First Florida Steemit Meetup August 10 - 12!

in #meetup7 years ago

Florida Steemit Meetup August 2017.png

Would you join us for the first Florida Steemit meetup from Thursday August 10 to Saturday August 12, 2017 because we will be gathering together to meet in person to celebrate life? What do you think of calling these a "Steemup" for future gatherings?

Why?

We are having this meetup because meeting in person will help us build deeper relationships and make more effective collaborations in Steemit!

Who?

If you would like to go, would you please post in the comments because this is the only guest list available? Anyone excited about Steemit is welcome to join us! Everything for this including updates will be organized exclusively by posts on Steemit! From the first idea post at https://steemit.com/steemfest/@jerrybanfield/first-florida-steemfest-in-august-2017 it appears we will have about twenty or thirty people coming mostly that live within driving distance as I do. Any future events will likely be scheduled further in advance to assist in allowing those further away an easier option for booking travel.

When and Where?

  1. Day 1 is August 10, 2017 in Sarasota, Florida from 11 am to 3 pm at 1800 N East Ave, Sarasota, Florida 34234 operated by CoCreate, LLC with an invitation from @robertgenito.
  2. Day 2 is August 11, 2017 in Saint Petersburg, Florida from 11 am to 3 pm at the beach. Address and directions provided the day before.
  3. Day 3 August 12, 2017 from 11 am to 3 pm at a location selected from Day 1. Choices may include Busch Gardens, Dali museum, Florida Aquarium, or wherever else we choose on Day 1.

What?

  1. The COST is FREE for everyone to attend on Day 1 because I prefer free to attend events and will pay the $100 cost plus $200 deposit to rent the Day 1 space. There may be a few dollars in fees to park on Day 2 and for admission tickets to wherever we go on Day 3.
  2. HOTELS are totally up to you because about half of us going live within an hour or two driving distance and none of the events are at a hotel. If you would like to collaborate with another out of state visitor to stay together, would you please connect in the comments because this might help reduce the cost for each of you? With Day 1 in Sarasota and Day 2 in Saint Petersburg, the driving distance is about an hour between events meaning where to stay should be based on what you want to do other than the meetup. If you are flying in, I recommended checking both Tampa and Sarasota along with renting a car because the events are all about an hour apart.
  3. Breakfast, Dinner, and Nightlife are three activities I will not be participating in because I have wake up with my family and do these posts in the morning while attending AA meetings in the evening and being home with my family for dinner. I scheduled the events at lunchtime with the hope that if you are interested in going out to breakfast or dinner or staying out late that you will be able to work that out during the events..
  4. Activities for Day 1 and Day 2 will mostly be hanging out. I am not planning on having any speakers or a fixed schedule because I trust that we will know what to do when the time comes and want some time to talk 1 on 1 with each other or in smaller groups. Day 3 may include a trip somewhere like Busch Gardens with more to do!
  5. Food will be provided for Day 1 featuring what I eat meaning mostly whole plant foods, vegan, and delicious! Examples include fresh fruit, vegetables, humas, nuts, Triscuits, baked chips, and maybe a few other snacks! Day 2 will be a bring your own food to the beach day and Day 3 will depend on where we are going.
  6. Questions? Would you please post anything you want to suggest or ask here or on future posts related to this meetup because this is where we will be organizing for the event?

Thank you for reading about Florida's first Steemit meetup and I hope to see you there! If you are going to go, would you please make sure to tell us that in the comments because it will help us connect before the event and make a guest list for future posts?

Would you upvote this post because the rewards will help pay for the cost of the event space and food?

Love,
Jerry Banfield

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This post received a 3.9% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @bhightech! For more information, click here!

I am trying to get off work but sounds fun to me!

By the by, I love the idea of the Aquarium or Busch Gardens, particularly the latter. I have 2 of the more expensive annual passes for Busch Gardens, and could probably carpool in 5 people other than myself to get free parking. I am currently on hold with their ticketing line (estimated wait: 111 minutes, lol) to find out how many 50% discounted tickets I am able to purchase with my passes, and what group rates are available if I run out of that capacity. But, I can definitely save a number of people 50% on admission, 100% on parking, and 10% on anything inside the park.

The only issue will be I'll need to front all charges through my CC linked to my pass. This shouldn't be a problem as long as people have cash with them or SBD in their account, since I'd have to front everything out of pocket. I can definitely do that and don't mind taking Steem/SBD or cash, whichever is easiest. (I have a feeling which may be more popular.)

Upvoted for visibility. I will reply to this post if I get resolution on the Busch Gardens ticketing issue.

That's great Busch Gardens is one of my first choices for Saturday also!

I feel i am very unlucky.... because i am from india..and would not be able to catch you guys...sorry

:-(

I want to grow on Steemit... with your help i would...

I hope i could attend...

Hey Zaybaan, I'm sorry you can't make this one. The airfare is quite expensive, so I totally sympathize. However, I know I have seen posts about a few Steemit meetups taking place in India. Try searching for "meetup" and see if you can find any. I saw pictures from an Indian Steemit meetup about 3 weeks ago.

Got through to support another way. It looks like each of my annual passes for Busch Gardens can pull 3 guest tickets each per calendar date.

In other words, I can get 6 tickets at 50% off. We could either split that discount up among the whole group evenly, raffle it, or make it first-come, first served.

If we decide to pick another activity instead, I can look into ticket discounts for locals and we can do something similar.

What about South Florida?

I appreciate your patience with me missing so many of your comments and this is motivating me to start devoting more time to the comments with less to anything else! Would love to have you visit from South Florida and I would be open to attending an event if you had one!

Sarasota is drivable for South Florida.

Four years ago I drove to Fort Lauderdale and back in one day just trying to get an attorney to be a client which I ended up not ever getting any business from. My wife reminds me of this when I am complaining about how well my business is going.

Road, you need to drive up for this one! Maybe we can convince @mindhunter to come, apparently his family visits the area occasionally.

@lexiconical I have commented numerous times to JB and I never once got a response back. I will be holding my own soon anyway I'm in Mid - South Florida. So Sarasota doesn't do it for me, driving 8 hours. Nope! @mindhunter can charter a jet than I will think about it. Remember the value I bring, Just my Face alone would bring another 500-1000 guests!! ;) lex talk to you in chat soon ;)
(kidding around) hee

@road2wisdom I promise you it's not because Jerry doesn't want to reply, he must be overloaded. I replied to him twice in like the last two minutes alone. He's got as many likes as Jerry Springer on FB, huge YT channel. I don't know how the guy does it without amphetamines.

Florida's big, I'll admit it's a pain to drive up and down it. I've driven down to Miami from central Florida several times to buy cars though. Great, cheap selection down there.

If you decide you want to drive up, I think I could offer you a free place to crash and maybe a ride to the meetups, so your only drive would be your drive up. Assuming you aren't violently allergic to dogs, that is.

Also, +1 for Audio books when driving!

You're right and I have been prioritizing other things today I have felt the pain of ignoring the comments in favor of spending 5 hours writing a new post a lot and will start making comments a priority!

I just checked and depending on which home I was staying in, it would take around 3 1/2 hours from were I live in Ocean Ridge to Sarasota and about from. First, I appreciate the offer for a place to stay and the rides. That means a lot to me and I don't forget little things like that. So once again thank you :) I have a driver for anything over 2 hours that drives me around (not trying to sound posh) but I tell it like it is! As far as Jerry not responding I am sure he is busy, so I am, especially working in the medical field and its nothing personal but I have been talking with others and I will be having a meet up in my area soon too. My home is on the beach and it can accommodate at least 10-15 people to sleep. The rest would have to get hotel rooms in the area. Plus I am flying out 2-3 people from steemit. So again nothing personal but when I don't feel the love I just don't feel it. But @lexiconical thank you again for offering and I hope when I have mine you can come :)

Look forward to hearing more about it. If I don't comment when you post about it, I missed the post!

lol! You can miss my post @lexiconical we have a mutual respect for each other :) we will chat soon :) hee

"Lear Jet for The Face! Lear Jet for The Face!!" :)

I will be there for a fact, if anyone is interested in the Gainesville area you can carpool with me!

Outstanding Alex excited to see you!

Look forward to seeing you there!

Hey Jerry. Thanks I'd love to come to one of the events. I'm located in Orlando so I'd have to see about my work schedule and if I can make it. I'll keep you updated on my RSVP. For now....I'll be at the Day 1 event.

Wonderful Joseph we hope to see you there! My wife, daughter, and mother in law just went to Orlando today to Blizzard Beach while I stayed home and did this.

I just saw that you replied. Sorry, I'm getting the hang of this. Funny enough, I've still never been to Blizzard beach. I hope they had fun. Would it be ok if my girlfriend joined me? She just signed up for steemit but hasn't been verified yet.

I'm right across the state, about an hour away. I'd love to attend at least a day. Likely Thursday the 10th of August. :)

Outstanding we would be happy to see you there!

I would love to go, I live in the area but I have to work. I think those times are a little difficult as most people work business hours @jerrybanfield

It's true. It will always be technically impossible to schedule something everyone can attend. As Jerry noted, due to having children, his night-life options are more limited. I think it is very likely that we will organize other activities for after the event, for those who are able to go. If you are free those evenings, you should keep up with the plans.

I already have a few ideas for our St Pete day for activities we could split off into. Ice-skating, bowling, mini-golf, pool, pool hall. I've got an outside shower and a pool, 2 people at a time could shower at my place after the beach.

We can go on Thursday and we are very pumped, we are professional photographers and we will be taking our equipment to document video and photos of the event @jerrybanfield @lexiconical that day

That is outstanding we would love to have some great photographs taken because as you can see my photography is very beginner! We hope to have a Saturday trip available to Busch Gardens for those that cannot do the weekday schedule.

Awesome! leave it up to us.

Awesome, look forward to seeing you there!

Thank you!

I will do adjustments on my work schedule to at least go one day. @lexiconical me and my wife are new to the community and she is putting a lot of effort on her travel page and I'm doing my best to support her. Check her out @ddfoodandtravel

I will take a look!

I'm definitely in. Already adjusting my work schedule around these dates.

Jerry, I may be able to help with logistics and organization, carpools, planning, research, calling places etc. Let me know what you need. I'm probably 10 minutes away from you. May have room for a few sleeping baggers in my house or "bums" at my pool too. If you have anything you need looked up, or anyone has questions, I'm happy to assist here.

@lexiconical wonderful! Thank you for being one of the first to say you are definitely in here because I hope it helps you connect with others that need help and motivates more to join! Excited to meet you next month!

I'm serious about helping out if you need it. If it wasn't for your YT account, I wouldn't be on this platform at all.

If you want to take me up on it, just reply here and I can add you on FB and DM you or whatever the kids are calling it on there these days.

#getoffmylawn

Get off my lawn.jpg

I wish I lived in Florida! Great idea! Maybe we can get gatherings together in every state eventually?