Twestival: What's the point?

Regular visitors to BusinessZone.co.uk will have found it hard to escape references to Twestival over the past few weeks. It's a word you won't find in a dictionary but speak to any of my friends and they're likely to know exactly what it means because it's pretty much all I've been talking about during the past few weeks!

Essentially Twestival is a fundraising initiative aimed at generating money for a good cause; groups of people coming together to raise some cash to benefit those that need it. So what's unique about that I hear you ask.

Well, what's different about Twestival is the way and through what medium it has been organised.

Twestival is a charity festival driven by users of Twitter, the social media website which from its humble beginnings in 2006 has become an internet phenomenon.

I joined the site around a year ago and I admit that initially like many others failed to see the point. Who on earth would want to read my ramblings? A few months on however it would appear many people do.

My use of Twitter has resulted in increased traffic to my site which of course is a massive positive but the main eye-opener has been the site's power as a communication tool and its ability to bring together communities across the world with common interests.

It was with this in mind that entrepreneur Amanda Rose put the feelers out in January to gauge global interest in organising Twestival, a charity event first held in London last September. Within days, several individuals had come on board keen to contribute to the cause – charity: water which provides safe and clean drinking water to developing nations - in their city. A month or so later, 185 cities are signed up including Bristol, the city in which I'm running an event.

Only two years ago organising such a series of global, grassroots events in such a short space of time could not have happened. The immediacy of communication via Twitter and its ability to tie communities together has been crucial.

Being able to put out an instant call for assistance to hundreds if not thousands of people all at once is what has allowed Twestival to happen. I speak from personal experience that the vast majority of the planning and interaction surrounding the Twestival has taken place on Twitter.

So what does all this mean?

I believe that Twitter and social media sites like it represent a key development in the history of the internet and Twestival truly marks the power of Web 2.0 communication.

Traditionally – and again I speak from personal experience – charity fundraising has been plagued by red tape and bureaucracy with form filling and hoop jumping meaning events have taken months if not years to organise.

Twestival hasn't been like that.

Yes, we had plenty of ideas that haven't been implemented due to the timeframe. But we have a venue, we've secured two leading Bristol bands, 25 raffle prizes have been donated and we've sold in excess of 110 tickets. Similar stories and tales of much larger events are taking place all around the world from Adelaide to Amman and Washington to Wellington. All in four weeks and all because of Twitter.

Twitter allows groups of people to bypass the bureaucrats and get things done, make a difference and provoke social change.

And it's not just charity where Twitter is making a difference. Look at the Hudson River plane crash. The first reports of the incident and the initial image of the scene which made the front pages of newspapers around the world was first posted on Twitter. Behold the rise of the citizen journalist.

You may think I'm exaggerating the point but I'm willing to argue my case to anyone that disagrees. Like it or not, Twitter and other similar online tools are very much the future of communication. If Twestival doesn't prove that, nothing will.