One Night. 185 Cities. Tweet. Meet. Give.
On Thursday February 12, 185 cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals which bring together Twitter communities for an evening of fun and to raise money and awareness for charity: water.
The Vancouver Twestival will take place from 6:00pm to 9:00pm at the Opus Hotel in Yaletown. Tickets are only $10 each and every cent goes to charity: water. In addition, the Opus Hotel has agreed to give 6% of all drink sales to charity: water. Addition donations will be raised by the raffling of some great prizes. I’ve donated a $130 ViBook for the raffle. This is a USB to DVI or VGA adapter. It allows you to add another monitor to your laptop using the USB port.
I hope to see the Vancouver Twitter community out in force on February 12. Check out Twestival.com to find the location of the Twestival in your city.
Why Water?
Right now, 1.1 billion people on the planet don’t have access to safe, clean drinking water. That’s one in six of us. Many communities in developing nations often have a plentiful supply of clean drinking water just below the ground, but no way to get to it. This is where charity: water and their partner organizations come in. Drilling a well can cost from $4,000 – $12,000 USD and many living on less than $1 a day cannot afford one in their community, even if the money is combined.
charity: water is a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. They give 100% of the money raised to direct project costs, funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need. Just $20 can give one person in a developing nation clean water for 20 years.
Twestival is a great example of how Twitter is changing the world. How long do you think it takes to organize an event of this size? We’re talking nearly 200 cities around the world. You would think it would take months, maybe years, of planning.
Under normal conditions, it may take over a year to set up something this big but this is Twitter and things happen a lot faster. The bulk of the event was organized in under two weeks, via Twitter and utilized the talents and financial support of the local Twittersphere to make this happen.
In my How To Make 2009 Your Best Blogging Year, I said that you need to get on Twitter if you haven’t already done so. 2009 will be the year of Twitter. If you don’t get on Twitter now, you’re going to miss out big time.