The first ever Philly Steemit Meetup s is now on the books and I'm proud to say that it was a great success!
With only a few weeks to get the word out and get people interested, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. It started as an idea my good friend @Knircky and I had discussed on a few occasions and we recently decided to give it a shot. So I picked a date, worked it out with the venue owner and made a few forum posts in the local crypto meetup groups to get things rolling. People responded positively, and the friends I spoke to personally were all interested.
But putting events together can be tricky business, because there are a lot of factors that can help or hinder the overall result. Where it's held, how soon in advance is it promoted, how/where it's promoted, weather conditions, how many people show up, the quality of the energy / character and vibes of the people that show up, all contribute to the experience people get when they show up. And one thing I've learned the hard way in event planning and production is you can never truly know who is going to show up until they actually get there. Lots of people say they will go, and many end up flaking out. Some don't say anything and then show up. Some try and get there but get bogged down by excuses. But seeing who shows up and what happens when they do is also a huge part of the excitement!
So I really wanted a lot more than a handful of people to come... And when the people started steadily streaming in at 6:30 Tuesday night (and immediately talking shop) I knew we had the makings of a really good event!
The space is a great little corner bar right on the edge of center city Philly called the Institute Bar. It has a fun friendly vibe, cool staff and good food. What makes it ideal for the meetup is it has a second floor that can hold around 40-50 people comfortably and we had it all to ourselves.
Right around 6:30 as I'm getting situated the first guys to show up are 
And we quickly continue the conversations.
Then a few minutes later my buddy Jose and his friends get there, followed by good friends 
There's a pool table in the middle of the space so we all sort of used it as a way to gather around while discussion flowed into all the sub-topics related to crytpo, new projects, ICOs prices and investing, and of course Steemit was a dominant topic throughout the night.
It was really exciting as more and more people came through and by around 7:15 or so there was around 15-16 people gathered! Equally exciting was at least 5-6 said it was through my post on Steemit.
Several of the guys that showed up Andrew and Tyler are heads of a local crypto-based investment fund. Both are really sharp guys who got everyone's full attention as they talked about their company and the investment strategies they use.
A lot of smaller groups formed and separated as people discussed ideas and topics that move them, or took breaks to eat.
After a few hours some people started to take off, and towards the end when there was just a few of us left
The meetup lasted almost a full four hours, and we probably could have gone longer, but it was getting late so wrapped things up around 10:15 with a few group shots.
The only regret is that there were no female Steemians in attendance. That's something that I'll make sure to avoid happening again moving forward. And unfortunately @Knircky couldn't be there due to last minute travel plans, but I'm sure will be at the next one. It also would've been nice if we started taking pictures (/video) early on in the evening and by some people with better photography skills than me!
Overall though it was a great first meetup event and everyone expressed strong interest in coming to the next one. So, no doubt there will be one happening next month!
Thanks for taking the time to check out my post and I'm always interested to hear your thoughts.
