It is the weirdest thing … nothing urgent that is due tomorrow or later today :)

That is now from the event arrangement perspective. Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed this challenge! I have never arranged an event like this before. Working with @naomi-louise, @gavvet and @robertm on this was a great pleasure. Thanks to the communities dedicated voting for the pre-event's posting combined with the sponsorship of QuadroIT, the first Steem Saturday event was pulled off :)

Picking up Ned from the airport

Well, the short answer is I didn't :) …

How did I nearly loose our valuable @ned …

I had a final meeting Friday afternoon, for yet another discussion with a company looking for Blockchain solutions. I left the meeting at the planned time, to ensure that I will be on time for @ned's arrival. On the way to the airport, the traffic was a bit more hectic than usual, as a result of a traffic light, which was out of order at a major intersection…Let's call it part of the South-African culture. It wasn't too bad, as I planned some extra time to ensure that I will still be on time.

I parked my vehicle at the Sandton - Gautrain Station. The Gautrain, is a subway system in Gauteng South Africa, which was implemented in 2010 when South Africa hosted the Football World Cup. Basically First World stuff in a developing country :)

Image Credit

At this time (17:00) I was very comfortable that I will be on time as the flight was destined to arrive at 17:40 and I knew that Friday evenings, many international flights arrive at the same time, so he will take around 30-40 minutes to get through customs, which leaves me more than enough time. I parked my vehicle and merrily strolled into the station and when I looked at the announcement section I saw that the next train was in 6 minutes. I was now looking forward to relax a bit before the short 15 minute trip to the airport. I knew that we will have a hectic time for the next few days and this is the last few quite minutes before the storm. I then went down with the escalators to the platform. When I stepped foot on the train a dreaded thing happened.

The Slow Motion Moment

The announcement signage changed into a flashing - Train out of service …. Train out of service …Train out of service

From here on everything was a mess. I was in a basement platform with no Mobile Phone signal. I asked the management of Gautrain what the procedure is in this event, only to find out that a new train can only get on the track two stations down the road. This meant 20 minutes southbound… another 20 minutes northbound back to us and then another 15 minutes to the airport.

In theory I can still make it as @ned will take some time to get through customs and border control.

Well .. His flight arrived early… very early he arrived at 17:10 and when I arrived at the airport, he was nowhere to be found :) I LOST NED! was my first thought. I phoned @robertm and requested that he must find out if Ned arrived at the hotel … and then my phone battery died :) I didn't think anything could go wrong on the day. I bought a charger at an airport shop, and I know this is not advisable, but I had no choice. Charged the phone for a few minutes and @robertm phoned to say that Ned just booked into the hotel.

Relief at last

Back to arranging the event … I am sure you all had this feeling after living a rush during the arrangement of something major. Arranging a party for a family member or being involved in the arrangement for a wedding … all these will fall into this category. You have such a long to do list before the event that you believe it is not possible to finish, and yet everything is done in the end.

And then Success!

It is just amazing! We are still receiving so many compliments for arranging the event which was a massive success in the end.

Speakers Dinner

Image Credit - Me - I took it Ask Ned

I wish @roelandp and all those involved in the arrangements for the @steemfest all the best. I am sure it will be a great success.

The videos of all the speakers will be uploaded as soon as we receive them.

Happy Steeming

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