Just came from the event and wanted to write about some thoughts in mind. Also, I will write a separate thank you post for all tweeps, organizing team, and sponsors.

Abu Dhabi Twestival was a real challenge and I mean it. Basically, the low number of Abu Dhabi tweeps was the first challenge and the culture is not yet prepared for virtual friends to meet in person is the second one. I mean there is a social life in Abu Dhabi, but not the one that is result of a process from virtual to physical. An example would be that there has never been any technology user groups event or tweet-up that I’m aware of, even there are so many web developers, web designers, and some digital marketeers who are on Abu Dhabi online forums, yet they never met in person.

But you know what? I took this challenge since I know that Abu Dhabi is like any city, the above challenges are not persistent, they are only challenges of the first time event, and they will be resolved after a certain period of time:

1. Abu Dhabi Tweeps are now just a few of them but they will grow by time, check out Dubai, Beirut, and Amman now.

2. Meeting virtually then meeting physically process requires only breaking the ice for the first time and others will follow. First time event means “Never happened before, scary, and might fail” and second time event means “already happened before, why not doing it again”

Therefore, I honestly say that the challenges were for the first time and first event only. And shouldn’t be anymore a challenge to any of Abu Dhabi Tweeps/Technology community who would like to meet in person or organize an event. And I’m planning to have a tweet-up after 2 months with no worries.

It simply now requires answering on the below general questions for organizing an event, then some event management 101 skills:

1. What is the purpose? set a good one
2. What is the deadline? set initial deadline and allow yourself to move it not more than once
3. Whom to invite? invite only the most-related people to the purpose, and expect a slightly pessimistic one.

That’s it, as simple as it is, and Abu Dhabi will continue with the way forward.

Tarek Kassar

OnetoOne Hotels - the Village offers a family friendly environment, countless facilities and world class restaurants is located in the heart of Abu Dhabi city and just wanted to be in the heart of Abu Dhabi Tweeps as well. Even they were late to join our confirmed list, they insisted on making generous offer to give out for whom he/she supports Future Centre at Abu Dhabi Twestival.

OnetoOne Hotels - the Village offered two nights stay vouchers for two tweeps who donate the most to Future Centre.

Simple contemporary design, welcoming staff and outstanding service evokes a relaxed atmosphere throughout the 127 room property and is coupled with world-class restaurants, modern business facilities and four-star comforts.

With six food and beverage outlets and an outside garden area the hotel boasts everything from BBQ to Asian cuisine to 24/7 dining and is a great place to entertain both business guests and friends alike.

Whatever you are looking for from your leisure time, one place fits all at One to One Hotels – the Village.

Shufflegazine, a bi-lingual magazine covering all aspects of an Apple lifestyle in the Middle East, including Mac, iPod, iPhone, and related technologies, accessories, software, and more is offering now 10 free subscriptions to our Abu Dhabi Tweeple who would attend this event tonight.

They do this by informing, educating, interacting, and entertaining Apple fans and users around the region, in print as well as online.

The lounge, a leading spa and salon centre in Abu Dhabi with over 5,000 customer-base strikes a deal with Abu Dhabi Twestival for fund-raising and gift voucher.

The Lounge is all about escaping your thoughts and worries and helping you relax and simply enjoy getting pampered. They give you a blended feature of royalty with style, Come and join us at 8:00 pm to help fund-raise our Charity - Future Centre and get your gift voucher immediately.

Besides their professional staff, The Lounge offers a variety of services spanning IPL hair reduction and facials, different body treatments including traditional Moroccan and Turkish baths and massages. They also offer nails treatment and above of all, endless variety of hair & shave services in their salon. We recommend that you use the opportunity of Abu Dhabi Twestival to introduce yourself to this premium male spa and saloon center.

The Lounge can be found at the below details:

TEL: 02 6677377
FAX: 02 6674433
Working Hours: Saturday to Thursday: From 10:00 A.M. To 11:00 P.M.
Web Address: www.thelounge.ae
Email:info@thelounge.ae

A simple prize will be given out starting Sept 9th - Sept 12th. Tweet about ADTwestival and get a chance to win everyday a prize; also, it would be different everyday in order to make you hyper tweeting about ADTwetsival.

The winners will be selected randomly by our team members everyday and will be posted here on the blog. The more tweets the more chances to win.

Tweet, Retweet, and Upbeat.

Abu Dhabi is expecting this twestival to be the kick-start for organizing tweet-ups and forthcoming Twestival events. Our Abu Dhabi team insists on making it happen and successful.

With the relatively low Abu Dhabi tweeple (twitter users) we are optimistic on our small event and great cause. Social media is now part of the most US companies’ strategic marketing campaigns due to it’s relevance to the brand and effectiveness among the target audience.

Social Media is a conversation with the brand and Abu Dhabi tweeple believe that brands should open conversations with them as well. If they are literary quite a few people, twitter is growing channel and the user-base of Abu Dhabi will definitely grow respectively.

This is a gathering among people who are using twitter channel, I encourage you and everyone to sign-up to twitter if don’t have an account and join us. It’s going to be fun, exciting, and most important for a great cause.

People at the Future Centre help Abu Dhabi everyday, let’s use our social media skills to help them fund-raise and become a role model for other events and organizations.

We hope to see you there.

After seeking over and over for a casual venue with bean bags chairs or terrace - like most of the cities around the world, we twisted our plan to make it Arabian-Style Twestival, taking advantage of the month of Ramadan. We have decided to meet at The Layali El Hilmiya (literally ‘dreamy nights’) tent at Le Royal Méridien in Abu Dhabi. It would be such an experience.

Of course, most people don’t come to the tent for the food; they come to meet friends and family, and our small volunteers team will be meeting there as well to fund-raise for Future Centre.

Register your name on our Upcoming-Yahoo events page. (You need yahoo log-in)

The date has also changed to accommodate with more people. Friday and Saturday are coming family-time and we didn’t want your family to miss you, and obviously we are small group anyways. Therefore, Sept 13th is confirmed.

The venue has a cover charge AED 29 only; the surprisingly low cover charge included bowls of foul (Egyptian beans), chick peas and tourmos, two small falafel burgers, and a bottle of mineral water. There is no pre-booking unless you are willing to pay AED 258.

Click at Ramadan Tent if you want to get more information

Abu Dhabi Twestival is around the corner. Let’s know your confirmation for coming to our meet-up. You can either use our event page on Upcoming or post a comment below this post.

Abu Dhabi Twestival Upcoming page

As you may know, that it will be meet-up at a certain lounge or coffee shop where you don’t have to pay else but for what you want to order or give to Future Centre. You can donate 30, 50, or 100; also there is chance to win T-shirts from the sponsors.

P.S. The venue will be confirmed tomorrow.

Thanks to Yousef Tuqan, (twitter: @youseftuqan), CEO of Flip Media who decided to sponsor this event and donate to Future Centre for Special Needs. Flip Media is the largest interactive agency in the Middle East who really strive to make a contribution in the community, like Peace One Day, Heroes of the UAE, Rashid Paediatric Therapy Centre, Make the Switch for efficient lightbulbs, etc…

Flip Media is a creative agency for interactive media solutions. It’s core competency is innovative leadership through technology in the fields of digital media with an objective is to support brands in their integral and consistent communication approach across all interactive media channels.

Flip Media provides the following services:

1. Websites - portfolio of 600 websites.

2. Search and Social Marketing - onsite and offsite SEO optimziation and marketing.

3. Mobile - mobile marketing and development services

4. Media Strategy - strategic media planning

5. Navisite - content management system solution

6. Brand Central - advertising management and serving solution

7. Content - multi-lingual web content & copywriting services

8. Hosting - shared & dedicated web hosting services

9. Outsourcing - offshore web design outsourcing service

Also check Flip Media official website.

Or you can become a sponsor as well, contact us at 050 9972740

The Future Centre for Special Needs is a non-profit organization that provides special education and therapy-based services to young individuals with disabilities and which we took it as local charity to support. Today, Future Centre representative has confirmed her attendance to collect the money in order to maintain transparency to all volunteers and organizers.

To learn more about Future Centre services, click here

Fun and Fund-raising - I bet you want both attributes attached to your brand. If you are corporate and looking to get engaged with Abu Dhabi tweeple, it’s the right time and event.

Silver Sponsors (AED 500):

• A combined Blog Post: we will blog about your brand along with rest of main sponsors in one blog post.
• Sponsorship Logo: a prominent logo will be put on the right side-bar below the widgets.
• T-Shirts: we distribute 1 co-branded “ADTwestival + YourCompany brand” T-shirt.

Gold Sponsors (AED 1,000):

• A Dedicated Blog Post: we will blog about your brand so everyone would know you and have the chance to visit your website.
• Sponsorship Logo: a prominent logo will be put on the side-bar below the widgets.
• T-Shirts: we distribute 2 co-branded “ADTwestival + YourCompany brand” T-shirts.
• Footer Note: a promo phrase with each blog post from August 11th - Sept 13th
• Brochure Distribution: we distribute your brochure at the event.

Platinum Sponsorship: The package related to the Platinum sponsor depends on the customization requirement and amount paid against.

All main sponsors are allowed to give out pre-approved freebies at the event, like T-Shirts, Pens, Vouchers, etc… We are looking for the juicy ones in your bag.

Please note that sponsorship starts: effective August 11th until Sept 13th. And linked only to Abu Dhabi chapter.

For booking, please contact me at tarek(a t)dothebuzz.com

Image source: http://boondie182.deviantart.com/art/Stand-out-from-the-crowd-95022636

We need more people to join the event and companies to sponsor - but we first need more media around.

Yeah! we need media sponsors who become our megaphone with very simple few commitments:

1. You blog/interview/write about the event Vs. we blog about your sponsorship and put you among the rest of sponsors

2. You pay AED 200 Vs. we distribute 2 co-branded “ADtwestival logo + YourCompany logo” on it (The rest of the money will be added to fund-raising).

3. You submit sponsorship before August 11th Vs. we will review the request.

4. You would like to give any freebies or gifts Vs. we will give you a praise.

5. You email on tare(a t)dothebuzz.com Vs. we will respond for sure.

As simple as it is.

If you can’t make it, please spread the word…

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/altemark/337248947/

Abu Dhabi has missed Twestival Global, a global gathering of users on the social networking site Twitter who wish to meet their digital friends in person in their city for the support of charity:water organization. Now, you should not miss this one.

We are organizing Twestival Local - Abu Dhabi which is slightly different from Twestival Global because each city has the opportunity to select which charity their local community will support. This will still be a global event though with close to 140+ cities already signed up so far for organizing a Twestival Local between Sept 10-13, 2009 and our local event will be on Sept 11th Sept 13th.

We will post more about the selection of local charity, availability of venues, and sponsorship opportunities; at the mean time, to help us get the ball rolling, what you need to do is spread the word with tweeple not in the know and follow us on Twitter @ADtwestival for further updates and RT.

This event is organized by @tarekkassar, you can RE or DM for any opportunity you would like to add by all means.