You know about Twitter, but do you know about Twestivals? Twestivals are a particular kind of event organized through Twitter to support a cause. They’re organized in cities all around the world and last Saturday the Vancouver Twestival (tagged as #yvrtwestival) raised a bunch of money for the BC Children Hospital Foundation.

Though I can’t remember the official numbers,  I can tell you for sure that the Twestival gathered over 100 people at Ceili’s Irish Pub and raised over $2,000 for the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. I’ll update this post once the numbers are posted on the Twestival Local site or I come across them elsewhere.

Rebecca Bollwitt, commonly known as Miss 604, and Amuse Consulting organized the event. They did a great job.  We were happy to sponsor the event with a Superhero Pass to our SEO for WordPress online course scheduled for tomorrow.  All in all, there were around 40 raffle prizes and three silent auctions.

I arrived at Ceili’s before the scheduled starting time and there were already people enjoying their beers.  I noticed the warm, sunny weather was working against us. People in Vancouver cherish sunny days for outdoor activities, especially with fall around the corner. The turnout was great, but I still think the weather affected the numbers a little.

Twestivals are like great parties. The best part are the mixed crowds. I spoke with people who weren’t familiar with Twitter, to the usual social media suspects. In the end there were lots of networking, food, beers, a few songs by Rachael Chatoor and a few jokes by Rob Cottingham.

Kudos to all the sponsors, in particular the organizers @miss604, @amuseconsulting, the venue Ceili’s Irish Pub and the beer @itsgoodtobehere (Granville Island Brewing)

I’ve posted some photos on Flickr.

This is Jose writing – I hope to see you at the next Twestival!

Posted on Monday, September 14th, 2009 and filed under Events, Twitter.