UAE executives prepare for annual Twestival

Going from the deprived trappings of dusty Al Quoz to the glitzy surrounds of the InterContinental Festival City, the local Twitter community and its concomitant event, Twestival – an annual gathering of the social networking sites' users – have come a long way.

It's just Dubai's second year participating in this simultaneous global event, to be held tonight at the five-star hotel. And according to local organisers, more than 175 cities will join together to support one charity.

So is the change in venue from the last event a sign of the social media service's growing influence here?

"Without a question," says co-organiser PK Gulati. "For our last event, we had to raise funds to pay for the venue. This time, we were offered a venue by InterContinental free. And the beauty is, they found us on Twitter."

Telecom major du, which actively invests in social media, will be a title sponsor, promising to donate an undisclosed sum to Concern Worldwide, a charity selected by the global team that organises the event.

"This is the second time that Dubai takes part in Twestival Global and gets the chance to demonstrate how powerful 140 character Twitter messages can be," says Gulati, a Dubai-based investor and entrepreneur.

Usage of Twitter grew 579 per cent last year from a total of 2.7 million unique visitors at the start of 2008 to 18.9 million unique visitors worldwide at the end of 2009, according to Dubai-based SpotOn Public Relations, which has conducted Twitter surveys in the past. The UAE's Twitter community now numbers about 15,000, from an estimated 40,000 users across the Middle East and North Africa, it says.

Twestival Global, as opposed to Twestival Local, also held annually to raise funds for a local charity, was held in 202 international cities last year to support Charity: Water, an NGO?helping people across the world that don't have access to clean and safe drinking water, say organisers.

"More than 1,000 volunteers and 10,000 donors fundraised $250,000 (Dh917,500) in just a few weeks, which resulted in more than 55 wells in Uganda, Ethiopia and India having a direct impact for over 17,000 people," they said in a release.

Amongst some UAE Twitter users, however, lethargy is kicking in, and enthusiasm is waning.

"Twitter has created an interesting community in the UAE with a good mix of different people, who would have never come together in real life. And you often see great discussions taking place there, with a lot of constructive debate on local issues and stories. However, this community is essentially made up of the "usual suspects" for the most part, and I believe it remains quite a small group," says Tala Toukan, Communications Manager for Nokia Middle East.

Toukan, whose company has sponsored local Twitter events in the past, says she would like to see the community grow and its influence becoming bigger.

"A lot of good debates and discussions take place there, and if we can grow to the extent that we can start having actual influence on the issues that we are debating, then that can have immense benefits to the country and the people living in it."

Hind Mezeina, a photographer and blogger on culturalist.com, thinks there is already an "overkill" of Twitter in the UAE.

"It's only overkill when a few people constantly talk about it – on Twitter, on local radio, TV and papers. It's overkill when it's made to feel like it's the only tool to communicate and everyone has to use it. It also makes the radio shows appear lazy, like they have no other news, or anything new to talk about," says Mezeina.

"There is so much more to social media than Twitter and so much more amazing things to talk about the internet. The UAE still has a small percentage of Twitter users, so it can feel alienating to many who don't use it," says Mezeina.

Both Toukan and Mezeina are Twitter users.

One online journalist who didn't want to be named says the UAE Twitter community is a small one, but one that "makes a lot of noise".

"New users are quick to join to see what the hype is about, but don't really know how to use it or what to use it for. Everyone has an opinion, few choose to shout it, some state it when needed while others keep it to themselves. I wouldn't describe it as a fad but it's one form of communication that's getting a fair bit of attention. There'll be others."

Akanksha Goel, the CEO of Socialize, whose company trains organisations on how to use social media effectively, says perhaps writing and talking about the medium has reached a level of saturation.

"The 'buzz' is reaching a saturation point for us social media and online conversation enthusiasts. Our tweet-ups are more frequent than coffee with the neighbour and we've managed to make more business from our followers than the sales team brought in. So saturation yes. But, maturation, no.

"Even for the Twitter 'elite' there is still much, much more to learn, share, and expound upon. And for the Twitter newcomers, curiosity and enthusiasm is half the game. For the other half, while self-involved, the UAE Twitter community is very welcoming – the conversations are taking place - all you have to do is join in."

For others, there continues to be social and business payoff. Kellie Whitehead, who runs her own events company mamavents.com, says: "I use it as my 'water cooler' as I work pretty much alone all day, and don't have any social interaction with clients or friends during the working day – of course the news, the links and the sharing of information too.

"I have inadvertently garnered work and contacts via Twitter – it has made my life easier in that respect and for me, it's cool that many of the other local regular users are in the same industries. I have also used it to garner support for my new business."

Twitter growth in the UAE has been explosive, says Baher AlHakim, Founder of web service site cloudappers.com and Manager of tweet aggregator site uaetweets.com.

"Twitter was almost unheard of a year ago. Look at the numbers now.

"You can't monetise its benefits like a traditional medium. There are non conventional ways of earning money, creating and strengthening relationships which will eventually mean something. You can't always put a number on that."

Still, with new social media websites such as Chatroutlette already finding fans across the country and being anointed as the next big thing by some, how long the Twitterheads are in the ascendant remains to be seen.

- Twestival will take place tonight at the SKYYline Lounge, InterContinental Festival City from 7:30pm. Go to dubai.twestival.com

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