#TweetMeetSG Review

TweetMeetSG event is for creating awareness for Infocomm Accessibility Centre (IAC) to make IT courses available to people with disabilities to bridge the digital divide and to increase the employment opportunities of people with disabilities.

This is a picnic at SMU Campus Green on 26 June, where everyone, regardless of abilities, will have the unique opportunity to interact with each other.

There are goodie bags, music, a tent and lots of equipment. Pretty standard stuff you will expect in an event.

Location:

SMU Campus Green
(located between School of Information Systems and Li Ka Shing Library)

+ The location is very centralized and easy to get to.

- Picnic area is on a muddy patch, not really suitable to sit on.

+ The location has electricity and necessary shelter for equipment.

- The muddy patch has a narrow walkway for handicap access, and it is otherwise inaccessible by wheelchair. (If a wheelchair is on the walkway, another one could not get by.)

Crowd:

A crowd of more than 400 people were expected, but the actual turnout seemed to be around 100 people, way below the expected turn out, though the weather was good.

There was ample supporters and handicapped people there to support the event, however, the participating people were not present. The event does not seemed to be promoted well.

I've asked many people at TweetMeetSG, and about 80% were apparently unaware that this was for a good cause until they arrived, and the #hashtag that was used was not very descriptive on what the purpose this event was for. I believe if the word got our properly, and if there was more time to promote the event, more people would turn up.

However, everything went smoothly, and there were only some minor hickups. In terms of getting the crowds to tweet and tell their friends about it, it was a breeze.

For a good cause, everyone is tweeting!

I would consider the event rather successful in getting corporates to sponsor products, however in terms of getting a crowd, it does some lack marketing and promotion to get to real crowds.

In Singapore, mobilizing crowds to meet for events on Twitter has been successful for smaller events like Twestival, however only the same group of bloggers and markets turn up. For the rest of Singapore, mainstream media still plays a big role.

However, I do believe in terms of word of mouth, this event will probably get descent coverage and people on Twitter would talk about IAC and spread the word of mouth.

I do hope attendees could recommend someone they know who is handicapped to IAC for training, and spread the word!

More information on IAC:

The Infocomm Accessibilty Centre (IAC) is Singapore’s first centre set up to provide training in infocomm technology for people with all disabilities types. It is specially equipped with a wide range of assistive technology devices to cater to the different needs.

IAC also works with the IT Apprenticeship Programme (ITAP) to further train disabled people for specific jobs so as to get them to be work ready.

For more information, please visit their site.

I wish the IAC success, all the best for your future endeavors!

-- Robin Low