I’m reaching out.
Along with Nicole Jensen, I’m organising Brisbane Twestival. Twestival is a global festival event taking place on 12 February that seeks to raise money for the 1 in 6 people worldwide who do not have access to clean, safe drinking water. 1 in 6! That’s 1.1 billion people without clean drinking water, something we take for granted.
To help them out, the Twitter community (http://twitter.com) are holding this event to raise both awareness and money to donate to Charity:Water (http://charitywater.org). This charity works very hard to get sustainable solutions to those communities without water but they can’t do it entirely on their own. Brisbane is just one of over 100 cities worldwide holding a Twestival!
But we can’t do this without your help, so here’s where you come in.
What we’re looking for right now are sponsors. We have a couple on board already who are providing a venue (to be announced shortly!) and contributing towards some of the costs of holding such a big event.
The event itself will not be a sombre event – it’s a festival! There’ll be local bands, work on display from local artists, stalls to buy stuff, a bar, and games and competitions. We’re conservatively anticipating a bare minimum of 100 attendees, though some estimates suggest the night will bear witness to as many as 300.
What we need are sponsors. Sponsors to provide prizes for the competitions and games, to donate to charity or to contribute in some other way they think would help us to make this a successful festival event.
In return, you’ll get exposure and generate an incredibly large amount of goodwill. We’ll be promoting you everywhere online from Facebook to Twitter to the official Brisbane Twestival site. You’ll be mentioned on all of our promotional material. You’ll be displayed on projectors and posters and mentioned repeatedly on the night. And, of course, you’ll be recognised for some time for giving back to the global community.
If you think you or your business can contribute, please contact myself or Nicole Jensen and we’ll help you to help us and the 1 in 6 people worldwide who need it.
Also, if you’d like to know a bit more, check out the links below.
Global Twestival website: http://twestival.com
Charity:water website: http://charitywater.org
Brisbane Twestival website: http://brisbane.twestival.com
Brisbane Twestival Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=44952598701
Brisbane Twestival twitter account: http://twitter.com/bnetwestival
via Facebook | Greg Williams’s Notes.
Just recently I attended the Brisbane CBD launch of the new World of Warcraft extension, Wrath of the Lich King. It was a pretty good event for the first gaming launch I’d experienced, and I’ve
blogged about it for
Tech Wired AU which I am collaborating on. Great stuff!
In the more academic of my events life at the moment, I am putting together the final paperwork for the COTAH Events Conference Series and graduating in December. Hurrah!
Looking for full-time work for 2009 is proving standard as jobseeking goes, but I’d still love to hear of any openings you may know of. Plenty of great opportunities in Brisbane, I’m afraid I’ll actually end up taking on more than I can chew next year! Oh, but that’s always a thrilling prospect in itself, no?
Pop us an e-mail for more information and to reserve your spot!
Since my last post in July, a number of things have changed. I became dedicated solely to the final semester of my event management diploma at Southbank Institute of Technology (who is not associated with this blog in anyway other than educating me), had some medical dramas and things at work changed too. I was right to post about holding off the business of launching Jensen Events until next year, however I have by no means stopped the actual events side of things…
Client: Catherine Macintyre, College of Tourism & Hospitality, Southbank Institute of Technology
Venue: Southbank
Date: five weeks over October, November.
Purpose: To inspire and inform events students.
Duties: Sourcing guest speakers, collaboration with client, managing volunteers, equipment, marketing, documentation, programming, master of ceremonies, registration, budgeting, source catering.
My final assessment for my studies is a series of four conferences and a networking morning for events students and industry guests. Today I just completed the third of these conferences and I do know fair well enough that a pair of sore feet means a good effort indeed. The aim of the COTAH Events Conference Series 2008 is to motivate and inspire event management students at Southbank institute to get moving on their careers straight away, rather than shoving their dreams back into the sock drawer. I quickly rocked up a vision of the program and after quite a few juggling and speaker cancellations, the program came out looking like this:
Wednesday, 15th October
- fellow final semester students on their event projects – a national floristry conference, a charity trivia night, a cooking book launch and a winemakers’ and chefs’ dinner.
Wednesday, 22nd October
Wednesday, 29th October
Wednesday, 5th November
I mean, this is a fantastic list of Australian events leaders and I am so proud to have them assist the institute in inspiring students to better themselves. I have learned many things not only from the assessment itself but also from these speakers and the students are also thankful. One, at least, has already earned herself a job with one of these businesses from attending!
As for the conference series closer, the networking function, this will be held on Wednesday the 12th of November at Southbank Institute of Technology. Anyone involved in the events, hospitality or tourism industries is welcome to attend, so if you would like to register your interest please write me a line to reserve your spot.
Lastly, there is a “#cotah08″ Twitter hashtag for users who wish to keep track of @JensenEvents developments. Feel free to say hi!
Q: Hi Nicole, welcome to Askablogr! What’s the biggest event you’ve ever put on? The most satisfying? What kinds of gigs do you say ‘no’ to? Are you Brisbane-only, or can you take on clients elsewhere?
Chris DeVore
A: a) The most satisfying event I’ve had a major role in organising was for International House College (University of Queensland, Brisbane). The college holds an event known as Soiree (which I cannot find the website of right now!) and it is completely run by the students. My role in 2006 was to organise publicity, where with two other students I put the word out to EVERYONE in Brisbane that Soiree was on.
It was my first experience at sponsorship negotiations (successful at gaining free advertising on Brisbane’s CityCat ferries!) leading and motivating large groups of tired flag-clothed and body-painted students early in the winter mornings for promotional activities, communicating with embassies and local media bodies and more! Let’s just say I missed out most of the actual event because I was so exhausted.
To this day people still congratulate me on my efforts that year. I mean, I had a bucket of beer thrown over me at a rival college because we’d interrupted the cricket for a few minutes to promote Soiree!
b) I refuse events I feel I am not competent in running, of course, also I’d have to refuse events outside Brisbane. The reason for both of these is that I would not be able to deliver an event anywhere near the quality of one run by someone more local or qualified. The last reason I’d turn down an event is if it was being run for unethical purposes; it would take all the money in the world just to get me to go against my own code of ethics!
I hope this answered your questions. Thanks for the warm welcome to Askablogr!
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