Last week we announced wireless music specialist Sonos as a sponsor of London Twestival. This week we welcome the company to tell us how Twestival goers can get involved with the #sonosplaylist:

Sonos is excited to bring music to the London Twestival for the second year in a row. Following a fun and exciting event in 2009, we’re honoured to join the Twitter and music loving community in support of a very worthy cause; Concern Worldwide.

Music is the soundtrack to our lives and it stirs all kind of emotions from laughter, sadness, anger and joy. For some, music is the least of their problems. Basic human rights, such as food, water and an education, are difficult to obtain. Concern Worldwide has made it their focus to make these basic rights available to young people and that’s why we are pleased to sponsor Twestival. The Concern Worldwide education programmes across the globe are inspiring to us all, and we want to do all we can to ensure these programmes continue. We know the Twitter community is keen to help too – that’s why we’re asking you to join us for an evening of fun and fundraising.

We want to make sure you get to listen to all the music you want during Twestival and that’s why we’re asking you to pick the playlist for the night. Simply tweet your chosen artist and track with #sonosplaylist and we’ll add it to the shuffled playlist for the evening. What’s more, whichever Twestival attendees’ track is playing at 22.00 on the night will win a brand new Sonos ZonePlayer S5. Start sending your requests in now!

You can find tickets and directions here and we look forward to seeing you next week!

Karaoke specialist Lucky Voice will be providing its Party Box karaoke kit to London Twestival next Thursday (25 March 2010) at the Cable club in London Bridge. The Party Box kit will give Twestival goers access to thousands of online tracks to sing along to.

Stuart Waterman is tweeter in residence for Lucky Voice, and he believes that Twitter has been crucial to the company’s success.

“As a company and as individuals we have a couple of side interests that Twestival caters to very effectively: charity and social media,” he said. “While we use Twitter to promote events and offers, we also receive a lot of feedback via the channel – good and bad. We’re already at a point where we couldn’t imagine not communicating with our customers through Twitter, and I’m lucky enough to be the person who reads all the lovely tweets from excited singers, pre- and post-sing session.

“Our Worthy Workers night offers free room hire to charity workers (as well as policepeople, firefolk, nurses, doctors, etc) every Monday, and we’ve had a lot of fun investigating the little-explored area of Karaoke Marathons for charitable causes. We’re delighted, therefore, to also be able to do our bit for Twestival’s chosen charity this time around, Concern Worldwide.

“We can’t wait to set up our Party Box and get Twestival singing! On our playlist for the event: Tweet it, We’ll Tweet Again, All Around The Twhirl, couple of songs by The Tweetles, Dancing In The Tweet by Seesmic Jagger...”

You can access ticket and location information here and we look forward to seeing you strut your stuff on the mic next Thursday. Personally, I’m practicing my Bowie…

Jon Cartwright is London Twestival’s photographer, so make sure you introduce yourselves if you’re joining us next Thursday (25 March 2010) at the Cable club, London Bridge. This is Jon’s take on photographing Twestival:

Shooting Twestival has become an assignment I look forward to doing for the pure fun of it. I photographed the first Global event in London in February 2009, Twestival Local in September and this year’s is shaping up to be the best one yet.

It’s got some challenges. This year’s venue sits within the cavernous railway arches of London Bridge, which look beautiful but you won’t see me or the second shooter @tp1977 bouncing any flashes. That’s a problem for us, but the team of technicians behind the event always do something fabulous with the lighting, and camera-shy party-goers will probably be grateful for all the dark corners to hide in.

But with an eclectic crowd, a range of entertainments and activities (plus a proclivity of Twestivallers for dressing up) there are certain to be lots of great pictures to be had. I always shoot more than I expect to and then struggle to edit them down to my favourites. But even so, we can never hope to capture everything, so why not bring your camera with you. There’s a Flickr group and with free wifi on the night, you can post them or tweet them live.

And if you see me or Tom, say Tweeeese!

London Twestival has received another generous sponsor! Viadeo, a professional social network with more than 25 million users, has a strong user base in Europe, China and India, and is rapidly growing in South America. The company is actively involved with business, government and associations through its local teams.

Wayne Gibbins, Communications and Partnerships Director, Viadeo, explains why the network has signed up to support London Twestival:

“I believe that the delivery of a quality education program is hugely important to the millions of children across the world that do not currently have access to school facilities.  It’s a pleasure to work with Twestival London in support of Concern Worldwide and I hope the event is a great success.”

Click through for more details on Concern’s work and how you can get involved in London Twestival.

If you’re thinking about attending London Twestival at Cable in London Bridge next Thursday (25 March), then you might like to learn a bit more about what we’re aiming to achieve. This year’s supported charity is Concern Worldwide, an international humanitarian organisation dedicated to reducing suffering and ending extreme poverty.

The organisation has been running for more than 40 years, but while in the UK we are privileged enough to enjoy free education, the below statistics from Concern Worldwide highlight why plenty of challenges still remain.

· At least 72 million children around the world are not enrolled in school

· More than one in ten children in the developing world never even gets the chance to go to school

· 55 per cent of out-of-school children are girls, yet with just seven years of schooling, girls tend to marry later and have less children

· An extra year of primary education raises a girl’s lifetime wages by between 10-20 per cent

· There are more than 218 million child labourers in the world, many of whom get just one or two hours of education each week

There’s a clear correlation between education and wider societal benefits. Providing education will go a great way to developing economies, communities, and raise life expectancy and aspiration around the developing world. By attending London Twestival or even simply donating to Concern Worldwide you can make a significant difference.

We’d love to see you at London Twestival next week, so please buy a ticket and check out directions on how to find us.

London Twestival can announce that this month’s event will take place at the Cable club in London Bridge. We hope the 25 March 2010 event will grow on the success of previous events and would like to thank Cable for accommodating London Twestival.

Cable’s events assistant Kay Dyke said: “Cable is delighted to announce that it will be hosting one of the Twestival events. As a new and unique venue in London we want to encourage events with a difference and Twestival is certainly this! Also, being a new club a strong aspect of our marketing is social media and Twestival uses social media for social good raising money for charity. Cable is proud to be involved and help raise as much as possible for this cause [Concern Worldwide].”

You can still purchase tickets for London Twestival here and we look forward to meeting you there for what promises to be a great night.

How to get there:

Address: Cable, Bermondsey St Tunnel, London Bridge, SE1 3JW View Map

Nearest Tube: London Bridge (Jubilee and Northern lines)

Overland: London Bridge

Under the guise of the Smooth Tweetin’ Bar Stewards, iomart Hosting, headline sponsors of both the London and Glasgow Twestivals are giving Tweeps who attend both events the chance to get fresh and fruity. The company is providing a full blown smoothie bar at the London Twestival (Cable Club) and is offering a Twestival Fruit punch for revellers at the Glasgow Event (Lansdowne Bar).

The five Hosting themed smoothies on offer in London include the On Demand Orange, Cool Cranberry Cloud, Berry Burstin’ Bandwidth, Hot Hosting Hootch and the iSmoothie (made with Apple, naturally).

Party goers at both events will be able to get their fresh and fruity drink of choice – totally gratis -by simply tweeting their order to @iomarthosting during the event. A team of iomart Hosting Bar Stewards will be on hand at each venue – suitably adorned in their Bar Steward t-shirt – to dispense both the drink and some Twestival goodwill.

But that’s not all, the guys at iomart Hosting have produced a limited run of their t-shirts and have 40 available for both venues. If you’d like to really get into the fresh and fruity spirit and want to help our charity Concern at the same time. This is what you need to do:

Visit http://www.iomarthosting.com/twestival, complete the simple form and offer more than a £5 minimum donation. The shirt will be handed to you on the night in exchange for the donation you have offered. EVERY PENNY donated will be handed over to the London & Glasgow Twestival organisers on the night and donated to Concern Worldwide. But be quick – this is first come, first served! First 80 orders received and that’s it!

Finally, iomart Hosting is demonstrating its involvement with both events together by attempting the Twestival Traffic Cone Trek. iomart Hosting’s Marketing bod Phil will attend BOTH events on the same night (Flight delays/cancellations/body searches permitting).

Phil will bring messages of support from the @LDNtwestival Party to the @gtwestival venue, hand signed on a Traffic Cone – Glasgow’s unofficial iconic Logo and the official @gtwestival one!

You will be able to follow the Cone’s adventures (or lack of) and journey on the night via twitter #LGTcone.

The chances are you’re reading this blog because you’ve spotted the hashtag #tweacher on Twitter. Being a teacher and getting the best out of kids – or even getting their attention at all – is a tough, tough gig.

But in some places, kids are desperate for an education, but can’t afford to go to school or to have learning opportunities that would make a huge difference in their lives. This is something Concern Worldwide is working to change in some of the poorest communities in the world.

As organisers of London Twestival (you can get tickets to the 25th March event here) we want to highlight the real difference a good teacher can make to an individual by paying tribute to those who encouraged us to learn with all the distractions of youth around us and help mould us (hopefully) into well-rounded individuals.

In true Twitter style (i.e. sub-140 characters), here are our favourite #tweachers. Please tweet your favourite teacher now with the hashtag #tweacher:

Chris Lee - Mr Utting (history), without whom my perception of ‘the Diet of Worms’ would be wholly misplaced…

Jaz Cummins - Mr Starkie for reading Roald Dahl’s chocolate cake bit in Matilda aloud in the most amazing way to me and wearing a bow tie every day!

Poppy Dinsey - Prof Mickiewicz for being impossibly cute, having a sexy accent and making Emerging Market Economies all kinds of awesome

Sandy Matthews - Mrs Mulholland - enthusiastic, inspiring, History and Form Tutor keeping me on the straight and narrow and teaching me to write properly

Sarah Espiner - Mr Allen for helping me through Sociology A-Level with knowledge and humour, and teaching me to see both sides of an argument

Elizabeth Varley - Mr Cargill my International Studies teacher showed me that a different approach can really engage people

Ben Matthews - Mr Fouracre, for being the most entertaining ginger, Welsh, juggling English Teacher ever (and a massive inspiration!)

Alissa Barlow – Miss Concanon. For always going above and beyond, and teaching me that being bookish could be a very awesome thing #tweacher #twestival

Damien Austin-Walker - Mr Edmonson for demonstrating the power of static electricity by touching the Van Der Graff generator and being thrown flat on his back on the table from the shock

Tim Hoang - Mr Wilkinson, Tong School. Pushed me more than any other teacher and actually believed in his pupils. Now as much of a friend as a mentor.

Vikki Chowney - Mr Andrews, for making me laugh throughout that stressful ‘entrance exams’ period and encouraging me to take it all in my stride.

Jon Cartwright - Mr Brock, my A-level physics teacher, who knew he was fallible, never disguised it, and would learn along with us, proving it was possible

At the top of this page you can buy a ticket to London Twestival on 25th March and 100% of that money, and any money you donate on the night, or donate via the widget above, goes directly to the education projects of Concern Worldwide.

Have fun reminiscing about someone who taught you something important by tweeting your #tweacher today, and please give someone else the chance to look back and say ‘that person made a difference in my life’ by buying a ticket or making a donation now.

Thank you for your support.

We’re delighted to unveil wireless music systems provider Sonos as a sponsor of this month’s London Twestival.

Sonos is a company “created by music lovers, for music lovers”. We like the sound of that! The company is active in 60 countries and provides wireless music technology for whole-house coverage. Sonos’ technology “ensures synchronous music playback and avoids sources of wireless interference. Which means the music gets to all the right rooms — near or far — at exactly the right time.”

We welcome Sonos to the Twestival club and take this opportunity to thank the company for its support. Look out for a guest blog from Sonos next week. In the mean time, why not follow Sonos on Twitter?

One of the many beneficiaries of Concern Worldwide

On Thursday 25 March 2010, people in hundreds of cities around the world will come together to rally around the important cause of education by hosting events to have fun and create awareness.  Twestival™ (or Twitter Festival) uses social media for social good.  These live events are organised 100 per cent by volunteers and 100 per cent of all ticket sales and donations go direct to charity projects, and we’re looking for more sponsors!

We already have hosting specialists iomart announced as a sponsor and another announcement to follow, plus we are receiving valuable communications support from Borkowski PR, but extra sponsors can help us make even more of an impact for the event’s supported charity, Concern Worldwide.

In 2010, Twestival turns its focus to education and 72 million children in the world who don’t go to school. Concern Worldwide has been selected by the Twestival Global team and Twestival event leaders all around the world to be the recipient because of its comprehensive and well-respected approach to education.  This is an issue that involves many different elements; hunger, water, teacher training, building of schools and more.  We hope to use the power of our global event fundraising and social media influence as a vehicle to give people insight into this cause on a deeper level.

We’d love to have you on board for what is both a great cause and a great night. Do please contact Vikki Chowney if you’d like to get involved: vikki@vikkichowney.com