TwestivalSG: Tweet. Meet. Give.

Did you go for TwestivalSG yesterday?. It was probably Singapore’s biggest tweetup ever. Even people who are not on Twitter turned up for the event too.

If you have no idea what a Twestival is, no worries. I will give you a brief overview. For starters, tweeples (people who tweet), don’t hide behind a computer or an iPhone all day long just to tweet. Like the motto of TwestivalSG, we tweet, we meet and we give.

Every year on the 25th of March, people in hundreds of cities around the world will come together offline to rally around the important cause of Education by hosting local events to have fun and create awareness.  Twestival™ (or Twitter Festival) uses social media for social good.  All of the local events are organized 100% by volunteers and 100% of all ticket sales and donations go direct to projects.

Well, I volunteered for this event. So when the organiser, Mike Foong, asked me what I wanted to volunteer for, I immediately signed up for, what else?. Registration. I figured, if I wanted to meet people, plonking myself down at the registration table was the best way to do it. And i did, I finally met tweeps like @patlaw , @clicktokill , @litford, just to name a few.

So, I was the official ‘door bitch’ with @daphnemaia. Enjoy the photos. Taken by the pros, @inrsoul and @dazzachazza.

Me and my fellow doorbitch, @daphnemaia

@allanjits, @inrsoul and me

@clicktokill, @nikpaniki, @inrsoul and me

@clicktokill, @patlaw and me

@smithankyou, the unofficial Twitter mascot

The host for the night, @JoeAugustin with the organiser, @mikefoong

@angelsherwin was paid to strip, all in the name of charity

but he chicken out and did a dance instead. Nonetheless, many tweeples still donated.

Performnce by @jackandrai

@furryphotos and @daphnemaia. Sweetest couple ever 🙂

@clicktokill and me.

@danielgoh and me

And finally, the organising committee and volunteers of TwestivalSG. L-R: @williswee, @sarah_chong, me, @daphnemaia, @mikefoong, @omgzam, @sm7catscan, @inrsoul and @blackawfee

And at the end of it all, I was high and satisfied.

Have you donated yet? 🙂

The Weekend

Had an interesting discussion with The Weekend group ytd. This group started on the last day of 2009, when all of us, who were passionate about social media, felt that social media was becoming too ‘commercialised’.

Case in point: Blogging
What used to be bloggers who were passionate about writing or blogging for various other reasons, became bloggers who blog just to get noticed or to get paid. Yes, you know who you are.

I was asked this question: If a PR practitioner offered me money to blog about a particular product, would I do it?

My answer?. Yes, of cos I would. Who in the right mind would reject monetary gifts?. But if the person for whom I’m writing for were to take what I wrote, edit the whole thing and ask me to post it, I would flatly reject him/her.

Reason being the article has lost the essence of orginality. Look, I’m not saying paid advertorials are bad things and nobody should do it, but the orginality of the writing should be felt be the person who’s reading it even though there’s a ‘ADVERTORIAL’ screaming at the top of the post.

Well, even though after a few hours of discussion, which eventually came to nought, I learned something. I realised how difficult it was for PR practitioners to create the BUZZ that they want for a particular product if bloggers become to ‘commercialised’.

I can’t wait for the next meeting.