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<div class="text-justify">Conference day 1 was the most action-packed day of the Fest. I wasn’t going to miss a second of it. So, I inhaled a large can of the purple Monster (yea, I got hooked on those again since my mud coffee was not at hand), and lem and I headed out early in the morning to catch the ferry which took us to one of the coolest venues @roelandp had found for us - Eye, the national museum for film in Amsterdam. 

<br>Not only it was an architectural gem embracing the views of Amsterdam’s waterfront with boats, ferries, barges, and ships passing by the massive windows in front, which indeed reminded me of an eye. The venue was perfectly suited for the presentations that day since it has 4 cinemas there. We got the purple cinema all for the Hive event. The seats were purple (my favorite color) and they were so comfortable for a long day of watching presentations on the big screen! ^^ The Eye had many interesting features and exhibitions there as well. The walls held retro posters from old films, there were all kinds of old filming equipment exhibited, and even phenakistoscopes that one could spin and view the animation going round and round in circles. We did not visit the museum itself this time. Our full focus was on Hive and the lovely Hivians all around us instead.</div> 

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<center><sub>A couple of sandwiches for breakfast (<em>mmm</em> the Hivefest catering was pretty great this year) and a few chit-chats later, Roeland called us all to the purple cinema to kick off the conference day 1 bright and early.</sub></center>

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<center><sub>FiveFesters! It means this bunch has been to all five in-person Hivefests! The real OGs. Roeland, Arcange, Blocktrades, Alpha, and Gadalf! Hats off to them!</sub></center>

Did I say bright and early? Yes! Roeland was still wearing his Hive jammies and kept darting around in socks right in his element as the event runner! I must say, his Hive outfits were the best and made us all feel right at home and relaxed. You know, we all probably wore jammies from home to Hivefest the two years prior in virtual reality. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ9MpQQoPu4

<center><sub>Here’s the stream from the official Hivefest Youtube channel if you want to catch up, or they have now broken down the presentations into smaller videos if there is a particular talk you want to check out.</sub></center>

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<center><sub>There were a few breaks between presentations to move around, go outside for fresh air, catch up with one another, or grab something to eat and drink.</sub></center>

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<center><sub>Aww, @zirochka and @arcange heading to sound check for the presentation.</sub></center>

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<div class="text-justify">Roeland has always been a big art and creative stuff supporter here on Hive. So there is no wonder that art from Hivians was also featured in Hivefest through our own NFT platform called the NFT Showroom. Artists were given opportunity to submit their works for one of the over 20 spots available. 

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At first, I thought that since I have not created anything for NFT Showroom this year due to being busy with other important life stuff, I could not participate. But then I noticed that it did not matter what year the art was created. So I submitted one of my cupcakes from my Digital Bakery series from 2021. 

I did not think much of it, but then walking down the hall to the cinema my cherry cupcake waved back at me! <em>Hello there! I was wondering if I would see you here! Aww.</em> Thank you for the feature! And I promise I will kick myself into the next gear and create new stuff soon! 

My gallery in NFT Showroom can be found [<em>here</em>](https://nftshowroom.com/m31/gallery). 

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<center><sub>Zirochka and Arcange presenting on stage.</sub></center>

There were a couple of presentations that day that touched me. 

One of them was Zirochka’s presentation. When I learned that she was going to be one of the speakers this year, I knew I did not want to miss it. It was one of the reasons why I got up so early and did my best to make it on time. Zirochka traveled from Ukraine to tell her story. It was very important from the start of the year and the start of the war in her country to tell the story of what was and still is happening to her country and the people there, and how her life changed. 

And in the midst of all the chaos and suffering, something wonderful happened. Arcange reached out to Zirochka to figure out a way to help Ukrainians who are out there tirelessly fighting for their freedom and country. Together they created the NFT for Peace. By purchasing the NFT that comes in the form of many cute Hive Buzz badges, you are donating to help people who are suffering, their homes might be destroyed, and they might not have access to food or medicines, and other essentials to survive. You can find the NFT [<em>here</em>](https://hivebuzz.me/) and help someone through Hive today. 

It was a hard one. I was not able to stop the tears from rolling. Especially hearing the pain in Zirochka’s voice. But it was and is important to hear it. It is now forever written in our immutable, censorship-resistant chain reaching people everywhere across the world. Thank you Zirochka for everything you do day after day! Thank you Arcange for finding ways for all of us to help even a little!

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<center><sub>@lordbutterfly introduced us to Freechain.</sub></center>

That day there was another presentation that involved a story dear to my heart. It is the story of events that took place in March 2020. Our community faced a threat of a single entity trying to take over our chain, leaving us impaired, and unable to make our own decisions. For a while, it seemed hopeless, but then we came together and held our ground. Until Hive was ready. 

We would no longer call ourselves Steemians and our chain Steem. Instead, we became Hivians and our chain Hive. While one could own STEEM, one could not own the community. We gave them our middle fingers and came on top winners! For the most part anyway. We lost people along the way and many Steem investors got their funds stolen too. Many were censored, their voices silenced so no one could see our rebellion. But the community pushed forward. And now we have one hell of a story to tell!

There was one person on Hive who decided that it was indeed a film-worthy story. @lordbutterfly who surprised us all at Hivefest. In a good way too, since his personality on Hive often comes off as a bit of a hot head. Haha! He told us about his experience with the marketing firm he hired to promote Hive, and he identified many issues we have had with users signing up. The interest is there, but often our infrastructure is lagging. This experience led him down the path to creating a film about Hive called <em>Freechain</em>. 

It was awesome to learn about their approach to the film. It will speak about our blockchain to perhaps a person who does not know any of it. To them, it is an overwhelming sea of complicated, tangled information. The narrator of the film will sit right next to the person and will learn together with them through the film. And it seemed that the film will showcase the true power of the community. People from all around the world join together to protect beautiful ideas such as decentralization and freedom. I can’t wait to see the film! Hopefully 6 months or so from now! ^^

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<center><sub>@little.lamb answering audience questions about the film’s creation process.</sub></center>

Lordbutterfly has found an amazing team to create Freechain. They have created award-winning films and have participated in many film festivals. And they have made plans to get the film on many platforms and show it also at the festivals. @little.lamb is part of the team and what an amazing addition to the Hive community! Thanks to Lordbutterfly who brought them on! Even the tiny snippet we got to see that day gave me goosebumps. The animations are absolutely stunning and so worth the wait too! Thank you so much for creating this! I have full confidence that this film will be a success!

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<center><sub> After the day full of inspiring talks we hopped on a boat that took us around the canals of Amsterdam. We passed many beautiful buildings, boats of all shapes and sizes, and boat living quarters. It gave us another perspective on the diverse and bustling city. Let’s have a look, shall we?</sub></center>

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15da8BqTrps

<center>![13](https://i.imgur.com/QyVNBAg.jpg)</center>

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<center><sub>This is where our boat ride ended and on to the next adventure! And our great wizard @gtg did not lead us astray! As we followed him and his lovely wife to our next destination! Of course, she was leading the wizard! :)</sub></center>

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<center><sub>Playing with balls of steel at Mooie Boules!</sub></center>

<div class="text-justify">Mooie was the place! It was very loud with all of us there and probably many regulars on the first floor, yeah, but, oh my, such a cool vibe. Bikes strapped to the ceiling and colorful lights everywhere! I am such a sucker for all kinds of fairy light types of things! Automatically sets my happy mood! 

<br>It was time to battle it out with the balls of steel! Our team originally consisted of @pharesim, @lemony-cricket, @d4vidos, and @holdonla and I, with Juka acting as our fluffy cheerleader. Our team name was Juka, of course. We had to honor one of the cutest puppies on Hive! We did not win, but trying the game and playing with other Hivian teams was so much fun!

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<center><sub>Aww, I am happy I captured this photo. Look at all the Hive puppies! They had their party also!</sub></center>

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What a day! Filled with absolutely awesome stuff. We somehow found the way back to the hotel after getting a bit lost in the end. But ayyy! Sleep was needed before another conference day!</div>

<sub>Song of the day: Celldweller - Electric Eye</sub>