Do you know of the HiveNaija Fest/Hangout? The Sam Hangout?

Earlier this year, the first month of the year, a hangout was planned by @trojan01 and it was planned two or three months before the new year and this was for people in Lagos State. When I heard of the hangout, I wasn’t too excited about it until I heard of some people that will be coming. Famous people here on Hive like @zitalove @treasuree @obaro @winnanda @starstrings and so on—the list went on. I started seeing signs that this was going to be an awesome time and one of the reasons I felt it was going to be awesome was because I have never met anyone from the Hive blockchain. The best I could do was chat with them in the comments or on discord communities but meeting some of the people I see as superstars on Hive felt thrilling.

I went for the hangout, and it was fun. We shared ideas and talked about crypto, tokens, mistakes, and how to improve ourselves on Hive. There were newbies amongst us, and this set of people was ready to take all the knowledge they could.

We had games, sang together, and made a video about it, and one of the best parts was the eating competition we did at the end of the event. I was up against three food monsters but it was fun.

Earlier this month, I was able to meet new sets of hivers, and they all came from different states to my city (Lagos). These are people we communicate with online daily and we have become very, very close. When @treasuree told me about a meetup, I immediately invited @mandrelmykels and we met up with @justfavor.

The truth is that the little time I spent with this set of new hivers was life-changing because I grew a new bond that superseded the one we had online before.

Now, let's talk about the best part of Hivenaija Fest/Hangout that will be happening in 2026 and is hosted by @sam.hangout. This is going to be the best one yet because this hangout isn't just for people in my city but for everyone in Nigeria. We would be coming together to meet and share innovation and ideas, link up with people in other fields outside of hive and create a community that goes beyond the online community but builds something that will last forever.

This hangout isn't just for fun but to show the unity in the Hivenaija community. A lot of planning is going on, funds are being raised, support is needed, and much more. As an individual, if you want to help, you can also set @hangout.funds as the beneficiary so that we can make it the biggest Hive meetupto ever exist.

So if you're a Nigerian, you want to visit a new city and meet up with people who do the same thing you do and can understand your point of view, join the same hangout discord and let's make this more than just a one-time meetup into something traditional that the whole of Nigeria would see and invest their time and resources into.

So let’s make this work as Nigerian, and see how far it will go.

Join the discussion on [discord](https://discord.gg/3dxN62T9) if you’re interested.