I’ve been on Twitter a while now and I’m even up to almost 1,000 followers now, but still had not ever met anyone face to face that I knew exclusively via Twitter. Tonight, Phoenix joined in the global one-night event known as Twestival. To attend, organizers were asking for a mere $10-$30 donation but even more money was raised with the raffle at $3 a ticket and the silent auction, offering up a lot of great stuff from some generous local sponsors. The whole thing was from 6:00 to 9:00 PM and was at the Half Moon sports grill.

I’ve been wanting to be more locally involved, attending more local events and interfacing more with people right here in Phoenix, and Twestival sounded like a good start. Then I heard that all the money raised was going to a charity and I decided I would attend for sure. The charity benefiting from this global event is charity : water. They’re a non-profit, and their mission is to bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. The goal of the Phoenix Twestival was to raise $4,000 to dig a well in a developing nation.

Michelle and I showed up at around 6:15 and the parking lot was full, so we wound up parking across the street. We registered and then headed for the food, which was a happy surprise. From what I heard, another local sponsor covered the food and one drink per person for the event. After eating, we headed over to the silent auction tables, looking over the items offered. I liked the idea of a pair of Suns lower level seats or the two nights at the Clarendon hotel, but we ended up not putting in any bids. Just as we were talking about how I hadn’t even talked to anyone here online before – making it a little harder for us to dive in and start meeting people, we met @ShannonSelleck and her daughter. As it turned out, I had talked with her well before the days of Twitter and we have a few friends in common. Later, as the four of us chatted away, a specific combination of numbers spoken in the background triggered me to stand up and declare “That’s me”. With my single raffle ticket purchase, I snagged the $50 P.F. Chang’s gift card.

Although we had a lot of fun and I’m glad we went, Michelle is still nursing the cold I generously passed on to her, so we left before 9:00 to get her home. On the way home, we talked about my plans to get Phoenix bloggers together for Thai food once a month or so. In the interim, events like this will fill my calendar. For those who missed it, I hope you’re there next time, and for those who made it that I didn’t meet, I hope we meet at the next event.

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