Twestival – Go Offline for a Great Cause

I must admit that the proliferation of movements and crowd sourcing through Social Media never ceases to amaze me! A “Tribe” as Seth Godin calls it can be formed quickly with Social Network tools like Twitter! Take for example, Twestival. I am not sure if you have heard of this innovative new movement in which Twitter users are going “offline” to participate in local events to support great causes.

Let me give you a bit of history (well less than 12 months to be exact)…..

Twestival originally got it’s start in London, UK in September of 2008, when a group of London Twitter users hosted an event called Harvest Twestival. The purpose of the event was to connect local twitter users for a good cause and some fun and networking. They collected donations and canned food for a local non-profit organization that addresses the needs of the homeless in London. The event was put together (via Twitter) in less than 2 weeks. They initially expected about 30-40 people to attend, but ended up with over 250 and a waiting list!

After the great success of this event, the group planned the first Twestival Global, which was tweeted about in early January 2009. In just under a month, there were 202 cities around the world committed to hosting a local event to benefit an organization called “CharityWater“. Check out the stats for this first global event:

• 1000 volunteers (recruited via Twitter)
• 10,000 participants globally in 202 cities
• $250,000 raised in one day with 100% of proceeds going to support the creation of 55 wells in Uganda, Ethiopia and India..

Isn’t that cool?

So Twestival has become a hit and the next global event is taking place sometime between September 10-13th! Just go to the Twestival main site to see if a local event is happening in your city.

As an aside, not only is this a great opportunity to raise money for humantarian efforts, but also an opportunity to connect with others on Twitter and possibly some new clients in need of your services!

So, what do you think about this new phenomenon? Will you be attending? Please share your comments!