If you ask me to describe the first two days of SteemFest in a single picture/gif, than this would be the most suitable in my opinion.
To me the first two days where a combination of connecting with awesome Steemians from all over the world, enjoy the incredible atmosphere and ultimately learn more about the planned improvements of the STEEM blockchain and Smart Media Token (SMT)
The first 4 speakers at the conference on day one where Roeland, Ned, Michael and Sneak. I personally felt that there was a lot of optimism for the future of the STEEM blockchain and SMT as well as realization of the current issues.
I was particular happy to hear that further improvement on the STEEM blockchain are in progress to make operations even faster and to improve the account creation speed. Another thing was the introduction of a STEEM mobile app/wallet and getting communities on Steemit.
Communities and a STEEMIT Mobile app/wallet will be available this year, sweeet!
I love those things and eat far too many than good for me :)
On day two we travelled to a beautiful Vila up the hill, the view was amazing! At the luch break all Steemians have been asked to meet at the balcony for a group photo/video that has been shot by a drone (dji mavic pro). I can't wait to see the actual drone video feed but can share already a few images I made.
Later that day the two Sndbox founder's Michale and Kirk presented about the SteemPark project and Sndbox in general. I enjoyed the presentation a lot and can't wait to see more Steem supported projects being developed and supported by some of the incredible creative people we have in this community.
Before the dinner there was Fireside chat with Ned and Andrew (see Andrew's post here) which was sharp and to the point.
To me Ned answered all the critical questions around future of Steemit, SMT's, developments to improve the platform and blockchain satisfactory and I feel comfortable to stay invested in STEEM for the long run.
As a closing comment, one of the discussions I had with Steemians from Malaysia and Venezuela is that many users have a considerably better live in these countries due to blogging on Steemit since the basic income is very low and a post reward of 5 dollars is already a little fortune to them.
That was a great reminder that beside all challenges we have in the early years of this project, this platform already improves the live of many people and if nothing bad happens than it only gets better from here!
Thank you and all the best!