Present At The ShoKiN Meetup In My City.

It was another successful meetup with shoppers in my city yesterday, as @fokusnow singlehandedly organized the proposed ShoKiN initiative as a way to push the Spend HBD project forward. The goal is help more people know about this amazing project and to use HBD to make their daily purchases and also get rewards for doing so. Meetups like this have always been regular especially since we discovered the Spend HBD project, we always receive updates from our local guides as they keep us posted on how we can successfully shop with HBD.

Personally, since the first launch of the project, I have made quite a few purchases from listed businesses and it's just amazing how the entire process was just seamless, in a matter of seconds you can just pay for what you bought and receive your Cashback before the twinkling of an eye. It's not something we're used to over here which makes the meetups very essential in informing and educating us on how we can go about it.

Yesterday, the meetup happened at our usual location which @fokusnow have always kept Hive-themed which a lot of banners and posters projecting Hive and all Hive related projects he has supported in the past. I was a little late to the event but nonetheless, I was still able to meet them at our said location before we headed to do a little shopping. The turn up from the public wasn't that bad. We had new users who came from hearing him go live on radio and those who were also invited by already existing Hive members. There wasn't so much new users who created new accounts on Hive compared to first Spend HBD meetup we had, which I remembered helping a lot of people create their personal accounts and benefit from the tips shared.

After the little prep talk on how everything worked, the new users who were mostly vibrant teens were very much excited to practice and get a first-hand experience, so we took a couple of pictures and headed out to Kcee Supermarket to make our purchases. The business owner was really surprised when he saw about 20 person's from the meetup arriving at his shop to buy things. He was very cooperative throughout the whole exercise and he made us feel welcomed. His shop was big enough to accommodate us all at once, we had spaces to sit down and wait a little for others to look for what they came to buy. It's a big shop for mostly groceries ,and cosmetics. You could find practically everything you wanted there as much as you want it which was why I loved the place so much.

As someone who has gathered some experience from the Spend HBD project and using the distriator for claiming rewards, I was happy to offer some help during the exercise. Firstly, I started off by keeping a record of everything each and every one of us bought from the store and their prices in our local currency as per requested by the shop owner. This was to ensure accurate records from all the transactions since he was always new to the whole thing. Secondly, helping a lot of people who had difficulty using the distriator to claim their rewards. Some of them didn't know how it worked, getting their active key and adding it to the place so that they can be able to claim rewards. Some new users almost forgot about the rewards if not that I kept asking everyone if they had done so.

I also helped people who were frustrated from taking the pictures after making their payments. We had a very bad network coverage throughout our time at the place which left some people frustrated from having to take multiple pictures before it was able to upload. The poor network made few people who were very eager to return to their work to spend more than the estimated time they thought the whole exercise will be. Lastly, I was able to explain to a few customers what was going on, who met us as they came to make their purchases. They weren't used to seeing that crowd at once, few thought it was 'customer week' or a little 'promo' going on. After I explained to them, they understand and wished they had joined earlier.

Moving forward, I look to more meetups such as the ones we've had to promote Hive and the Spend HBD project. I know a lot of people will be joining the subsequent ones we'll be having in the future. It was a really satisfying experience.