There are too many highlights for me to mention; one happened before the Tweetfest was conceived...a chat on ICTD was the idea, but when Claire (@ClaireW_UK) put a single tweet out for ideas for ONE chat the response was SO huge that within hours there literally a dozen volunteers offering to host on behalf of #whywedoresearch. A group was formed and within 3 weeks the 25 chat strong Tweetfest was organised; this was the worlds 1st, and Derek (@DerekCStewart) without realising I think came up with a totally new concept for Twitter...and #WhyWeDoResearch Tweetfest 2016 was born
The next highlight for me was the fact that tweetfest involved people connected through #whywedoresearch and as we have learnt, Twitter knows no geographical boundaries! We hosted chats not only from from the UK, but from around the world, including Canada, Spain and Australian specific chats...highlighting the global reach of and passion for #whywedoresearch. We were also able to collaborate with our wonderful friends @wenurses supporting a joint vision of connecting patients, public and staff through a social media platfom. This slide shows the activity captured for the tweetfest by wegizmos in the form of statistics, contributions, tweets, word-clouds and contributors; over 40 million impressions in 5 days, WOW!!!
Another highlight (although as I say there were many more) is celebration that the chats were attended not only by healthcare professionals and those involved in delivering healthcare, but by patients and public; much of the focus of the chats was around the voice of patients and public, embedding the campaigns ultimate vision of giving people a voice. Twitter is a fantastic medium for chats as it breaks through all hierarchies and coupled with #whywedoresearch provided fantastic arena for Tweetfest2016
A final thought is to the amazing person who pulled this group of individuals from around the world together, and to formulate the most amazing agenda of rapid fire research related tweet chats.. organising the #whywedoresearch Tweetfest 2016 was @ClaireW_UK, fabulous job.
So remember this year as the 1st ever global Tweetfest 2016 and get those Twitter fingers ready for Tweetfest 2017.