Last night at Twestival
Last night was Twestival (Twitter + Festival = Twestival). However for those at the Tyneside Twestival: Twitter + Twestival = Twestival? I digress. Twestival itself was a wonderfully organized event for Charity Water, a nonprofit organization raising money for clean water accessibility in underdeveloped countries. The magnitiude of this event spread worldwide to 170+ cities, making donations for this charity, I would assume, quite astonishing. I'm going to think many charities will follow this way of donations.
What amazes me is the breadth of support Twestival gained through Twitter. It started small, then exploded with followers of followers getting excited to sponsor a city. What amazes me even more are the active users of Twitter. Early adopters? Geeks? Techies? This is true, but Twitter has also attracted industry leaders, and regional leaders of local business to use their resources to bring a sponsored city to life with donated prizes, and...well...networking and schmoozing. I ran into a lot of wonderful people, many who I've tweeted to quite often. I made some great contacts, and learned a few things about Newcastle's close-knit-community.
It's amazes me what Twitter can do as an open network with one-to-one and one-to-many relationships simultaneously. It's a true emotional enterprise transcendence from anchored exclusive networks like Facebook, which is struggingly to truly share information. If Twestival was organized through Facebook exclusively, I gaurantee it wouldn't have garnered the amassed following of sponsored cities and attendees.
I can't wait for the next event of this kind. To twitter and charity!
