Get ready for Twestival 2010! It’s another global Twestival, and we have some exciting things planned for Nashville’s event. Mark your calendars for March 25! More info will be coming soon.

Twestival Nashville is rapidly approaching, and we’re excited to announce some of our raffle prize sponsors for the event tomorrow! We have some high dollar prizes lined up, so remember, the more ducks you adopt, the more entries to the raffle you get!

+ Fruition Salon: Gift bag including a $50 hair cut gift certificate and $150 in Shu Uemura hair products. Follow them on Twitter @FruitionSalon!

+ Hutton Hotel: 2 night weekend stay in a King suite, includes champagne, strawberries, breakfast for 2 each morning, and candlelight turndown. Follow them on Twitter @HuttonHotel!

+ Loews Vanderbilt: Heartstrings Package includes 1 night accommodations for 2, complimentary valet parking, a bottle of sparkling wine, chocolate covered strawberries, breakfast for two via Room Service or restaurant ($40 credit) and extended 2pm checkout. Follow them on Twitter @LoewsVanderbilt!

+ Radisson Nashville (Airport): 1 night stay with free transportation and admission to The Big Bang, front row seating for 2, $25 gift certificate toward food at The Big Bang, and complimentary breakfast in bed the next morning. Follow them on Twitter @RadissonNashvil!

+ Stoney River: $50 gift certificate

+ Hyatt Place: Gift certificate for 2 nights stay

Many thanks to all of our raffle sponsors! More on the way, so be sure to show up at Twestival Nashville tomorrow night, adopt some rubber ducks, and win!

What time is it? It’s Twestival time! Following a very successful worldwide Twestival in February, we’re excited to announce Nashville’s Twestival v2.0: Twestival Local! We’re going to go through this Q&A style, and if you don’t see an A for your Q, drop it in the comments and we’ll fill in the blanks. Without further ado…

Q. Huh? What is Twestival?
A. Because we’re lazy, we ganked this from the Twestival site:

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 Local takes place in cities around the world : 10-13 September 2009.

Q. Didn’t we just have a Twestival? Why are we having another one so soon?
A. Because it’s fun, it’s for a good cause, and we could all stand to get offline a little more often.

Q. Who/What/Where/When/Why?
A. Let’s break it down.

Q. Last time, Twestival raised money to benefit Charity:Water. Who is the beneficiary of Twestival this time around?
A. A lot of the feedback from February’s Twestival was focused on the beneficiary of the event. While Charity:Water is a worthy organization, we were sort of bummed that we couldn’t partner with one of the not-for-profit organizations in our own community. Enter Twestival Local, designed to give people like us exactly what we asked for. Each city holding a Twestival this September will choose a local beneficiary, and partner with them to meet a specific goal, of both short term and long term nature.

Q. No, really. Who is the beneficiary of Nashville’s Twestival, and how were they chosen?
A. And we thought you wouldn’t notice… We’re excited to announce that we will be partnering with The Boys & Girls Club of Middle Tennessee and the Great Nashville Duck Race this year! This year marks the second annual Great Nashville Duck Race put on by the Boys & Girls Club, and we chose them as the beneficiary for several reasons.

1. They have an existing event. Rather than go plowing ahead with our own ideas (brilliant though they may be), we wanted to support an organization that is already in the community making things happen.
2. Double whammy! When you adopt a rubber duck in the Great Nashville Duck Race, not only will you get a raffle ticket for some great prizes at Twestival Nashville, but you’ll be entered to win some even greater prizes at the actual Duck Race on September 19. We’re talking ten thousand buckaroos, folks.
3. Rubber ducks. Thousands of rubber ducks in the Cumberland River. Need we say more?
4. If we adopt 500 ducks, the Boys & Girls Club of Middle Tennessee will be able to provide 100 kids in our community with club memberships. 100 kids! Help us meet this goal.

Q. AWESOME! How can I help?
A. We’d love to have you as a volunteer at Twestival Nashville. Grab this form, fill it out and hit submit. We’ll be in touch.

Q. How do I buy my tickets?
A. “Tickets” are a loose word this time around. Adopt a rubber duck for $5 (or two… or six), show up, and we’ll let you in. For each duck you adopt, you will receive one raffle ticket. Adopt ten ducks, get ten raffle tickets. We’d say this would make your chances of snagging a door prize or two pretty good. We will also have duck adoption papers available at the door, and will accept cash, check and credit card. If you hate rubber ducks and good causes, we’ll still welcome you with open arms, but you won’t get a raffle ticket.

TO ADOPT ONLINE:

• Visit the Great Nashville Duck Race website.
• DON’T click on the giant link that says “CLICK HERE TO ADOPT A DUCK,” no matter how tempting it may look.
• Instead, click on “Get Involved,” the last link in the navigation bar at the top of the page. Or click here.
• Fill out the info. Click the little link that says “Register.”
• Find a spot that says “Join The Fun,” expand the menu, and select “Join a team.”
• Select “Independent” as your option, then select “Twestival Nashville” as your team. Hit “Join.”
• Log out. Just do it.
• NOW you can click that giant link that says “CLICK HERE TO ADOPT A DUCK.” Go ahead, it’s okay!
• From there, you should be able to figure it out. Select Twestival Nashville as your team name, select your name from the drop down menu, and adopt some ducks!

Q. Why was that so complicated?
A. We don’t really know. Again, you can adopt the ducks at the door by cash, check or credit, but we’d love to have you adopt ahead of time to make the process at the door easier.

Q. What sort of awesome things can I win with my raffle ticket?
A. Who knows? We don’t! At least, we don’t know yet. We’ll know by September 10. But last time, attendees won all sorts of gift certificates, Preds tickets, iPhone accessories, t-shirts and gift baskets.

Q. Where can I find ongoing updates, press materials, badges and buttons to put on my site, and all things Twestival Nashville?
A. Glad you asked! You can find all of these things and more right here in the sidebar. Also, follow @twestivalnash on Twitter to stay in the loop!

After a successful Twestival in February, we’re excited to announce that Nashville will be hosting a Twestival Local event on September 10. This time, we’re reaching out to a partner with a local nonprofit as the beneficiary of our fundraising. We have some ideas in mind, and are pleased to be heading back to the Big Bang Dueling Piano Bar for this event. Mark your calendars, and stay tuned for more details coming first thing next week!

If you’re interested in volunteering or would like to sign on as a sponsor, please fill out this VOLUNTEER form. Thanks!

We’re sure that you know the drill by now. Twestival is tonight from 5-8pm, and we’re tying up our last minute loose ends right now. Raffle prizes are still coming in - We picked up two $10 gift certificates from Edgehill Studios Cafe this morning!

Tickets will be available at the door (cash or card), or you can still purchase online.

Come on out, and bring a friend!

Follow @twestivalnash on Twitter, and throughout the evening you can tweet in the @twestivalnash feed by simply sending a direct message to @twestivalnash.  See you there.

One of our volunteers was awesome enough to have this video made about Twestival Nashville. It’s short & sweet, but it gets the point across! Check it out!

Bloggers around town have been showing Twestival Nashville some looooooovin’ this week. Check out these blog posts by some of the best and the brightest (not that we’re biased)!

Dave Delaney (@davedelaney)

Nashville Geeks (@nashvillegeeks)

The Fun Times Guide (@jsdavis82)

Another Red Day (@orphansailor)

Life Without Pants (@mattcheuvront)

Nashville Cream (@nashvillescene)

Geoff Smith (@geoffsmith)

Danbcotton (@dbcotton)

Nashville Is Talking (@nitweet)

Shop Ghia (@shopghia)

Joy Argow (@aussiejoy)

McClarnon Photography (@chadmcclarnon)

Dr. Sybril Bennett (@drsyb)

We’re also featured on the events page of Lightning 100 (@lightning100)!

If you’ve blogged about Twestival, let us know and we’ll toss up a link to your post. Thanks everyone for spreading the word!

Did you know….

• In sub-Saharan Africa, women spend 15-17 hrs/week collecting water.
• Each American uses enough water to fill 1600 glasses a day.
• Around 2.6 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation globally.
• Nearly 14,980 gallons of water per household in the U.S. leak down the drain and are never used.
• 50% of all schools in the world don’t have freshwater or adequate sanitation.
• U.S. water consumption can reach 100 gallons per person, 8 times that of an Indian household.
• It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of coffee.
• The amount of water used by a sprinkler in an hour is equal to the water needs of a family of four.
• Diarrhea is the second largest cause of child mortality.
• A five minute shower uses 10-25 gallons of water.
• On average, women in Africa and Asia walk 3.7 miles a day to collect water.
• America uses 408 billion gallons of water a day.
• A child dies every 15 seconds of a waterborne disease.
• 80% or all sickness in the developing world is due to water-related disease.
• 98% of water-related deaths occur in the developing world.

Hey everyone! We’ve sold over 50 tickets to the event with lots more expected at the door. Buy your ticket in advance if you can, please.

New sponsors and raffle donors have been popping out of the woodwork this week! And we’ve got some big ones to announce. We’ll be giving away…

+ $400 worth of sweet prizes from Griffin Technology

+ $1,000 worth of services from Sitening

+ A big bag o’ goodies from Earth Hour Nashville, including 4 Predators tickets

+ $500 toward Nashville’s city goal from Emma Email Marketing

+ Goodies from East Nashville’s smoothie shop Fresh Blends

+ Three 1-year subscriptions & merch packs from American Songwriter Magazine

+ $20 gift certificates from World Cup Of Tea

And even more in the works. So basically, goodies for everyone!

Hey everyone! We have some great raffle prizes being donated by local Nashville businesses. Of course, we can never give away too much stuff, so if you know of anyone who would be willing to donate a raffle prize, leave us a comment or email us at info@twestivalnashville.com. 

Don’t forget to buy your tickets in advance to help us know what number to prepare for. 

Thanks to our donors so far! 

CREMA

Ugly Mugs

CoolPeopleCare

Ghia

studionashvegas

Plus, freebies for everyone from TuneInMusicCity, CineGeek.com and more to be announced!