccer player creates tasks like 'hold the ball up', kids can then practice that one exercise while filming it, uploading the video on Steem, and Hive account@oracle-d will review the contributions and upvote those that are good. Can you imagine? Kids will be able to attend a football academy without the need to travel or even be close to a city with resources - they can just do their homework and get rewarded for this as well. In the meanwhile, this football academy has invested STEEM, putting more pressure in the price of STEEM - and in 'return' Hive account@oracle-d is doing a lot of the 'labour' for the academy. Who is losing here?
Again, I might have missed some parts here, but I'm just writing down what I think I understood in order to start understanding more and more and more. I got excited, that's for sure.
[Bonus: a pretty impressive agreement was made in Indonesia, there's an Indonesian Blockchain Technology Institute running over there - note to self: read up on this!]
Engrave and Wise
This was the last presentation of the day by amongst others 
Hive account@noisy before I took a break. I was super excited because I simply hadn't even heard about these before but I think a lot of people are going to be super happy this even exists. Basically 
Hive account@engrave (inactive for now, but here's the website) makes it possible for you to create a personal website where you can publish content on the Steem Blockchain, except it doesn't have to show all your content published here, but you can finetune exactly what it is that you want to have on that website. Many of us are interested in one thing, and may even be experts on that subject, but we also like to be involved with Steem itself, or occasionally shitpost, or... So for most of us our Steem profile page is not a 'best version of ourselves' - not something we want to put on our business cards for everybody to be impressed about. But, what if you could create your website, for example your photo tutorial website, and you can say in the Engrave app 'all content with the tag photo tutorial should show on phototutorial.com'. Bonus points: posting through the Hive account@engrave app should make your Google Search Rankings go up because they've optimized the SEO of the templates they are offering - an important point for anyone who wants their knowledge to be found and read.
[BONUS: wise.vote allows you to create very specific upvote rules for delegating your votes. Maybe you want to support the 'car' tag on Steemit but only if you have more than 90% VP? Wise.vote can take care of that!]
A few notes
As a photographer I'm almost ashamed by the quality of my photos in this updates, as a writer I'm disappointed because I haven't done more research than what I've heard today, and as a human being I'm pretty much overwhelmed of all the impressions of the last three days already - but I used this post to sort of write 'away' everything I've heard and in a few days I will read back and maybe add to some of what I said or take things back even because it simply might all 'click' only after I've thought about it a little more.
I do hope everyone not present at SteemFest feels being part of it all a bit through this post, through all the other updates written through the #steemfest tag, and the livestreams - links can be found on the 
Hive account@steemfest page.
My personal 'Call to Action' to everyone reading this: almost all the presentations are calling for PEOPLE to add their time to their projects. I believe almost any project you are interested in would accept you with OPEN ARMS if you offered to give them a few hours a day or week to get the project to the next level. Take the opportunity with both hands because it's a pretty nice way to be even more involved in this beautiful revolution we somehow got to become part of <3
Off to meet more Steemians, because despite of all the awesome talks that's basically what we're doing! Shaking hands, scanning usernames, and hugging - a lot of hugging. I love it. Ciao!
