Twestival Yay, Testival Boo
I attended the Austin Twestival last night; it seemed to come off successfully though I did not stay until the end. A lot of people showed up – Ace’s Lounge did not look at all empty by 9pm and the crowd only thickened thereafter. I had the honor of locking horns with @aaronmsb at inflatable sumo-suit wrestling, and am glad they make you wear a foam helmet as I nearly cracked my skull after performing a three-halves suplex, which if you’re up on your wrasslin’ terms means I toppled gracelessly.
So the event garnered a lot of attendees, a fair amount of press (both major publications in Austin covered it, somebody was livecasting, mayoral candidate @bmccracken at least threatened to show up), and raised some money. I’m not sure exactly how much, but if you figure an average ticket was $10 and 500 people came through the doors, that’s a cool $5,000. Add about $3,500 in straight-up sponsorships (I think that’s what they announced, anyway), for a haul of $8,500. Multiply that by 202 cities around the world, give or take, and you have my very rough prediction of a $1.5-1.7M take for Charity : Water. That assumes Austin is an average Twitter city.
@michellegreer was hawking Twestival t-shirts, the proceeds of which also headed to Charity : Water, but I was surprised when I didn’t find a way to give directly (no merch) at the event. Sure, the door brings in a lot of cash, but what if some people should walk in with bags full of money and be so moved they want to leave it behind? You know, like those gala events I don’t really understand.
