Twitter. We love it at Admiral PR HQ and we’re finding our clients do too. As a tool for engagement Twitter is the channel for helping them engage with the people who matter to their – and our – business. It’s all about conversations and as a people business we like talking and sharing information.
Twitter and social media in general is booming. It is here to stay and becoming central to our media landscape – 25m users can’t be wrong. So we’re really pleased to be one step ahead of the game in the North East and harnessing the Twitter opportunities for our clients.
It means joining in the twestival was a no-brainer on a business level, but helping out charity Concern Worldwide by raising them funds made it an opportunity not to be missed.
The charity does sterling work to reduce the suffering of people living in extreme poverty around the world. You can view some of their programmes here and get a feeling for why we, as a business, feel it’s important to lend them our support.
We’re really looking forward to catching up with other Twitter aficionados and meeting a few new ones @thetynebar tomorrow, so see you down there Tweeters.
Fancy meeting a talented and dedicated band? Well look no further than Tyne Twestival. The Purnells are a little mad and most definitely dedicated, * playing in freezing temperatures during a Boro blizzard *. All for the love of the music!
The Purnells formed in December 2007, bringing their influences of high-tempo, dark edged music you can’t help getting drawn into. The lads have been working hard of late, writing, recording, and gigging like a small group of crazy things because, after all, they love what they do. Stu, Glen, Sam and Ricky will be out in force to support Concern and are hoping to help us reach our target of £1,500 for the event.
Come along to support the cause and bring your jumpy up and downy shoes – cos that’s what their music makes you do. Ah ha – you’ve been warned!
Again – the sooner you buy tickets the better – maximum numbers at the venue are 150 –now, that’s not a “makey uppy” 150 capacity number, that’s a “not tonight lads, we’re full” 150. So get online now, and donate!
Here they are in that blizzard we mentioned earlier:
You get to find out about great up-and-coming coming bands, with Cedar Way being no exception - we’re over the moon to have this award winning band helping the Twestival cause.
The band have been together since October 2009 and haven’t looked back. With such a positive future ahead of them, why should they? Cedarway recently won the “Exposure Award” and marched through to the Area Final of Live and Unsigned, which is a national competition with more than 30,000 acts from across the country having entered over the last three years; and we’re pleased to have this award-winning band playing @TyneTwestival.
Lee, Matt and Anthony are looking forward to playing at the Tyne Bar for the first time on Thursday, so come along and show some support for an awesome band and a worthy charity! We’ll see you and Cedarway on Thursday - tickets are on sale now, so grab your credit card and donate. If not, come along and donate on the door! If you want to preview some of their stuff before the night you can always check out their facebook page, their myspace or their main site.
With thanks to Amiando , the ticketing events angels, who are waiving all fees for the event, so your £4 charity goes directly to funding projects in countries that need the funding most.
fable /feɪbəl/ [fey-buhl] a short tale to teach a moral lesson
Seven Fables are an alternative rock band formed in Yorkshire in the chilly January of 2009, and with your help they’re hoping to raise a phenomenal £1,500 in aid of Concern Worldwide. If you fancy helping them achieve this target, then get yourself to @TyneTwestival in the Toon on Thursday…….yes, this Thursday! Very exciting!
The band is made up of Matt Burrows (vocals, guitar, piano) whose background as a songwriter and producer has found him working with many up-and-coming artists. Ruck (The Rev) Jinks (guitar, backing vocals) is a virtuoso with a strong background as a professional musician and technician. Ian Boddy (Bass) has played in countless bands and gives a solid foundation to the sound. Standing in on drums will be Ally McDougal.
The team here are super excited to have them perform at Tyne Twestival on Thursday. Seven Fables have been the backbone of the music side of things for Tyne Twestival – offering support, advice and a few laughs in between! They have been on board from the get go – all in aid of @Concern, so please come along and support them on the night.
If you’re looking for a glimpse of these guys in action you can check them out on Facebook , Flickr, Twitter and their main site. These boys are positively EVERYWHERE on the interwebs – and if you want to to see them in the flesh as well as digitally, they’ll be @TheTyneBar on Thursday for @TyneTwestival.
If you’ve bought your ticket – thank you for your contribution to the Concern Worldwide cause. For those who haven’t – get yourself to the ticket page right now and donate to a worthy cause.
The fact that you’re looking at this page and have probably either already bought a ticket for Tyne Twestival 2010 or are considering doing so tells me that you’re the kind of person that realises we all have a part to play in the well being of our planet and people everywhere. The internet has made the world an infinitely smaller place than it was 20 years ago, and it keeps shrinking daily with services like facebook and twitter.
A few decades ago the idea of waking up and starting your day by telling people all over the world what you were about to have for breakfast would have been the stuff of sci-fi, not something that millions of people do every day. That’s no longer the case though and millions of people do just that every single day, sharing their lives with people hundreds of miles away, making new friends, learning, having fun and embracing the ever growing community around them.
Most of us on twitter are able to do this because we’ve had a decent education so we know how to use these services, we’ve learned skills such as design or photography or website creation that enable us to lead fulfilling and productive lives. During that life we earn money and can afford to have an internet connection and the freedom to enjoy spending some of our spare time (and sometimes even when we should be working, but shhh about that!) on twitter and chat to people.
We’re lucky in that respect, and I think some people just don’t realise quite how lucky they are sometimes, we consider a decent internet connection almost as essential as plumbing or heating in our homes, yet there are millions of people in the world who have never had the luxury of an internet connection. They’ve never checked their email, tweeted or laughed at embarrassing pictures of their friends on facebook.
Thankfully, if you’re going to be involved with Twestival then you’re one of the people who appreciates this, one of the people wanting to make a difference and give something back to the world. Twestival has supported some great causes since it began, and this year is perhaps one of the greatest yet. The power of knowledge and education is immense, and can make a very real difference to a person’s life not only today but for every day from this point forward. As we mentioned in a previous post one more year at school can raise a young girl’s income potential by as much as 20%… just think about that for a moment. How would you feel about losing 20% of your income tomorrow? And if you knew that 90% of what you did earn would be given to help support your family as is often the case, it doesn’t leave a lot does it?
Thankfully we’re not asking for 20% of your income, but we are asking for your help in getting that extra 20% for other people, and how you can help is simple. If you’ve already bought your ticket then great, we look forward to seeing you on the night and hope you will be able to give some more donations on the evening (and if you’re lucky you might even walk away with one of the great prizes on offer!). If you haven’t bought a ticket yet then please do, not only does every penny of your £4 ticket price go directly to Concern but you’re sure to have a great night of entertainment, music, fun and networking in return, that alone is worth the £4.
When it comes to how you can help though that’s not all, we dont just want your money, Twestival isnt about just trying to get cash from people. Twestival was born out of twitter, its a social event, its for networking and meeting people, its for having a laugh and making the world even smaller. The power of twitter and its ability to spread a message is amazing, and that power is exactly what we’d like to build upon. If every person attending sends out reminders, an invite or even just retweets a single message from @TyneTwestival to their followers then hopefully we can spread the word and sell out the event, get more people along for us all to meet and get even closer to our goal of raising £1,000 for Concern.
We northerners have always been known for our friendly, helpful and chatty ways so lets work together to help bring education to some of the world’s poorest children, and lets show that friendly chatty side we’re famed for by telling as many people as we can and spreading the word about Twestival.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and we look forward to seeing you on the night. If you’d like to learn a bit more about how the money will be used, here is a video from Concern with music kindly provided by Moby.
Northern Film & Media are delighted to support Twestival, not only to help bring the North East’s creative industries community together for a night of laughs, music and Twitter antics, but to help underwrite the basic running costs of the event so that every pound raised goes into this year’s super cause: Concern.
As a teacher and educator whose business revolves not only around building better startups, but building better teachers, I personally hope we can raise the target of £1000. Doing so has the potential to make a real difference to children.
Whereas here the cost of educating a teacher runs into the thousands, for just $300 we can train a teacher to create an impact worth many thousands dollars more. And it’s proven that the quality of the classroom teacher is the one most important factor in improving the quality of education anywhere.
Millions of children in the world’s poorest countries are taught by untrained, underpaid teachers in overcrowded, unhealthy, poorly equipped classrooms. Concern works to improve the skills and competence of unqualified teachers through workshops, training courses, and mentoring, and helps them achieve their qualifications. Concern also provides leadership workshops to school administrators, school management training, and develops and prints non-formal basic education curricula in partnership with government in some communities.
Average cost of training one teacher: $300.
It’s next to nothing - about 30 of you making a £7 donation. I hope you can make it along to Twestival in Newcastle this Thursday March 25th, in the Tyne Bar. You’ll have great fun, but more than that you have the chance to make a real, tangible difference to the creative learning futures of nations many miles away.
Concern are transforming the poorest children’s lives through education. If you needed proof as to why we’re doing this please look at some of the videos on the Concern website. If you only watch one video make sure it’s this one Concern Twestival 2010 featuring Moby song from Concern Worldwide.
Your support is needed and will never be so clearly felt than in generation of children your money will help escape poverty through education.
On the same page there are some ‘Tweet’ sized facts regarding Corcern’s work and education projects so please re-tweet them and drive the message out to your contacts. Did you know. ‘ The number of students in parts of Niger increased from 14,567 in 2006 to 22,302 in 2009, doubling female students, thanks to work by @concern’ or that ‘An extra year of primary school raises a girl’s lifetime wages by 10-20%.’ I didn’t know, so please help spread the word and make sure Concern receives all the support it deserves. If your not following Concern on Twitter please do so @concern.
We’re really keen on making Twestival good value for attendees but also a good return for Concern. The mystery boxes were a big hit last year and we’ll be doing them again this year but we want every company to spend a minimum of £150 on their mystery box to ensure we sell boat loads of raffle tickets on the night.
£150 might sound like a lot but compare that with the ability to help a girl spend another year in primary school and it’s impact on that girls life. 10% - 20% more earning capacity for the rest of her life, think about that.
If you can’t run to £150 we’ll be happy to take micro mystery boxes at £50. Every pound counts.
The Tyne Bar stands at the mouth of the Ouseburn where it meets the Tyne at the east end of Newcastle Quayside, a site which has been the location of a pub since the 19th century.
The original pub on the site, the Ship Tavern was opened in 1850 and was frequented by the sailors and worker of the thriving Newcastle quayside by Spiller’s Wharf which bustled with the trade of the Tyne river and the various warehouses around the area. Unfortunately this first pub had a very short life, lasting only 45 years before it was destroyed by fire in 1895 and had to be rebuilt. The original building was quite a bit smaller, as you can see from this picture (you may note the lack of the Ouseburn School in the background, as this wasn’t built until 1893).
As you can see, even the bridge over the Ouseburn was remarkably different then from the iron and pipe version we know today.
The fire ravaged building was rebuilt quickly and re-opened as the Ship Tavern and the look of the building was mostly as you would recognise it today. The pub was built with some fantastic decorated sandstone pillars, arched windows set in brick and even leaded stained windows upstairs with the panes on the ground floor engraved with “Ship Tavern” A couple of photos from the 60’s and 70’s give you an idea of the area a little bit more recently.
Known by most of the locals as the “Bottom Ship” to avoid confusion with the nearby Ship Inn on Stepney Bank, the Ship Tavern was what some might know as a “Spit and Sawdust” kind of bar, being pretty rough around the edges and the kind of place that most people would keep away from (at least those who liked to avoid casual bar violence). Though the modern Tyne Bar is known to many as a place of great entertainment and music, the entertainment at the Ship Tavern used to take an entirely different form, famous as not only somewhere to have a swift pint after work, but also for the brothel that was ran in the upstairs of the pub.
Things changed in 1995 when the former staff and management of the well known and much loved alternative bar which had been massively popular in the 80s, Barley Mow on City Road knew that an alternative bar would still thrive in Newcastle, so upped sticks and moved down under the Glasshouse Bridge at the site of the Ship Tavern and renamed it to The Tyne Bar (Having left the Barley Mow when the Firkin chain took it over and turned it into the Fog & Firkin). Things were cleaned up, the bar was refurbished and now its most definitely more at home to bands playing tunes than ‘Band Of Gold’, as well as some great real ales brewed both locally and internationally, a great atmosphere and friendly staff.
Despite its chequered history, the Tyne Bar remains one of the best watering holes in Newcastle and undoubtedly a great location for the 2010 Tyne Twestival.
As you might have heard, this year’s Tyne Twestival is kindly being brought to you by the lovely folks at Northern Film and Media. It’ll be held at the fabulous Tyne Bar (www.thetyne.com).
For those of you who haven’t managed to make it that far along the Quayside yet, you’ll find The Tyne Bar snuggled under the Glasshouse Bridge on Maling Street, where the mouth of the Ouseburn meets the Tyne river proper. (Click on the link to Google maps over on the right of this page, if you’re still confused).
It’s the only place in the country with a beer garden under a road bridge (and there’s a case of red wine on offer if anyone can prove them wrong). The beer’s local (from the Wylam Brewery), the free gigs are eclectic and legendary, and there’s lots of friendly faces at the bar.
Which all adds up to a good night, in our book. So keep your eyes peeled – tickets for Tyne Twestival go on sale soon!
A few things you might not know about The Tyne Bar:
Their fish finger butties are famous.
All their gigs are free.
They’re the only the official ‘Brewery Tap in the City’ for Wylam Brewery.
If you spend over £5 at the bar on Wednesdays you’ll get a free bowl of chilli.
There’s been a flutter of activitiy on @TyneTwestival event recently and in all the excitment , we’ve neglected to update the blog! That’s all set to change thanks to our new little army of fantastic copywriters - all eager to help our ailing blog!
I thought I would kick start things with a bit of run down as to where we are - who we are and what’s going on!
So, first of all (drum roll please), we’re super happy to announce that@Twitchhikerwill be heading up the night on the 25 March in aid of @Concern. Paul has been busy writing about his experiences for a his new book coming soon (okay - 2 August), so keep your eyes peeled as it’s going to be a cracker.
It’s important to remember that Paul was one of the VERY FIRST volunteers for @Twestival global - after him there were about 700 others. It was during this time, that the idea of the @Twitchhiker project struck and he’s not looked back since. Paul will be running the show on the night, asking for donations and on hand to answer any questions you may have about his upcoming book, but mainly asking for your money, loose change - anything that helps us raise cash for a much needed cause.
The lovely ladies at @Sharperecruit will be collecting for charity on the night - you’ll not miss them and they’ll not miss you, so please give generously. Raffle tickets will be on sale and prize details will be announced soon.
Our very own @LoveLi is managing all the entertainment on the night - we’ve got some cracking people lined up. We’ve got a brilliant DJ - the fabulous Mickey Clarke (thanks to @ShaunAllan for the tip), we’ve also got two bands to date - @SevenFables and @CedarWay - but we’ve still got room for more, so if you know of any great bands please ask hem to contact @TyneTwestival, or pass on their contact details to us and we’ll follow them up.
The awesome @thetynebar have a great venue which lends itself well to the event, giving a great balance of networking and the all important live music.
The event starts at 7pm on the 25th which isn’t far off. We’re still looking for raffle prizes, so please drop us a line (@TyneTwestival), if you can help.
Tickets: These will be going on sale soon. We're setting the price at a whooping £4 pre sale and £5 on the door. Feel free to add more to the pot as it goes to charity!
Contact for more details: @loveli - Li Ainley Walker or @TyneTwestival - The TyneTwestival Team
