Digital Trail

Bristol Twestival would be nothing without it’s organisers and so it is that I have taken it upon myself to write up a few recommendations as to how and why the Bristol Twestival team are outstanding individuals.

This is not an exercise in sucking up or anything sycophantic. In reality, I have spent very little time with several of these people. Such is the pervasive nature of online communication, Bristwestival was pulled together with few face to face meetings.

Matt Anderson – @PRBristolblog

Making things work and pulling in the right people at the right time. Matt is a motivated and skilled coordinator and always good for a chat.

Dan Martin – @Dan_Martin

The one with the vision to do serious social good with social media and the ability to take on the bulk of the organisation. If you want someone who will drop everything to make a difference for you and the wider community, Dan will do it and then some.

Becky Midgley – @Reeb1981

The bubbly spirit in the team that keeps smiling and encouraging others to push themselves further. Her enthusiasm for the event, but above all, the cause has been fantastic.

Gina Dyer – @GDyer

The girl with the perma-smile, constant energy and packs a mean goody bag. The height of sincerity and the perfect first person to meet at the start of the evening.

Jay Williams – @jaywilliamspr

Always keen to make his connections count and to put everything into doing the absolute best he can for everyone. I’ve had a lot of online contact with Jay and had been keen to meet the man behind the relentless quest to make Twitter count and to have a good time with it. He didn’t disappoint.

Avinash Patil – @niteglow

The shining light amongst us. A social media enthusiast to get anyone involved with Twitter and did he tell you about the aliens?

Sam Downie – @samdownie

Full of ideas and working the radio PR channels to promote the event and providing a crowd eye view of the event on camera.

Thank you to everyone that came out to play. There have been some great stories coming out from the night and the fact we smashed our fundraising target reflects how connected the Bristol Twitter community is and the serendipitous nature of social media.

This Thursday will see Bristol’s Twitterati come out to play and raise money for charity. Advance tickets are £5 and can be purchased here. Tickets on the door will cost you £1 more and if that breaks you out into a nervous sweat,  and it should, tickets on the door will also be limited. Get your tickets today!

NB: You need not be on Twitter to come to Bristwestival.

Bristol’s twittering masses will be gathering for a night of fundraising, fun and frolics on Thursday 25 March. The Bristol party is open to anyone who uses the Twitter short messaging service and those curious about Twitter, tweets and online social networking too.

The second annual Twestival event is a worldwide campaign that has flourished from its humble beginnings in February 2009. As part of the two hundred plus parties taking place across the world on the same day, the location for the Bristol party is The Tunnels; an inspirational venue housed under two converted railway arches near Bristol Temple Meads. The first 150 ticket holders will receive a goody bag as a thank you for purchasing a £5 ticket, with all proceeds going to the Twestival global designated charity.

The Bristol event last year raised over £1500 for charity:water and the combined global funds helped to install a much needed fresh-water well in a village in Ethiopia. This year, the fundraising efforts are for Concern Worldwide, an international humanitarian organisation transforming the lives of the world’s poorest, most marginalised children through education. This year is set to be bigger and better than ever with the increase in the number of people using Twitter.

Bristol’s Twitterati will be able to meet their online acquaintances, put faces to names and make new friends during an evening of entertainment and a prize-packed raffle draw of items generously donated by local businesses and organisations to aid the worthy Concern Worldwide cause.

Bristol’s party was the first in the world to start selling tickets for this year’s event so you will have to move fast! Will you be joining us? Get your tickets here.

More info: http://bristol.twestival.com/ or Follow updates on Twitter @Bristwestival

Community has been given a new lease of life online. As soon as you hop on to a network of people you are more than just connected. Community offers a range of elements, from support to strength in numbers.

Too often people can fear the idea of a business community because they think that being active within one will mean revealing too many secrets, especially in a community that contains rival companies. From the offset this can create a strained atmosphere, a stifling of group creativity and also, cliques.

A recent example, allbeit offline, of a barista introducing a dis-loyalty card in London’s trendy (Obligatory prefix) Shoreditch, is testament to businesses uniting together for the greater good.

Like Minds is proving to be a bit of a social change movement, with a lofty aim of generating £100,000 of revenue for the City of Exeter and in doing so proving the often questioned ROI from social media. The conference will bring great benefit to more then just the attendees and in turn will make a great gesture of support to the local business community. Other conferences do nothing or simply make a token gesture of planting a tree to offset carbon emissions.

Coming together for social good is something that social media is uniquely set up for. The boundaries are reduced, the red tape of charity is snipped, and things just get done. Take the Twestival organisation, initially, a near impromptu coming together of Twitter users in a handful of cities hosting a simultaneous putting-faces-to-avatars meetup, doubling up as fun-filled fundraising event. In this its second year, it is a more coordinated affair and because of the exponential growth of smartphones and users of Twitter, it will be a more powerful force for good. Bristol’s Twestival takes place on Thursday 25 March.

I am wary that the role of social media is overplayed in circumstances. Social media is an enabler and nothing more but for charitable and community gain it can certainly get things going.

How do you work within a community and what opportunities has community presented you?