You may have heard about Twestival, a global event taking place today for Twitter users everywhere to meet, chat, talk, dance and raise a whole bunch of cash for charity:water.
Over 200 Twestival events are scheduled to take place later today around the world, with a final charity donation set to rise into the millions. Most will have raffles, and there are also Ebay auctions, charitable music downloads and cracking, if slightly camp, t-shirts.
Without putting too fine a point on it, it’s huge. The vast press coverage achieved is testament to that.
But I thought I’d use this opportunity, with my own visit to London Twestival tonight fast approaching, to share a little detail about the event’s slightly more humble beginnings.
Way back in the summer of 2008, Porter Novelli’s very own networking Yorkshireman Tim Hoang, along with Amanda Rose, Ben Matthews and Tom Malcolm, hit upon the idea of a Harvest Twestival. The event took place at Trafalgar Square in September and was a roaring success, with tweeple from London and beyond bringing cans of assorted goods and buying raffle tickets for Jason Donovan’s dirty shorts.
“Twestival was about bringing people together who hadn’t met but had shared jokes and stories online,” said Tim across the divider between our desks five seconds ago.
From that simple concept, the Harvest Twestival became a big party for London’s Twitterfolk. Now, of course, it’s a well-intentioned and powerful globo-social leviathan intent on good times, new connections and, most importantly, bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.
Twestival, Twitter
The whole Twestival concept seems to have snowballed so fast since that original event doesn’t it?
Well done to Tim, Amanda, Ben and Tom
Great idea. I work for a charitable organisation and would love to organise something similar