A great week of Hivefest 2024 - Split, Croatia

Hi there, long time no see :) - So Where should I start?!?!
The Hive highlight of the year just happened 3 weeks ago: HIVEFEST 2024 in Split was taking place from the 10th until the 15th of September this year and I must say - I am very happy

First of all, I have to say once again how much I fuckin love this community on Hive! I know I have been inactive for quite a while (except for curation travel content) and I was missing out a lot, getting a little bit lost in my "real life" in Germany.

When I heard that pinmapple would be closed down I felt heartbroken at first. - Not only because I love this project and know how much work we had put in, but also because I love and miss this community. - For a long time in my life, this was home.

I have been to many work-related conferences and networking events over the past few years, but never have I felt the same real connection, interest in each other, and eye level as here.

It is insane how people get all emotional about seeing each other weeks before Hivefest and write in a telegram group. How they get there days before to finally meet each other in person or even stay longer because it should last as long as possible. But most importantly: How no one at this event is arrogant, feels better than anybody else, or tries to sell themselves or screw anyone over. It doesn´t matter how long you are part of Hive, where you come from, what your blog is about, or what your gender or religion is.

At every Hivefest so far it was a real community meetup. Speakers don't sell themselves. They give updates on what they are working on, discuss it with the community, and ask for ideas, questions, and cooperation to bring the whole platform and community further together!

So when @detlev and I started @worldmappin together with the team, it felt like I finally returned to my former home. - It was great to meet everyone again, hear about all the things going on in the community right now, and have fun times with every one of the attendees that I had the chance to talk to.

How do you know I am really back home?! - I am starting to blog again ;)

So what did I experience at this year's Hivefest? - let me tell you all about it! - BTW I was overwhelmed by all the talks and presentations, so I didn't take a lot of pictures by myself. - So thanks ahead to @louis88, @bil.prag, @jarvie, and many more taking awesome pictures and letting us use some of them - As you will see I borrowed some :)

I arrived on Tuesday 10th with Croatia Airline

The plane was pretty small. I didn't even know we have such planes starting from Munich :D The last time I was on one of those we were flying into the Columbian jungle xD

The weather was great and the view over the islands was amazing. Great start for a new adventure!

I arrived at Split, went directly to my rented room, left my stuff, and walked to the city center to meet all the others who had already gathered somewhere close to the harbor ready for check in and waiting for the opening drinks.

I instantly loved that place. So many small streets, the palace, cozy squares, nice bars and restaurants and sometimes turning around a corner you meet some Romans :D

OMG, it was so great to see all those familiar faces again. After a big round of hugs, we walked all together to a pizza place to have some proper foundation before the opening drinks. Then the time arrived and we could finally go to the bar to check in with @roelandp and officially start Hivefest.

Opening Drinks

For me, it was just great to hang out with the @worldmappin team. Get updated with @blocktrades and @alpha, which I haven't seen for soo lang as well, and talk with @gtg and with @livinguktaiwan about how she is enjoying time off now ;)

Of course, as you now know, I was also on a mission, so I started my first contact with @ninaeatshere to get to know her. I found her hanging out with @ph1102 and @achim03.

It was nice to get together, but also loud and so many people at once :D - Time was flying and at some point, the bar was closing so some of the others went clubbing and I went home to get some rest.

Day 2: First Conference Day + Gala Dinner

The next morning I met up early with the team, to walk together to our first venue. It was a nice museum, about 30 30-minute walk from the city center.

Just before the museum, they had built up a big tent with all the equipment and chairs inside for the conference. Sadly it was pretty hot that day, so most of the people just sat inside in the morning and then decided to take the chairs outside to sit there and watch everything from the shadows =)

After @roelandp officially started Hivefest Conference, @Lodbutterfly welcomed everyone to his residency and @arcange handed out his @hive5 winner trofys, Detlev and I had some final discussions before the presentation and then had our talk present the latest updates of @worldmappin project and collect /discuss ideas for the next steps.

In the break, I had good talks with @creativemary , @jarvie , @blocktrades , @starkerz and the team, who all already had some great ideas. As you saw some of them are already in the making ;) - Of course, we were still on our mission, so it was nice to see that apparently we had ninas attention watched already during the presentation :D

For those of you who have missed the talks of day 1 and still want to watch them, just check them out here:

In the afternoon we did our group picture together and then waited for the buses to bring us to the gala dinner:

@jarvie took one of my favorite portraits of me that day. Thanks again, my friend!

At the Gala dinner, we had great food and live music. I was talking a lot to @livinguktaiwian and had some exchanges with the (worldmappin)team about the latest ideas. Also, I enjoyed having some cuddles with @pharesim dogs.

Also I loved that @misslasvegsas arrived flying in from Cancun! She had decided last minute to be part of Hivefest and it was so great to see her there - It is just not the same without her <3

We still had a lot to organize for the next day, so again I went back to the apartment earlier than the others ;) and god some rest.

Day 3: Second Conference Day

It was our second Conference day and @lordbutterfly had chosen the best venue ever! The Roman palace! We had a whole room in the palace booked for the whole day.

Of course, how could it be any different - the Roman emperor welcomed us himself before the talks of the second day started.

If you want to see the talks, check them out here:

I the lunch break, @worldmappin team and I had organized a little dart tournament, where you could pin your dart to the worldmap to win a shirt or sweatshirt.

@roelandp had helped us out with a piece of wood to hang up the map. Until the break, all the participants had to register to be in the tournament and then at lunchbreak we started it.

In every round, 3 participants had to through their darts and try to be as close to the capital I told them as possible. So first they had to know where it is and second, be good in darts to shoot close to it. - cheating was not possible as the signal was very poor at that dungeon. ;)

And look who we already had coming closer and closer to the project :D - @ninaeatshere

The winners were announced and got their prices and then we went on with the conference:

It was another great but long day with great talks and lots of organizations :D. I was very glad when we finally went to the pizzeria after to get some good food, as I was a little bit hangry by then. ;D It was a fun afternoon hanging out there and having great pizza with @arcange, @steevc, and @crimsonclad.

4th day of Hivefest: Playday!

The original plan was to go on a boat trip together that day, but just like Friday 13th sometimes does, it destroyed our plan and we decided to do a playday instead.

@gtg, @buttcoins, @knowhow92, @blocktrades, @khaleelkazi, @bitterirony, @marjanko, @tinabrezpike, @growandbow, @eturnerx myself and some others decided to meet up earlier to play at the annual poker game 😎

I think I sure had my moments and I didn´t become last, but also I was not able to play against such professionals for that long. So when @growandbow won with @tinabrezpike as second and @buttcoins as third - this was well deserved.

Here you have a great video from @buttcoins about it:

After that the pool game was oooon. I played with @tinabrezpike,
@marjanko, @crimsonclad, @growandbow, @solarwarrior, @lordbutterfly, and of course, @starkerz wanted to have his pride back, after I kicked his as back in Thailand so hard that apparently, he had been training for that moment to come - look how serious he was :D

After the game day, we went to a bar and had some drinks there before many went to a party - I went home again.

5th day of Hivefest: The Rally car & Closing drinks!

On the second conference day at the Roman palace, the rally car was parked outside so we could check it out already. Of course, we took some pictures and pinned the worldmappin sticker on it right away that day ;)

On Saturday I woke up early to get some proper breakfast together with @detlev, @roelandp, @arcange, and some others. From there we walked to the bus station and drove by bus to the go kart place.

After a little while the rally car arrived and the employees started to change the parkour, so the car could go faster. The driver did some rounds to warm up and then every one of us had the chance to drive one round with him. It looked like a lot of fun!

Of course, I was still on my mission to get @ninaeatshere on the team, so I focused on talking to her, @tinabrezpike, @marjanko and some others :)

In the evening we had the closing drinks at the antique bar, where @lordbutterfly had organized some sushi and an open bar. @crimsonclad and I managed to get some vegetarian food and celebrated that we had 2 whole platters just for the two of us. I mean after that Pizza incident nobody argued that it was a smart idea to let us eat in order not to get hangry again :D - I mean of course we shared also with @asgarth and @yurche (the second one) :D

Of course like every Closing Drink night, it was a very long night with again more chances to talk and discuss several things. - Of course, I still had my mission on my mind ;)

I just love the video from @bil.prag where you can see how engaged all the hivians are talking about their projects and their lives. Imagine after 5 days of being together it still doesn´t get boring and we have always a looot to talk about connecting with each other:

Bonus day 6: The boat trip

As you saw the boat trip was originally scheduled for Friday, but had to be canceled because of bad weather. So @lordbutterfly made it possible to reschedule and he invited all the Hivians that were still in Split to come with him on Sunday.

Because @forkyishere, me and a few others were flying home that day, he also managed that we start the trip a little bit earlier and come back already at 16:00 o clock.

So we boarded the boat in the early morning and went along the coast, passing some islands until we arrived in a little beautiful bay where we could stay a few hours. Sadly the weather was not too good and we were freezing.

But @louis88, @rivalzzz, @misslasvegas, @steevc, @buttcoins, and I went in for a swim anyways.

After taking the swim I was freezing a lot! So it was very great news that we got some warm food and drinks from the crew. That helped a lot to warm up again. Interesting to see how @ninaeatshere was documenting all the dishes served ;)

To fight against the food coma we decided to take a walk along the island before the boat was going back.

Of course also on our way back, we were having a lot of talks about hivefest and the future steps of the projects. But after 5 days of conference, we were all a little bit tired. I enjoyed it the most to talk about what had been up in the other Hivian's life. Had good chill talks with @jarvie, @ninaeatshere and @growandbow. And the big highlight was that on the way back we saw some dolphins swimming next to the boat!

The worldmappin sweaters were practical on the boat and super trendy :D - Only @ninaeatshere still didn´t want to wear one even though we were so close to bringing her into the team already ;)

Just like @lordbutterfly was planning it, we came back to Split just in time. @forky and I went directly to the airport to catch our flight.

And then 2 hrs later we were waving to the last ones standing from the sky.

As always I had an awesome time Meeting up with the Hive Community and it kind of brought me home - It made me think a lot when I was watching this beautiful sunset - so I will try to be more active from now on - not only for the project :)