Claudia experience, share & review

On 31 March 2009, we had our very first Twitter centric meetup in Singapore. Incidentally the planned date fell on a Tuesday, so we just casually called it Tweet! Tuesday. (Adding it to the collection of Mobile Monday and Web Wednesday.)

How it all started
One fine day, Claudia saw a new message in facebook (sadly it wasn’t born on Twitter!) from Kelvin. He shared that Laurel was coming to Singapore and asked if Claudia was keen to gather a few social media people together for a dinner with Laurel. And than the discussion continued and from a simple pay-your-own-bill dinner gathering became a bring-your-own-food gathering at The Sail.

As we were not sure if Laurel were able to make it for the gathering, we decided to we needed to have something plan on our side too. So as our conversations were mostly happening on Twitter and Facebook, we decided to focus on something and Tweet! Tuesday was created.

Not another stand-around-and-network-whilst-eating-free-food session
Being involved in the planning and executing of a number of social media community events and seminars, I’ve seen and encountered quite a mix of people and have my own perceptions formed. But still, none has been ideal yet. Perhaps SMB has kinda spoil the community with free food and free networking. But IMHO, an ideal session should focus more on the content sharing and take aways by each individual. But this is not an easy one to achieve since everyone attending will have a different set of prior knowledge and skills. To strike a good balance is tough.

So what happened on the first Tweet! Tuesday?
Yes, there were still free food, thanks to everybody who came with their contribution to the voluntary pot luck and Kelvin for the pizzas and beers! And yes, there were still the stand around and network portion. But we also had two short sharing on a common theme – that is Twitter. Kelvin and I did a little sharing on how Twitter is generally used and a few tools that is useful. When Laurel arrived, she is very kind to also share about the things she do and how Twitter and Facebook were very much used in her country.

Although the sharing was short and perhaps nothing much for some, but I felt that it was a good start for Tweet! Tuesday.

What’s next?
To find and link ALL Singapore users in Twitter! At least that’s what @sgtweet is attempting to do. But looks like its going to be quite a hell task for manual adding.

Seriously, after the first session, Kelvin and I have been too busy with work and haven’t got time to strategies. And there were also a couple of those attending who mentioned that they would like to co-host Tweet! Tuesdays too. So I’m going to go ahead and start a list of to-dos for Tweet! Tuesday hosts. This list will forever be in editing mode…

Tweet! Tuesday SOPs

• Venue big enough for 40-50pax
• Keeping the attendants list below 60pax
• Have at least one topic to share or a guest speaker coming
• Has to be voluntary pot luck session
• Have AV set-up if possible
• Limit to 1 Tweet! Tuesday a month
• … to be edited and continued…

So if you’re keen to co-host a Tweet! Tuesday, feel free to get in touch. To be updated and kept in the loop of future events, please follow @sgtweet or join the social media people facebook page.