Twestival

“Tweet, meet, and give” is the vision of the global Twitter festival simply named Twestival, which will be hosted by 175 cities around the world on February 12. Organisers intend to bring together the members of the Twitter communities for an exciting evening and to raise money and awareness for charity – water. “The key principle of the project is solidarity,” explained Christian De Neef, coordinator of the Brussels Twestival. Twitter is an online service for friends, family, co-workers to communicate and stay in touch just through typing an answer on the basic question ‘What are you doing?’

It is increasingly becoming a powerful communication tool, which can connect, mobilise and inform people around the world instantly. It is exactly these phenomena that the Twestival organizers are utilising, to support a good cause. The Twestival is an event at which all people interested in giving to the charity, and who participate in social media can integrate offline, meet with their virtual friends, enjoy some entertainment or socialise with other supporters of the charity project. “As a main idea of the whole project I would stress that all money raised from the cities all over the world will go directly to the charity … so we all can help the poorest countries.

Moreover the Twestival is a great chance to meet your friends but also to socialize with other people, who you know just from the on-line world. It is a time to meet face to face,” said Bente Kalsnes, an organiser of the Brussels Twestival. The overall benefit collected in single twestival cities is to support projects trying to ensure an access to a safe drinking water in countries suffering a serious water supply and distribution shortages. Channeled through Charity: water, a non-profit organisation bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations by funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need, the amount gathered is to be invested in construction of wells.

Cities where the Twestival takes place might have considered setting a goal to raise enough money from their event to fund a well project in a developing country, starting at USD 4,000 - the minimal amount needed to build one well. “For me, charity is practical. Sometimes easy, sometimes inconvenient, always necessary. It is the ability to use one's position of influence, relative wealth and power to affect lives for the better. Charity is singular and achievable”, said Scott Harrison, the founder of Charity: water.

The Twestival is organised 100 percent by volunteers in cities around the world and 100 percent of the results of the fundraising activity go directly to support charity projects. The whole idea of the Twestival comes from Great Britain, where in 2008 a group of Twitterers decided to organise a festival with the aim to support the local homeless charity. Later, similar festivals started appearing on different places around the world and finally by rallying together globally, under short timescales, for a single aim, on the same day, the Twestival will bring awareness and aid to an issue of global importance.

“During the Twestival, we are planning to stay in touch with the other cities, where the Twestival is going to take place, through using the video streaming and huge video screens,” said Bente Kalsnes. Brussels Belgium Twestival, led by a group of enthusiastic volunteer tweeters (people who use twitter), is an event that definitely should not be missed. “It is intended to be a moment of reflection on the potential leverage of social media and networking, a powerful networking event, bringing the top Belgian tweeters together for a good cause, and a great party of course, with live performances and a lot of fun,” claimed De Neef.

This ‘entertainment with a good intention’ project will take place on Thursday February 12 in La Botanuique starting at five pm will last till one am. Three bands, one DJ and one unconference concludes the programme of the evening, setting a the grounds for an original, for Brussels, event . Over 80 tickets out of 300 hundred have been pre-sold. “The success of the Twestival relies mainly on the devotion and hard work of the volunteers involved,” said De Neef. Nowadays, more than one billion people in the world don’t have a safe drinking water available. Many communities suffering so often have a plentiful supply of clean drinking water underground, but no means to get to it. ‘On the field’ Charity: water cooperates with local organizations and involves also local communities in a process of building. Since the organisation was founded and began activity in 2006, the construction of more than 1,247 wells was completed providing clean drinking water to 650,000 people. “Twestival is a cooperation between Twitter and Charity: water is not the last charity - purposed contribution of this social media. The intention for the years to come is to organise two events per year varying in its social objective,” De Neef concluded.