twestival local - Tweet.Meet.Give. - March 24, 2011

It's hard to believe that Twestival Cleveland was only two weeks ago! Since then we’ve dropped off the check for over $2000 to We Run This City and are looking forward to next year’s Twestival.

While I know you can’t wait for next year either, there are plenty of ways to continue the spirit of Twestival until then.

First, you can still donate to We Run This City through the Twestival Cleveland donation link.  Either select the green button up at the top that says 'Donate' or visit the FirstGiving Twestival Cleveland page directly.

Secondly, check out our previous post A Dozen Ways to Do Good, which lists 12 Cleveland organizations in addition to We Run This City that are also worthy of your support. 

A third way to continue the spirit of Twestival is by supporting the businesses and organizations that contributed to this year’s event.

Many thanks to these organizations for donating their services and products to Twestival Cleveland. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to host an event with such fantastic food, drinks, and auction baskets.

You can help us thank these organizations by supporting and frequenting them often:

•  AMP 150 
• Amy Nixon Events
• AOK! Fitness
• The Arthritis Foundation, NEO Chapter
• Becky’s Photography
• Bella Cappelli Salon & Spa
• Casual Images Graphic Design
• Cleveland Airport Marriott
• Cleveland Food Tours
• Cleveland Indians
• Cleveland Play House
• Craft Coalition of Cleveland
• Crafty Goodness
• Decidedly Different
• The Events Guru
• Geauga Farms Country Meats, (440) 834-8476  
• Geauga Feed & Grain Supply
• Goodwin House Bed & Breakfast
• Gray & Company Publishers
• Great Lakes Theater Festival
• Great Lakes Touring Co.
• Happy Dog
• The Home Depot in Avon
• Kasey Crabtree
• Live Nation Cleveland
• LiveInCLE.com
• Mary Yoder’s Amish Kitchen
• Mediterranean Sun
• PlayhouseSquare
• Revelations Salon & Spa
• Samantha Beck, Fitness Trainer
• Silpada Designs (Michelle Westover)
• Starbucks
• Tastefully Simple (Amy Goodwin)
• Terra Sol Studio
• White House Chocolates
• Willow House (Chris Whitacre)
• The Winchester Music Hall
• Working Women Connection
• YMCA of Cleveland  

Interested in helping out Twestival Cleveland next year? Reach out to @KaseyCrabtree and let us know!

BIG thanks to everyone who came out last night for Twestival Cleveland 2011!  We sold about 55 tickets in advance and had at least that many walk-ups, so we were pleased to see our crowd of over 100 people laughing, mingling, drinking and EATING the yummy food at AMP150 Cleveland. 

The gift baskets were also a big hit and we sold LOTS of raffle tickets, with the "Foodie" basket, not suprisingly, being the most coveted.  Bottom line, we brought in over $1400 last night!  Combine that with the advace ticket sales and the donations made on-line and we raised over $2000 for We Run This City Youth Marathon.  What a great success, Cleveland!

We are all pretty tired today, but I wanted to give thanks to the great team who helped make all this happen IN JUST 5 WEEKS!  It's hard to pull something this successful off in that short of a time frame without good help.

First, big thanks to Chef Ellis Cooley and his staff at AMP150 Cleveland.  Without their great atmosphere, service and food, Twesitval Cleveland would not have been so special!  I'd also like to thank Team Members Amanda Hicken and Kimi Fowler; Amanda did all of our blog posts and our press release, Kimi worked with CLE Clothing Co to get our great limited-edition T-shirts (we still have a few left, if you're interested!)

Big thanks to Amy Nixon of Amy Nixon Events - she and her team of Shannon and Whitney procured many of the donations for the raffle baskets and they made ALL of the baskets look great!  She is an amazing resource if you need an event planner.

Stacy Mallardi-Stajcar of Casual Images Graphic Design did our great local Twestival logo; Todd, The Events Guru helped out with logistics and also staffing for our event.  Other Twestival Cleveland event staffers included Mary Lee Sutter, Emily Jagger Rohm, Patricia Kellogg and Tracy Moavero - we couldn't have done it without you!

I plan on working on Twestival Cleveland 2012, so if you're intersted, please let me know - you can always find me in the twitterverse @KaseyCrabtree.  But right now, I need a nap!

Thank you Cleveland, for a great event and for over $2000 raised for We Run This City Youth Marathon Program! 

Tweet on!

Twestival Cleveland is finally here! The last month of planning all comes together this evening at AMP 150. 

In honor of the event’s 5pm start time, here are the 5 most important things to know about tonight’s TwestivalCLE:

Tickets will be available at the door: Still haven’t purchased your ticket yet? Don’t worry! You can buy tickets at the door tonight. The cost will be the same ($10); however, we can only accept cash at the door.

Bring Cash for the Chinese Auction: If you liked what you read in the last post about the auction baskets, be sure to bring cash for tickets. Basket tickets are $2 each or 6 for $10. And remember to write your name/contact info on each ticket - winners will be drawn at the end of the evening and you don't need to be present to win.

Commemorate the event with a limited edition t-shirt: Thanks to C.L.E. Clothing Co., Twestival Cleveland is happy to bring you a Limited Edition event t-shirt (check out the design). These tshirts will be on sale at the event for $15 and are an excellent memento of your evening.

Can’t make it to Twestival Cleveland? Donate! Cleveland’s a busy town tonight. In addition to Twestival, there are a handful of other events going on like Emerging Chefs, Stove Monkeys' Naked Sushi and the CIFF Opening Gala. If you already had other plans for the evening, you can still donate to We Run This City via the Twestival Cleveland donation site.

100%  from the tickets & auction benefit We Run This City: As with all Twestival events, 100% of the ticket price and donations will go to the local charity. Full proceeds from the auction and partial proceeds from the t-shirts purchased will also go to support We Run This City.

Now that you’re up to speed on the 5 most important things to know about tonight, head over to AMP 150 from 5-9pm and have fun with Twestival Cleveland as we “Tweet. Meet. Give.”

One of the ways you can "Tweet. Meet. Give." at this year’s Twestival Cleveland is by bidding on the Chinese Auction items we'll have available at Thursday night's happy hour.

Read on for a sampling of some of the items in the baskets you can bid on -- and remember, 100% of the proceeds from the auction will go to We Run This City.

(Not sure how a Chinese Auction works? Here’s a helpful summary.)

Enjoy a night out on the town…

• Toby Keith Experience: Country music fans can win two tickets to this summer’s Toby Keith concert before they even go on sale.

• Foodie Basket:  Sample Cleveland’s excellent culinary scene at the May 26th Silver Spoon Awards courtesy of The Arthritis Foundation, Northeast Ohio Chapter. Other featured items in the basket include treats from Tastefully Simple and Decidedly Different.

• Musical Theatre Baskets: Take in a show with vouchers to local theatres such as PlayhouseSquare, Great Lakes Theater Festival and the Cleveland Play House, as well as four tickets to a concert at The Winchester.

• Baseball and Hotdogs Basket: “Play ball!” with a voucher for an upcoming Tribe game, then stop by the Happy Dog afterwards for tasty gourmet hot dogs and beer.

• AMP 150 / Marriott Basket: Enjoyed AMP 150's food and drinks so much that you can't wait to come back? This basket features a gift card to the restaurant and an overnight stay at the Marriott.

 Are Home or Personal Improvement Projects on Your Horizon?

• Spring Gardening Basket: Thanks to The Home Depot and Willow House, Twestival Cleveland will help you welcome in Spring with an assortment of gardening supplies.

• Women’s and Men’s Fitness Baskets:  Look your best when the warm weather gets here with bike tours and workout sessions. To capture your hard work on film, bid on the Glamour Shots Basket!

• Build Your Business Basket: Budding entrepreneurs can prepare themselves for networking with a professional headshot and business cards. We've also got you covered for those early mornings busy at work with a coffee set from Decidedly Different.

Or just relax on a Sunday afternoon…

• Browns Basket: When football starts back up, host the ultimate party with help from The Browns Fan's Tailgating Guide and other prizes in this basket. What will make it even better? Showing off the autographed Browns jersey you won!

• Sunday Escapades Basket: Enjoy an adventure in Geauga and a shopping trip to Lakewood’s Crafty Goodness with this basket. To go along with the NEO handmade goods you’ll pick up at Crafty Goodness, enjoy a selection of items from the artists in the Cleveland Craft Coalition.

• Spa Basket: Take a break from your hectic life with a Salon and Spa gift card and other beauty sundries for your home. 

Thank you to the generosity of all of the local businesses and organizations that contributed an item for our baskets.  And many thanks to Amy Nixon Events LLC for her coordination and putting the baskets together!

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Still haven’t purchased your tickets to Twestival Cleveland? You can purchase a ticket in advance via our ticketing site, but admission at the door, event t-shirts and Chinese Auction tickets will be cash only.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We’re only one week away from Twestival Cleveland and getting really excited.

When you're at AMP 150 next Thursday from 5-9pm, be sure to stop and chat with one of our Organizing Team members.  We’ll be mingling and selling tickets for our Chinese Auction.

Not sure who the TwestivalCLE team is? Read on to see who’s helping Cleveland’s Twitterverse put our local Twitter Festival together to benefit @WeRunThisCity. And if you need to put a face to the name, check out our Twitter avatars at the bottom right of the page.

@KaseyCrabtree

The City Lead Organizer for Twestival Cleveland 2011 is Kasey Crabtree (@KaseyCrabtree).  If her name sounds familiar, it could be that you may have listened to her when she was a DJ with 98.5, WNCX, Cleveland’s Classic Rock, for over a decade!  She still loves music, but has also become a champion of new media and a social media enthusiast.  Her favorite social media is Twitter, and she has a penchant for #Hashtags.  You’ll find her on twitter a lot as she is “between gigs” and happy to entertain any job suggestions or referrals.

@KimiKay

A transplant from central Ohio, Kimi’s fallen in love with the westside of Cleveland and the north shore.  By day, you’ll find her in her role as a marketing professional, and by night she’s a mom, wife and part time super hero. Among many other things, she’s been instrumental in working with @CLEClothingCo to make TwestivalCLE wearable with tshirts that commemorate the event. When she can find a spare moment, she enjoys reading, running and cheese fries.  You can follow her travels at A Slice of Kiwi and @KimiKay.

@ADHicken

Which brings us to me, Amanda Hicken.  I came to Cleveland four years ago with my husband @ScottHicken from Philadelphia. A senior editor at PR Newswire, I love seeing the different ways social media can improve communication and build relationships, and Twestival is an excellent example of this! In addition to blogging for TwestivalCLE, I’ve been clueing into how great this city is through my blog Clue Into Cleveland. You can follow me on twitter @ADHicken.

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Haven’t bought your tickets yet? Admission to Twestival Cleveland is only $10. 100% of those proceeds will go to We Run This City.  If you can’t attend or are feeling extra generous, you can also make a donation to the Cleveland youth marathon program.