Meetup with Cagayan De Oro City Hive Users

Meeting with Cagayan De Oro City Hive and DBuzz users was one of our agenda in visiting CDO and Misamis Oriental before attending the birthday celebration of Chris Rice's son Zac Lucas Rice in Bonifacio, Misamis Occidental.

We flew from Manila to Cagayan De Oro City via Laguindingan Airport last July 12, 2023, and due to the bad weather, our flight was delayed for two hours. We were supposed to leave at around 5:30 PM but could depart from the airport at around 7:30 PM, flying through AirAsia Airlines.

A few hours before our flight, by the way, I was with DBuzz Founder Chris Rice (@chrisrice); during that time, I talked to CDO Hive user and DBuzz Ambassador Antonette and asked for instructions and directions on how to get to the city center of Cagayan De Oro City.

Hive Users in CDO and Davao City

Arriving at Laguindingan Airport and Traveling to CDO City Proper:

Upon arrival at the airport, armed with clear instructions from Antonette (@antonette) on traveling to CDO, we immediately found the Magnum van. We drove our way to the Limketkai Center from the Laguindingan Airport. I paid P400.00 (USD 8.00) for both of us, Chris Rice.

We arrived at Limketkai Center after two hours of travel. We took a taxi and told the driver to drive us to Aiming Guest House, just a few minutes from where the Magnum van dropped us at the airport.

Aiming Guest House was located at Mabulay Street, just behind the Cagayan De Oro Water District, Cagayan De Oro, Misamis Oriental.

We rested for a few hours, taking two separate rooms inside the guest house. Still, right after the arrival of Chris' family from Davao City, we decided to transfer to a bigger space at the Misa Verte condominium just near the SM Premier Cagayan De Oro Mall. The condo with two bedrooms for a family costs us around P3,500 per day or around (USD 63.50).

Misa Verti Condominium at Cagayan De Oro

Chris Rice's family, Emafe Rice (@emafe), drove from Davao City together with her mother Emma (@emmaabello), and Zac Lucas Rice joined us in CDO in meeting with the Hive users in the City and for our plans to create a strong community of Hive users in CDO.

Meeting the Hive and DBuzz Pioneers in Cagayan De Oro City:

We went to SM Cagayan De Oro Downtown Premier Mall at around 5:00 PM on July 14, 2023, for a scheduled 5:30 meetup with Cagayan De Oro Hive and DBuzz users headed by DBuzz Philippine ambassador Antonette Langgamon.

We decided to meet inside the Greenwich Restaurant of SM CDO Premier. With Chris Rice and his wife, Emafe Rice, we waited for at least 20 minutes, and upon the arrival of CDO DBuzz users, we ordered some pizza and drinks.

SM CDO Premier view from Misa Verti

We met Hive and DBuzz users in person @antonette, @alexyunabellax, @rose33, @pebyang, and @reignier27 inside the Greenwich Pizza at SM Premier Downtown, Cagayan De Oro City.

We discussed many things during the meetup, particularly DBuzz and Hive's real purpose. It's not just about the monetary gains or income from blogging, whether short-form or long-form blogs. Still, the most essential part is engagement with the community and always being careful with plagiarism.

We encouraged them to always use their photos in posting on DBuzz and make clear descriptions on each post. We discussed DBuzz and Hive's long-term goals of building a solid community of engaged users. Chris Rice and Emafe shared their experiences in Web3 and building a community of Hive users in Davao City.

I discussed the long-term benefits of becoming an active member of the Hive community. Chris Rice also added more inputs to the discussion.

The new Hive users also shared their sentiments and problems faced as newcomers to the platform. In doing so and exchanging various experiences with new Hive users, we devised an initial solution to equip them with education on how Web3 works and teach them how to become an ambassador of Hive by simply being active members of the community through DBuzz.

(L-R) Hive Users @reignier27, @chrisrice, @antonette, @pebyang, @alexyunabella18x

After eating inside the Greenwich Restaurant, we invited them to continue our conversation beside the pool area of the condominium units where we stayed. While enjoying our view of some families swimming, we continued discussing how to grow into an active Hive user. We shared some available materials from HivePh (@hiveph) and a beginner's guide from @livinguktaiwan.

The meetup was successful and fruitful as the newbies promised to be more active and engaged with the community.

We separated at around 8:30 in the evening, and we returned to our respective places satisfied with the meetup at Cagayan De Oro City and looking forward to onboarding more Hive usCityin the City.

Photos are mine taken through Chris Rice's iPhone unless otherwise stated.

Hi, everyone! My name is Ed Umbao, also known as @philnews.xyz here on Hive. I am the former co-founder of PhilNews.Ph is one of the leading news sites in the Philippines and the founder and owner of PhilNews.XYZ.

I have been blogging since 2010 when I worked as an OFW in Saudi Arabia. I became a member of Hive in 2019 and posted only two articles before returning to short-form blogging through D.Buzz in February 2023