Yes yes! Some of you heard it already through the grapevine. Last year you overwhelmed me by coming in at such short notice to Amsterdam with almost 200 people from over 30 countries,... (Relive it here on SteemFest's Salon page) This year we'll do it all over again. Lisbon, Portugal, here we come!

In this post I will briefly point out the gist of SteemFest 2, how it came to this location and what the program overview will look like. In future coming posts I'll announce first speakers, hotel package (I found a great deal, cheaper than last year which can host us all together once more), tickets and such. But I wanted to make sure for now that you can keep some days reserved in your agenda.

Soon I'll be going back to Lisbon to make some vids and introduce you to the key venues of SteemFest 2017 in Lisbon.

For now: Mark down in your agenda for 1,2,3 +(4,5) November - SteemFest 2017 - Lisbon Portugal.

SteemFest 2017 Program Overview

(Day 0 - 31 october - Hackathon Participants arrive)

Day 1 - November 1st - Hackathon & Arrival

This day the SteemFest 24 hour blockchain hackathon starts. Build great apps for Steem, Golos, Bitshares, Peerplays, Ethereum or any other chain and present at the SteemFest crowd & jury 24 hours later what you came up with and potentially win big! The hackathon is initiated by @charlieshrem and we can't wait to see what you come up with... If you are a developer, designer or hacker in general, sign up here for the seperate SteemFest Hackathon mailinglist so we can keep you in the loop.

"Regular" (non hackathon participants) attendees are suggested to fly in on this day and book the hotelpackage from this day onward. At night we will have welcoming drinks and SteemFest wristband check-in.

Day 2 & 3 - November 2nd & 3rd - SteemFest 2017

Two days of talks, panels, workshops and fun. This year's venue is wonderful and will host 3 rooms. Catering is top notch and if the weather is in our favour (which it normally should late october) we'll be enjoying it even more, as it has some great outdoor areas. Venue will be announced soon! Just like last year we are open to speaker suggestions (suggesting is no guarantee), mail your wishes, requests to [email protected]?subject=SpeakerSuggestion.

Then there will be a closing dinner on the 3rd of November followed by closing drinks. Social events are to be defined, but I am looking at some remarkable spots in Lisbon at the moment.

Weekend: November 4th & 5th - The Plus Package

The planning of this weekend is still in the brewery, but since you all came to Lisbon, and it is wonderful city with great beaches nearby I am tinkering about either having some 'tourist weekend city trip options' available or we can 'claim' a nearby surfer paradise and go out for a surfing weekend (20-40 minutes commuting from Lisbon). Lisbon itself is beautiful as well and we'll make sure you get some great city infos on the months ahead. During the "SteemFest Plus Weekend" the Volvo Ocean Race (sailing around the world) is also harbouring in Lisbon, so if that is your thing, you should definitely head down Baixa where the sailing-boats are moored off.

Note that this weekend idea is under construction and will not be an integral part of the SteemFest ticket (which will be an all-inclusive 2.5 day feast at bargain prices thanks to sponsors). It might be that we set our destination to a beach village close by, collect up suggested airbnb's and just go there and make it a cradle to cradle 'afterparty' in the nicest villa garden or maybe that we all decide to stay in the city... May this 'after weekend' evolve in comments, your spirit and opinions. Rest assured that I have some ideas :)

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And now some insider story: Organising a sequel, little dramas...

The original idea for SteemFest 2 was to have it in the USA, and so last January I was planning ahead for a July "SummerCamp" edition. I found a great place south of San Jose in Bay Area (California) in the mountains called "The Presentation Center". 130 People could sleep on site and I started planning with suppliers of audio visual, bartenders, catering and making room revenue calculations (it was expensive to rent out the whole venue, but could recoup some by becoming "hotel" ourselves, as we could rent out 130 sleeping places). I even worked with the venue to get a campsite on site. Then end of February came the unfortunate news that the Presentation Center, after 30 years of business, decided to pull the plug. I tried and asked if they could delay their closing a bit, but that was a no go. Of course this was terrible news, however I was happy I had not yet announced the event, here you can see as some of you know that I want to keep things a bit 'secretive' before announcing, first I want to set stuff in stone before making it public!

So then it was NOT just a matter of copying the whole planning over to another venue, instead we decided to postpone, and all was open again and unfortunately for some it will mean a longer trip to SteemFest, but I promise, next year we definitely have our eyes on spreading our wings and fly out of Europe and won't wait it out until another full year has passed.

SteemFest 2 - LISBON! will not be possible without:

• You visiting! (preferably by buying a support ticket (soon tba))
• Sponsorship by Steem.inc, generous whales, and tba other sponsors (you? - contact me via [email protected] about the opportunities)
• Donations to the @t-r-f Travel Reimbursement Fund - feel free to donate money there...
• The @Firepower CREW!! - last year a dedicated crew lead by @firepower consisting of @sjennon @foxxycat @razvanelulmarin @anduweb @anyx made sure the event was a blast and most of them will be back to ensure smoothness once more!
• Input and help from many more of you, just like last year.
• The City of Lisbon and it's Pastel de Nata's. Creamy & Delicious.

What can you do now already?

• Save 1-2-3 (4-5) November 2017 in your agenda and start planning a flight / train / start & arranging visas!
• Follow @steemfest - the official account for SteemFest infos
• Signup to the mailinglist via https://SteemFest.com

Wait with booking a hotel until the hotel package and tickets are announced...

^{Pictures sourced from Flickr for commercial use CC licensed, top picture shamelessly ripped from somewhere on the web but loved the scenic view.}
Ofcourse: All liquid rewards from this post will be forwarded to the @steemfest account towards the event funding.