Introduction

I am delighted to make this report about Food4thought, our Steem Promotion event designed with a touch of charity. You remember that Food4thought project has the aim of boosting user retention by rewarding newbies that stayed with us and published consistently for the next 1 week at least. We have reserved food items as reward for consistency and commitment. So here was how the program was launched.

Setting up the Venue and welcoming guests

I and @marajah arrived early to make sure that everything needed for the event was arranged, ready and available. @marajah sweeped the entire hall and made sure the seats were dust-free. I helped to arrange the fliers, sign up forms and the cardboard sheet which would be used for achievement 1 pictures. By 10.am, everything was ready for us to start.

_{The venue ready for the program}

Our guests started coming by 9.40am. A few of our guests came late. But like we always do, we had to delay the kick-off until 11.20am. We had around 5 persons available when we started. But by the time we got midway in the program, we had a total of 9 guests. All paid attention during the presentation of Steemit and the Food4thought project.

How the launching took place

Organizing and hosting such a big project requires many hands. I was happy I contacted some seasoned Steemians that came around to assist with all the different aspects of the program. @marajah was very helpful in organizing a lot of things for the program. @ijelady came all the way from Uyo and too part in making a presentation, signing up newbies and mentorship. @meymeyshops also made a presentation and assisted with signing up newbies. @mesonia assisted the newbies for making their posts.

For the Presentation, I started with Introduction to Steemit. I explained to our guests the brief history of Steemit and why it is such a great opportunity. @meymeyshops explained how to earn on Steemit and the type of content accepted. @ijelady explained the success secrets for new Steemians. She also shared many personal experiences to show that Steemit is worth anyone's time and attention. Then she explained the Food4thought project and how they stand to benefit both in the short and in the long run by joining Steemit.

The entire presentation took around 2 hours. Then we started signing up the new users. While we were doing that, we shared snacks to them. We bought each guest a bottle of Pepsi or Coka Cola. We also bought them meatpie to enjoy their drink with. After signing up the new users, they all started working on their achievement 1 posts. We created a whatsapp group and added them all. So it was easy to mentor them on how to make a post and their introduction post.

_{Guests pose for pictures after the presentation}

_{Guests happily show their snacks}

Newbies that Signed up

Out of the 9 persons that attended, we had some that did not come with a smartphone because they had none, or because their own was faulty. So it was not possible for all to get signed up and to start blogging. But we were able to sign up 5 persons and guide them to make their achievement 1 post. Two persons could not complete their introduction post, so the returned the next day to do so. Below are those that got signed up and published introduction post:

_{Achievement 1 @kaduru61: This is my Introduction story mentored by @focusnow}

_{Achievement 1: My introduction to steemit. Invited by @focusnow}

_{My Introduction post to steemit mentored by @ijelady}

_{ACHIEVEMENT 1: first of all, INTRODUCING ME TO THE STEEMIT COMMUNITY}

_{Achievement1: My Introduction to steemit by @focusnow}

_{Achievement1: My introduction to steemit}

The Facilitators

I could not have done this work all by myself. I cannot thank enough the willing volunteers that sacrificed their time and and other resources to be available for the launching of this project. They were and still are so useful for the advancement of this promotion project. Let me start by saying a big thank you to @ijelady who came all the way from Uyo to attend this event. She made a powerful presentation, assisted with signing up newbies and mentorship.

I will like to equally thank @meymeyshops who came although on a late notice, she also presented effectively and assisted with sign ups and mentorships. @mesonia was very instrumental too. She assisted the newbies understand how to make an introduction posts. @marajah was very very useful from preparation time till the end. She got the hall ready, assisted with mentorship and many other things. Thank you all. We were not able to have a group picture. But I had some pictures with some of these ear friends as can be seen below:

_{Enjoying launch afterwards with @ijelady}

_{Posing with @mesonia}

_{@marajah, @meymeyshops and @ijelady}

Getting the Foodstuffs ready

Food4thought would be run through donations. We already got donations of SBD from @beautybb and steem from @ijelady. We also have some friends like @marajah that have already donated entire post earnings to the project. Between now and the end of the 8 days, we will have all the entire foodstuffs ready. But for the meantime, we have bought a carton of Indomie as seen below.

We still call on more donations from our loving community members. We are really eager to see these newbies do well through this project. As more resources become available, we will buy more foodstuffs and add to the prizes.

Conclusion/Further Work

We just launched this project. This is just the beginning rather than the end. Most of our guests came to the training center today and we mentored them on how to publish their achievement two, and how to make other posts. They will start posting from tomorrow morning. We hope that they remain consistent in producing quality content. We will be teaching them the importance of engagement tomorrow.

Additionally, we will soon launch a small project to encourage older member to assist welcome these newbies by engaging well with their introduction posts and other posts. Thank you friends for supporting this project. We hope to achieve a greater retention rate through it. Thank you too @steemitblog for always being with us.