_{Photo by @jon24jon24, well actually by his camera. Photo was taken by the service attendant from the restaurant lol.}

Hey there, good evening. Above photo was a group shot of our year-ender party in the Philippines, hosted by @steemph - most of the core was present here with just 2 people missing cause they're elsewhere. It's actually a great surprise that @immarojas was here in the Philippines, it's funny cause not even her niece knows he's already here since Friday of last week. The best part of this picture is that witness @precise is here, you can even see his arm on the far right side of the photo!

This event happened on December 3. It was another fun experience to meet Steemians in Manila, Philippines.

You can check out these people for more information about this event:

@luvabi @steemph @dreamiely @surpassinggoogle @zararina

_{Photo by @immarojas}

My Part in the Yearend Dinner?

I actually held up the white screen for the projector so it doesn't fall, just kidding. I was one of the speakers and organizers of this event as part of @steemph core. We were there even before 5pm, it's a good thing the travel was faster than expected and traffic was light.

We set up the space, I rearranged the tables so we can all fit in the room - I hated how it wasn't symmetrical at all but there's nothing else to do about it.

_{Photo from Trip Advisor}

I wanted to get the above room instead however we needed more people and we will probably pay twice the fees, this all happened before the SBD rally, if only we knew.

I also provided the projector for the event, as I've mentioned earlier I'm one of the speakers - I wasn't really told about that, haha, I only found out the same day. Well, @dreamiely also stood up in front and discussed @sndbox and she only found out she was going to be a speaker right when she was called up front. It's a good thing we're good at impromptus (well, not really - for me).

The @steemph family were introduced again in this event and we have emphasized on what we work on - celebrated our milestones in the platform and showcased what a few individuals of the same passion and heart can do.

_{Photo by @deveerei}

Say hello to the only photo I've captured with my phone during the event. It's @steemph.manila's lead @steemitph and @steemph's very own @dreamiely discussing about @sndbox in the event.

Prior to talking about @sndbox, @dreamiely also discussed what @bayanihan is about. Please do check the account to know more about the @bayanihan curation project that has been supporting the #philippines community for months now. I'm a proud member of that group as well. Together with @erangvee, @jassennessaj, @themanualbot, @juvyjabian, @immarojas, & @dreamiely - we make up the curation group of @bayanihan sponsored by @donkeypong, @hanshotfirst, @jrcornel, @acidyo, and @surpassinggoogle.

Dinner was served after they discussed what @sndbox is about - we received lots of questions too because not everyone really knows what it is, let alone the benefits of being a fellow or having a sndcastle. There were new Steemians present too and some from different groups.

After dinner, I was called to discuss about 2 things, @curie and @utopian-io. I have been a part of @curie as a curator ever since before they closed it from public - way back July. I'm a moderator at Utopian.io and an early contributor to Open Source projects as well, I even have my own project called #steemplay.

I simply discussed how @curie works and where to find the criteria and where to go to for questions about it, which would be the @curie blog, steemit.chat channel, or they can ask curators directly as well. I've noticed that the curie project has helped tons of new Steemians, especially Filipinos. It is in fact their main goal - to reward outstanding new authors in the platform.

I gave an overview of what Utopian.io is - a tour of the landing page at https://join.utopian.io and of the main page as well, sample contributions & possibilities of earning through contributing to Open Source Projects. I made use of the contributions of @steemitph which I think are truly deserving of the attention it was getting, in fact - it deserves more; his work in Utopian is worth the dollars given by all the upvoters including the @utopian.io bot. I was also teased into submission and was forced to show my own page.

Afterwards, @luvabi also explained what @steemgigs is about and how it can help people and has been helping the Filipino community as well, through it's founder @surpassinggoogle.

Certificates for the Fun Awards were designed by @bearone, @dreamiely helped print them out so we can give them to the winners. This award was accepted by me on behalf of my dad @dwightjaden. I actually wrote all the names on the certificates cause we forgot to put them in before printing them out, haha. It's a good thing I had my trusted set of pens ready in my bag.

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It was a fun event - Steemit keeps amazing me with the things it can do. I was glad I've met with all the people in attendance to the said dinner. This memory is a keepsake for me. Thanks for being a part of my Steemit journey!

I really appreciate the support of my wife @haneun in the things I do in Steemit, without her support I'm sure I'd be struggling more than needed.

Till the next post!

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Maraming Salamat!

Thank you so much!