100+ online fans rushed after Iftar time to join the 2nd Amman Twestival on the evening of 13th of September and at the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship. The event was co-organized by Malik Shishtawi and sponsored by Aramex.

A Twestival or Twitter-Festival is a global series of events organized by volunteers around the world under short timescales, which bring people offline for a great cause. Twestival is run 100% by volunteers and independently from any not-for-profit; although the organizing teams do work closely to outline an achievable and measurable fundraising target. Twestival also sets out to identify key skills of volunteers and match these with the needs of the cause; particularly communications strategy, tech integration and social media training.

Twestival this year took place in over 140 cities around the world, Amman was not just another hosting city, but the capital that produces the most prominent Arab entrepreneurs in the domain of social media.

The discussion about social media was very interesting. I started by introducing the panelists: Razan Khatib, Zeid Nasser, Laith Qasem and Laith Zraikat. after that we went into and open discussion about the current situation and the future of social media in Jordan & the Arab world.

Lina Shehadeh -CMO of Aramex- talked about the value of twitter for a big corporate like Aramex and how is it utilized by the customer service department when it comes to B2C services aiming to resolve any raising issue with customers in effective manner in order to vent frustration quickly.

Hana Ramli was there as well. Her story was about how social media (facebook) helped her to recruit over 3000 volunteers in her impressive initiative "Ketabak Ketabi" and it is now becoming a regional initiative for Palestinians in refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Co-founder of Nakhweh, Kamel Al Asmar, talked about how Nakhweh is utilizing social media in promoting volunteering opportunities announced at Nakhweh.com and how people trust social media leads over other means of marketing.

The active blogger Osama Romoh described his fan page on facebook as primary source of traffic to his blog. He also believes that twitter functionality is embedded in Facebook feed, and that makes him more excited to use facebook over twitter.

Sabri Hakim -the co-founder of Talasim- shared his story during Amman bombs and how his photo was featured on CNN. According to Sabri, Talasim is now utilizing twitter as an alert/reminder for latest updates on their portal and this creates more traffic & interactivity.

Mohammed Alzubi - the managing partner at Arab Seed Ventures, a venture capital fund focusing on seed stage investments in the Arab region & Silicon Valley - elaborated on what attracts Angel investors to invest in the business of social media in the Arab world and how web startups are becoming a sizzling opportunity for VCs and Angels specially after the Maktoob-Yahoo deal.

Majd Shwikeh -CEO of Orange- talked about her personal experience with twitter and how she became addicted to it! :). Generously, Majd promised to send a special iPhone offer to all participants of Amman Twestival. The offer is available here.

I was so glad to see the audience interacting by talks and tweets, which were displayed live on the big screen behind the panelists (check #AmmanTwestival). I think that setup kept everyone active until the last moment and even after that during the "Qatayef" (Ramadani Sweets) reception! :)

The last and most important portion of event was announcing the donation from Aramex to Al Aman Fund. The donation was followed by a mini-speech through which Maha Saqqa -Director of the Fund- invited attendees to volunteer their time to support & empower orphans in Jordan.


Enjoy this short video about the best tweets during the event.



I also recommend visiting the following interesting blog posts about the event:

• iReport : Twestival in Amman,
• Ali Dahmash's blog,
• And Then There Was a Tweep,
• Top 10 Quotes at Amman Twestival

posted by Mohd Khawaja in amman, business, donation, Entrepreneurs, innovation, Jordan, Love and Passion, media, Photos, qot, Royal Jordanian, startups, success, technology, twestival, twitter, Voluntary Work @ 12:03 AM

posted by Mohd Khawaja in amman, business, donation, Entrepreneurs, innovation, Jordan, media, passion, queen rania, startu, startups, success, technology, twestival, twitter, Voluntary Work, Work @ 9:19 PM

During the last 2 weeks since the beginning of the strike on Gaza. We've all seen millions of angry people across the world holding banners condemning the 'genocide' in Gaza and chanting anti-Israeli slogans on several TV channels and other media channels as well.

I'm sure that protesting is really a supportive action, in addition to in-kind and financial donations and other common means of support. But, I'm writing now to suggest another effective powerful way to support people in Gaza morally, and make feel them how much we do sympathize with them; it is basically to call them!?

Yes, you can really support people at Gaza by calling them and telling them how much we are proud of their persistence, braveness and resistance against this inhuman barbarian strike on Gaza. I've tried it and I can tell you how they would love to listen to us and find a listening ear from you as well.

To call a random number in Gaza, all you need to do is to dial:

+970828 XXXXX   (add a random number composed of 5 digits)
+970820 XXXXX
+970821 XXXXX

Example: +97082812345  

P.S. I will record one of my calls and post it her to share with you this experience. Please try it yourself, NOW!

posted by Mohd Khawaja in donation, family, gaza, Jordan, Love and Passion, passion, Politics @ 1:45 PM

posted by Mohd Khawaja in amman, donation, family, innovation, Islamic, Jokes and Fun, Jordan, Love and Passion, My daily life, passion, Photos, Voluntary Work @ 10:48 AM

My workmate Basel was there too, we went to the clinic first to make the necessary blood test. The blood test was really painful :( (but I acted as "don’t care" مش فارقة). They've cut my finger (couchhhhhh!!!!) and pulled my blood out into 3 tubes containing special chemicals that indicate blood type and concentration of hemoglobin. My blood type is "O+" and I figured out that the concentration of hemoglobin is 16.6, which is considered to be very good.. hamdullah (touch the wood) :)

I moved to the caravan … laid on a cushioned bench and extended my arm. The doctor smiled, when I told him: "I'm a soft hearted person.. I hope you would reduce the pain as much as you can!", then he placed a cannula in my vein, and asked me to keep opening and closing my hand to help speed the blood withdrawal process… I felt the flux of blood :( for the first time!

Right after I've finished, I have been kindly asked to set down for a while drinking sweet juice… to recover back some of my energy…

posted by Mohd Khawaja in blood, doctor, donation, Love and Passion, My daily life, Voluntary Work @ 8:03 PM

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