by
Zachary Sniderman
On a Thursday in early February, Amanda Rose was sorting through non-profit applications from around the globe and setting up calls with her equally international team in a massive effort to organize Twestival Local, an international “Twitter festival” that uses social media for social good by connecting communities on a single day to support local causes. The next day, Rose came down with flu-like symptoms and spent most of the day trying to recover — not just her health, but also lost time.
Began in 2009, the next Twestival event is scheduled for March 24. Its success, however, is tied to Rose: “I can’t be sick for a week,” Rose said. “It would just put me back too much.”
Twestival tries to leverage online tools to create offline change. The event takes place on a single day and alternates between Global, where communities help one cause, and Local, where those communities pair up with local charities and non-profits. This year, local volunteers will select a charity with a social media presence and throw an event to raise funds and awareness.
For two years, Rose did much of the work: reviewing submissions, spreading the word, vetting charities, coordinating press and follow-ups. This year is the first that Rose has been able to bring in staff to help her sort through the rapidly expanding charity event.
Considering the global scale — more than 125 cities are holding events from Doha to Tunisia to Rochester, NY — it’s easy to imagine that Rose’s phone bill must be terrifying. Thanks to social media, though, it’s actually pretty reasonable. Twestival is possible because of a suite of online tools, a little missed sleep, and an enthusiastic team of global do-gooders. Read on for a behind-the-scenes look at how it all happens.
Social Media Tools
How do you manage a team of 20 people spread across different countries and multiple time zones? Rose has assembled a paperless “office” (picture at right) and relies heavily on Skype and Huddle to both set up group calls and make changes to key documents.
Skype may not be “new tech,” but recent improvements in call quality and the ability to easily create conference calls regardless of geographic region have made it an invaluable resource for the Twestival team. Skype is also a great way to drastically cut the costs of the festival by eliminating hefty international phone bills.
Cloud computing has helped centralize Twestival’s planning process and make documents available to the entire team.
Huddle, which costs $15 per month/per person, is a project management application that operates much like Google docs. Rose said that Huddle offered its service to Twestival for a substantial discount, though, so for those on a tight budget or a gigantic team, Google docs offers comparable, though slightly less comprehensive, services.
You’re probably familiar with how Twitter works, but Rose and her team have made it a key component not just of the final event but of the planning stages. The global team regularly uses Twitter to send @replies or direct messages to local event organizers. Unlike e-mail, Twitter is a chattier, informal way to communicate — a huge benefit when the global team needs to quickly befriend, plan, or problem solve with organizers who may come from different cultural backgrounds.
By regularly using Twitter to interact, Rose and the team are also training local organizers to become more comfortable with using social media to communicate and promote.
Systems
Twestival prides itself on being about the community, but Rose needed to institute some organizational hierarchy to have any chance at success. Rose leads a group of four managers that oversee key aspects like volunteers and digital communications. This group then works with 15 regional managers in charge of areas like the “Middle East,” “Canada,” and “Nordic Region.” These regional managers are responsible for talking to the local volunteers that actually host the events.
Despite their official-sounding titles, most of the “managers” are simply enthusiasts with applicable expertise. A journalist and teacher, Aleksandra Tsekhmistrenko is the regional manager for Russia. Tsekhmistrenko got involved with Twestival to help boost the profile of charities in Russia. “Project Manager” Gaëlle Callnin got involved with Twestival two years ago. “The charity at the time was to provide lightly worn kids shoes for kids in Africa,” Callnin said. “I have three kids, so I gave something like 20 pairs of shoes and I was just really, really impressed.” Next year, Callnin, the chief marketing officer at a Denver-based translation company, offered her firm’s services pro bono to help translate Twestival’s site and materials.
Despite being a Twestival vet, Callnin hasn’t met a single person on the global team. “But even just now I’m working with one of the volunteers in Saudi Arabia,” she said. “We’re going back and forth in Twitter and DMs, and I’m starting to get to know him and see him on Foursquare.”
Trust
At the top of the pyramid is Rose, a soft-spoken Canadian with an international background and penchant for charity. Speaking from her family’s home in Cambridge, Ontario, Rose explained over the phone that trust was the most important part of Twestival. That mentality has led her to turn down sponsorship and overt branding. Local events can’t use any money from ticket sales to help fund the event itself: 100% goes to the partnered local charity (all of which are personally vetted by Rose). Companies are allowed to host events, but their brand must take a back seat to the local cause they’re supporting. Rose isn’t trying to limit participation, she’s trying to curtail corporations from using her event for the wrong reasons.
With hundreds of events in 125+ countries, Rose can’t possibly monitor every dollar and every event taking place. Even the regional managers can be spread thin with the volume of events and local charities they need to manage. “When you put that trust out, that’s almost the payment, that’s the ‘salary’ that people are making on this,” said Cian O’Donovan, Twestival’s digital communications manager based in Ireland. “I guess what I’m saying is, trust is [Twestival's] currency.” O’Donovan is currently building out a keyword matrix for hashtags so that each event can maximize their spread across social media. He’s also putting together “How-To” videos to help with fundraising, promotion, and best practices.
Challenges
Holding a global event for charity with a short staff and budget requires accepting some limitations. You have to know what you can’t control and who you can trust to take care of it for you. These factors include cultural differences and regional situations. Rose explained that the volunteers from Doha were some of the most active with a total of 50. But learning more about the community, she realized that she would need more than one community leader. “You really have to get up on the knowledge if that person is respected by the community,” Rose said. She uses LinkedIn and Twitter profiles to get a glimpse of these leaders and gauge how well they can connect with their communities through social media.
These micro-decisions dominate Rose’s day, spent mostly on her computer either managing requests (an event blog isn’t working, a volunteer needs help designing a logo) or attending to more serious concerns, like finding out a British charity wasn’t actually registered in the UK.
Of course, the hardest challenge is creating a global community of enthusiastic volunteers managed by a team you can trust. That takes time, and there are unfortunately no shortcuts. Rose was able to build her current team thanks to two years of running Twestival largely by herself. She’s also made sure to show, as best she can, how the money raised is being used. Every year, Twestival releases a feedback video like the one above featuring Miriam’s Kitchen, a DC-based homeless services agency. The videos go a long way toward promoting the festival and its charities, and showing participants how their money went to use.
Conclusion
Planning for this year’s Twestival is far from over, with more than a month before the 24th officially hits. In the mean time, Rose and her team will be busy managing minor flare-ups, stoking volunteer enthusiasm, prepping support materials and troubleshooting problems, technical and otherwise.
After Twestival, Rose plans to shut herself off from tech for a few weeks to decompress before — potentially — launching into Twestival Global 2012. She remains amusedly committed to the cause: “All they’re doing is throwing an event and partying, but really the only way you can change things is with small steps, and to do that with enthusiasm.”
Adora Svitak is author of three books — Flying Fingers, Dancing Fingers and Yang in Disguise. She is one of the TED Conference’s youngest speakers and the curator of youth event TEDxRedmond. Since age 7 she has been drumming up excitement about reading and writing among fellow students.
