Me and my Twestival

A couple of weeks ago, at the February edition of Social Media Club Kuala Lumpur (SMCKL), I was invited to speak alongside (pic below from left to right excluding myself) Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir,  Hakim Albasrawy, in a discussion moderation by my good friend David Lian on “Social Media for Social Good”.

I was invited to speak on Twestival, as I was one of the co-organisers of the Twestival Local event in Kuala Lumpur alongside David, Hui Ling, Radiance, Suanie, Nigel and Eevon.

At the start of my talk (we were each given 10 minutes before the panel discussion started), I said that I don’t consider myself an activist but instead just as an active social media user who would like to do my part wherever I can.

That said, I am extremely proud to have been part of a team who could come together and organise an event which raised over RM11,000 in cash for Destiny Starting Point, a home for juvenile delinquents. On top of that, we had desktop computers and Internet connection sponsored for the home as well.

If you missed it last year, here is a video of what happened.

Twestival Local 2009 – Kuala Lumpur from nigelais on Vimeo.

Well, this year, a few of us came together again to take on the task of organising Twestival Global (similar to Twestival Local in that every country organises their own events to raise funds for charity, but instead we are all raising funds for one global cause – this year it goes to Concern Worldwide).

Midway through the planning, I was contacted by Amanda Rose, the brain behind Twestival, to ask if I was open to taking on a larger role for Twestival. After a Skype chat (don’t you just love technology), I agreed to take on the role as Regional Coordinator for South East Asia (although my portfolio includes cities like Seoul, Shanghai and Beijing!).

This means that I am spending a bit more time working with the other cities including Singapore and Jakarta. Most significantly, I am glad that two other Malaysian cities have come on board to host Twestival as well – Penang and Kota Kinabalu. Malaysia’s gonna rock 2010 Twestival Global!

However, I am still very actively involved in the organisation of Twestival KL. You can visit our blog site for details on what we are up to this time round. It will be significantly different from last year’s Twestival in that the gathering is not the main fundraising element.

Instead, we are trying to get tweeples from the Twittersphere to get involved by pledging their services or items for auctions (and of course, spending some money to bid). More details on the auction here.

I hope I can rely on your support!

11.56pm Malaysian time (+8 GMT)

Tags: datin paduka marina mahathir, david lian, Hakim Albasrawy, smckl, social media club kuala lumpur, twestival, twestival global, twestival kl