Not tweatre… Twespians

I’ve been attending tweetups for about two years now. The idea behind them is that they strengthen connections that you’ve made with the people you talk to on Twitter, as well as introducing you to more like minded people. Most of the tweetups I’ve been to have been based around social media and marketing. That is, quite often they are tweetups about Twitter and how to use it.

One thing I lamented about in Sydney was the fact that there weren’t many people on Twitter from the theatre. Theatre is about community. Twitter is about community. It makes sense, doesn’t it? However, the theatre people I talked to couldn’t really see the value in it and so they stayed away. However, when I got to London it was a different story. I suppose it comes down to the fact that while there are a decent number of theatre loving folks in Sydney, there are a whole lot more in London.

Finally my dreams of having a tweetup solely for theatre people might actually become a reality.

Twespians, the tweetup for theatre types, held it’s first event on the 2nd of February at Theodore Bullfrog in London as part of the global Social Media Week. I was never sure of how successful it would be. I was half expecting that of the 50-60 people who registered, I may only get 10 or 20 people actually turn up. In the end, we managed to get about 40, which was an amazing number.

However, the numbers meant nothing.

Who was there was *far* more important.

The thing that really struck me was the diversity of the people who attended. We had the usual tweetup fodder of journalists, bloggers and marketing/PR types, as well as a mix of actors, directors, musical directors, choreographers, producers, festival organisers, social media artists, theatre administrators and students. Also, the type of theatre was mixed as well. We had musical theatre, straight theatre, physical theatre, dance and spoken word.

To tell you the truth, I was a little surprised.

For some reason, I was expecting majority of musical theatre fans, with a few ‘proper’ theatre people thrown in for good measure (kind of like a cat/pigeons scenario). I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t, and the evening was all the better for it.

Was there value in it, though?

I see Twitter as being used in one of two ways. You have a ‘leader/follower’ arrangement, where somebody has a whole bunch of followers, but doesn’t follow back and only engages when directly engaged with. Then you have the ‘community’ or ‘network’ arrangement. Say you had a diagram of all the people you follow. Draw a line from you to them, then draw lines from them to the people they follow. What you would end up with is very distinct communities, or networks, based around similar interests. For example, mine would have a very distinct social media/marketing/PR circle, as well as a theatre circle. In addition, there’d be smaller circles about fairly specific interests, which are more niche communities.

This second way of using Twitter is where tweetups come in to the equation. What you are effectively doing is strengthen a connection that you’ve already made online, which is made easier by having a common passion. The other thing it does, is break down the barriers that would normally exist in traditional networking situations. Twitter is a level playing field. Tweetups like this don’t only bring people from different areas of the industry, but also different levels. For example, students are networking with newspaper editors and West End musicians. It’s great, and the possibilities that come out of these events are endless. Not only is it great on a personal level, as networking is a key part of succeeding in such a fickle industry, but also it builds a sense of community amongst people who have a passion for theatre.

We’re currently in the process of organising the next Twespians event in London. Follow the twitter account to be kept up to date with what’s happening.  If you have any thoughts, comments or suggestions then leave a comment.