By Jason Genegabus

Jason Genegabus photos

Regular readers of this blog and my print column in the Star-Bulletin know how much I love Twitter, the micro-blogging site that has enjoyed a surge in popularity here in the islands over the last few months.

I’ve had an account there since 2006, but it wasn’t until 2008 that the site reached critical mass among the tech-savvy here in Honolulu. These days, a mix of local students and professionals from all walks of life have joined us early-adopters in sharing news and information on a real-time basis via web-enabled smart phones and text messages.

The public nature of Twitter has also spawned what’s called a “Tweet-up,” a casual meeting of like-minded individuals who use the site to share time, date and location information. Tweet-ups can be as intimate as a couple of people meeting for coffee in the mall, or as planned out as dinner reservations at a local restaurant for a group of 10 to 15 people – or more.

Last week, a dedicated group of local “Tweeps” (get it?) wrapped up two weeks of last-minute planning to host the first-ever Twestival on Oahu. A Twestival is like a tweet-up on steroids, except it was a worldwide event planned entirely by Twitter users and doubled as a fundraiser for the non-profit group charity: water.

The Honolulu Twestival took place at Oceans 808 on Thursday, with a full complement of live entertainment and prize giveaways to go with free pupus and drink specials.

While it wasn’t the first event heavily-attended by Hawaii-based Twitter users or the first party to benefit a charity, the Twestival proved that self-proclaimed “nerds” and “geeks” could plan and execute a pau hana cocktail hour that was both successful and a whole lot of fun.

When I got to Oceans around 6 p.m., a good crowd had already assembled inside the club to watch Guy Cruz kick off the festivities. Former KHNL anchor Angela Keen and local comic and TV personality Andy Bumatai were also on hand to take care of hosting duties.

By the time I got settled in with a drink, Maui’s Anuhea Jenkins had replaced Cruz:

According to her MySpace page, Jenkins’ new album is set for release March 24. You can get another taste of her sound this weekend when she plays at Higher Ground Cafe in Wahiawa from 8 to 10 p.m. Saturday.

It didn’t take me long to meet people I recognized from Twitter. KGMB’s Tina Ludwig (@glorificus5884), Candace Hirleman (@chirleman) and Troy Siruno (@tsiruno) were easy to spot, since Ludwig and Siruno were rocking Twitter-themed T-shirts designed by local boy Valentino Valdez (@valdezign):

Hirleman wasn’t wearing a Twitter shirt, but I still recognized her from the picture at the top of her blog on KGMB’s website. The TV station is doing a great job of getting its employees online to interact with viewers via their new blogs and Twitter accounts, although they can be a little hard to find. Click this link for their blogroll.

I also ran into AtypicalLiving.com’s Jessie Domingo (@jdomingo) shortly after spotting the KGMB crew. He sported a Twitter shirt of his own, which used the account names of all his buddies:

After Jenkins finished playing and Star 101.9’s DJ Maleko had replaced Keen and Bumatai on the microphone, fellow female vocalist Mailani Makainai took over on stage. The Keahiwai co-founder and Mighty J member performed a few familiar tracks along with a sneak preview of her upcoming solo debut:

It was about this time that I discovered not one, but TWO live feeds of the Twestival were being broadcast online. Twestival volunteer Ryan Ozawa (@hawaii) had a feed up and running on Ustream.tv that other tweeps from around the country were watching with interest.

You can watch a recording of that stream via this link. Ozawa also crammed all four hours of footage into this 10-minute clip for less patient viewers.

The folks at home were enjoying the sights and sounds of the party at Oceans, but a number of people in the club were getting a kick out of the online proceedings, too:

Monica Munro (@velvetacide) was posted up near Ozawa’s laptop for most of the night, keeping track of viewer commentary and helping others share messages scrawled on the back of coasters with everyone online.

If you watch the replay, you’ll see this smiling face in the bottom left corner of your screen from time to time:

This has got to be my favorite image from the night. The infamous DJ Doc Rock (@docrock) was in full geek mode as he hammed it up for those who couldn’t make it to the party:

The music kept going until 9 p.m. on Thursday. After Cruz, Jenkins and Makainai finished, Jama Hang and Sunset wrapped things up as the crowd began to thin out.

You might recognize Jama Hang’s lead singer, Wayne Enos, from his role as guitarist for legendary local reggae band Natural Vibrations:

As the evening went on and the alcohol kept flowing, I noticed people starting to relax and socialize with tweeps they hadn’t met before Thursday’s party. Geeks who normally wouldn’t venture into Clubland rubbed shoulders with nightlife regulars and everyone appeared to have a great time.

Like these folks:

Thanks to a pair of $1,000 donations from AIG Hawaii and an anonymous benefactor, 200 pre-sale tickets sold at $20 each and additional money collected at the door, Ozawa said last week’s event raised more than $7,000 for charity: water.

For anyone who doubts the power of social media, the inaugural Honolulu Twestival was just the latest example of its ability to connect online communities with real world results.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 1:32 am and is filed under Nightlife, Picture Blogs, Adventures in Clubland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.