Source Hugh Aston Building, home to the Institute of Applied Economics and Social Value, De Montfort University, which is sponsoring SteemCampUK. You can see the modern University buildings are cheek by jowl with medieval buildings, and just around the corner is a palazzo with a cafe bordered by the River Soar with bridges to the city centre and a thirteen mile plus riverside walkway.
Everything is coming together for SteemCampUK and I hope to publish booking facilities on EventBrite next week - I'm just finalising the text with De Montfort University.
The University will be running a complementary event during the afternoon of Friday 24th April 2020, around the theme of "blockchain and voluntary and community groups" with invited expert speakers. They will have their own booking arrangements and I will share the link once it is ready.
The Unversity has asked me about the content for the Saturday: a particular concern for them is to challenge some of the myths/scams around blockchain and cryptocurrency. They are anxious about talk of investment schemes as this starts to raise alarm bells for them.
Here's what I said in my response:
SteemCampUK is an unconference: it has a process for the day, but the content is led by the people who attend. My suggestion is to add two structured sessions to this process that would appeal to people already in Steem and to new people from Leicester, who might want to drop in for an hour or so, rather than committing the whole day.
One structured session would be something like "blockchain and why it is important". It would be great if the University would do this - a simple explanation of blockchain technology and perhaps covering in that some of the myths?
The second structured session would be looking at two use cases, using video links to connect directly with Steemians to talk about what they are doing. The session could be longer if people want to keep talking, and we could make the video links longer and more interactive with questions from participants etc. I'm happy to co-ordinate this session.
The two use cases I'm proposing are:
- Reggaesteem - using the jahm cryptocurrency token to build the local economy in Jamaica especially around tourism and music.
- SPInvest - a savings and investment club bound by UK rules for savings and investment club - lots of room here to discuss risks.
Other than looking at SPInvest as a use case example to explore what is involved and elucidate the risks, I think it would be fairly true to say that investment schemes would be anathema to most Steemians who will be coming. Having said that, many of them have invested and have a mature and grounded view about investing in cryptocurrency.
However, it is not necessary for anyone to invest fiat to start operating on the Steem block chain. Accounts are free to open and although new accounts need some resource credits (which covers the costs of the infrastructure) to operate, they can very quickly start to accumulate Steem through voting and posting, and shortfalls can be covered by delegations from other accounts to cover resource credits until their own accounts grow.
As accounts accumulate Steem, they have the option to trade for fiat on the exchanges or to stake their Steem in the platform. That is the simplest economic model for Steem and it has already provided some wealth to people in less-developed or compromised economies as well as in the UK and other parts of the globe. Even now, at a very low price, Steem is still providing needed income to people in Venezuela.
There are many things people can do on the Steem blockchain - in addition to blogging and curating, there are contests, a Magic the Gathering style and other games, trading through the Homesteaders Co-op and the Steemleo Shop and communities devoted to artists, musicians, crafters, sports fans, entrepreneurs etc.
One of the most interesting developments though, I think, is the second layer of tokens that are developing and ways for individuals, businesses and charities to tokenise attention and participation and to customise that to their purposes and needs.
We have Steem-Engine tokens already (both jahm and spinvest are steem-engine tokens) and soon, Smart Media Tokens (SMT) and hive communiies, and non-fungible tokens (for art and other unique assets) are being developed. These are the sorts of things that people will be discussing: they will be interested in adoption and how to attract and retain new users - but organically as a new social environment.
The other big discussions are likely to be about anti-social/anti-community behavior on Steem and ways to tackle it. In a decentralised system, anti-social gaming and abuse of the system is inherent and learning and implementing skills and mechanisms to counter this is an important part of the social economy. In fact, learning how to manage in a decentralised social environment is probably a better area for discussion than scams (although phishing and all the other evils are present as they are everywhere else).
I've also asked about the venue: will there be enough room for people to break into autonomous groups, operating concurrently? Can people move easily into other spaces eg outside or the cafe, and back again? Would live video links be possible? Wifi will be taken for granted, so how will that work (so far I have never managed to gain access as a visitor?
I've also asked for some analogue resources: flipchart and paper and blutac :)
Hotels and Accommodation
Booking.com has a selection of B&Bs, hotels and self-catering currently at between £35-£40 a night. For people who want to join the Park Run in Victoria Park, the one to avoid is the Stoneycroft Hotel in Elmfield Avenue (I'll write about my experiences in another post).
I haven't checked Airbnb, but I believe the Steemians who came from London last year found a nice place near the station. Leicester also has the usual range of budget chains - Premier Inn and Ibis spring to mind. If you want some affordable luxury, Leicester has a couple of boutique hotels including the Belmont near the rail station and Victoria Park.
We also have some Aparthotels - one in the city centre and one about a mile from the Park Run and two miles from the city centre (on an excellent bus route). I visited the one down the road to me - a bit like student accommodation for grown ups. There's very limited parking near the aparthotel, but it is on top of the Co-op and around the corner from fancy Francis Street and a short walk to Queen's Road, both with restaurants and bars.
Flexistay Gables Aparthotel
Is there anything else we need to think about?
Tagging @spinvest and @reggaesteem for information - I have already had brief discussions with you and I'll be in touch on discord.