Hosting the 1st ever Hive meetup in my city Aba, Nigeria

I have been planning on how to get Hive users in my city Aba, Nigeria to meet and share experiences together. But after this post by @steevc of Hive users in my country and the need to organize networking events, I decided to make my plans work. Today, we successfully hosted a 1st ever Hive meetup in my city Aba, Nigeria. 10 persons were present for the occasion.

Preparations and the event proper

13 persons indicated interest to support the event and 11 eventually made it. So I started by making arrangements for a Hive-branded Tshit. Because of the limited budget for the T-shirt, we decided to print with just 1 color. I bought a good quality T-shirt and the printer did a great job to put the Hive branding on it. You can see how it looks below:

I had to sample the T-shirt to see how it looks. I think it looks great on me too. Take a look.

Here is another portrait of me in the shirt

Hive Exercise books

Next, I planned that we will have a branded exercise book that would be shared to those that will attend the event. I also hope to give out the exercise books to newbies that will later join us. So I went to the market to buy papers and later send them to the printer for branding. I printed a total of 60 Hive branded exercise books.

Each person that attended the meetup today got at least 1 exercise book. We will give out the rest as complementary copies to new friends that will join us in the future

The venue

I own and operate an IT business in my city. The address is 208 Azikiwe Road Aba, Nigeria. My training facility occupies an entire flat on the first floor of the building. So instead of going out to rent another facility which would cost more money, I decided to host the event in a section of my IT facility.

The meetup proper

It was a great event attended by 10 Hivers in my city. More could have attended but due to one engagement or the other, they could not make it. Those that attended it includes the following:

@beauty197 @ijelady @empressjay @bumbblebee @marajah @iamchimary @iamnursejeff @fokusnow @mesonia @zeal72

The meetup started by 11.30am this morning. There were 4 items on the agenda that we discussed. The aim is to revive the activity of each person that was inactive and grow together as a group. So here was what we discussed:

1. Challenges to your Hive growth and possible solutions
2. Our group savings.
3. Growth as a group moving forward.
4. Any other thing/suggestions

For the first item, some friends complained of being too busy with other engagements while others are struggling with finding motivation to be consistent. Everyone in attendance especially the most active members offered practical suggestions to help overcome the challenges.

For the group savings, we agreed on continuing to save until at least a period of 1 year before we do what was agreed. You can click here to see our last savings update post.

Suggestions for helping the group to grow such as organizing contests, fun activities, exploring niches and communities, microblogging and engagement were all suggestions that everyone was encouraged to try and implement.

There was also a quick question and answer section that provided an avenue for newer members of the group to learn more about Hive. At the end of it all, it was an interesting section. After deliberating on other matters, the meetup discussion part was over by 2pm local time. Next was refreshment.

Refreshment and taking pictures

After the long talk and discussions, it was time to have something to eat. Before now, @iamchimary generously volunteered to serve rice to us. It was a nice meal to have for lunch and all present were happy to have a plate of the food. We had water too to go along. When we have had our fill, we took lots of group pictures and stayed back to chat with friends after the pictures.

We also agreed to start holding regular meetups at least once every week. Everyone present agreed that its a meeting never to miss. Every last Saturday of each month, we will meet as agreed.

After a while, everyone left the venue. It was a successful gathering which we look forward to doing even better in the month of August 2024.

@tsunsica

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