cr:
http://face2facetech.com/2011/05/26/twin-towers-alive-2011/
What is the best way to enjoy a concert? For me, the answer is now “as a part of the organising committee or crew!”
What Happened?
In conjunction with the Malaysian Formula1 Grand Prix in Sepang, a free public concert was organised with the purpose of promoting the city of Kuala Lumpur as a vibrant, exciting travel destination. It was held on the 8th (Friday) and 9th (Saturday) of April 2011, at the Petronas Twin Towers, in front of the entrance to the Dewan Philharmonik Petronas. The concert was sponsored by many companies and media organisations.
Who Performed?
For the first night, The Azenders, Bunkface, Yuna, The Wonder Girls and Hoobastank performed, though I must say Hoobastank stole the show, performing 17 songs. It felt like an all out Hoobastank concert instead. For the second night, Mizz Nina was joined by Colby O’ Donis, who then charmed the concert-goers with acoustic versions of some of the popular songs he wrote. Joe Flizzow performed his signature rap seasoned with the Malaysian culture, and the highlight of the night was The Al McKay Allstars with ‘The Earth, Wind and Fire Experience’. I’m sure many youths will be searching for their songs and CDs after that night. Classiest live performance ever.
How I Got In
I got to know the founder and principal trainer of Face2Face Tech – Sharifah Raudhah – back in 2006. I was quite close with that group of friends until I pursued my degree in a university in 2007. It was around 2008 when Facebook became popular in Malaysia, and we soon got connected with each other on Facebook. We caught up with each other and she found out what I have been doing – blogging, writing and stuff – so we set out on some smaller projects together.
Back in March, she told me that a huge event was about to take place and said that they might need a hand or two, so I agreed. We had a meeting with the others in the team at La Bodega in Bangsar Village, and got briefed on Twin Towers @LIVE (you don’t think there’s only 2 of us, do you?).
When & How We Started
After our briefing on 23 March, we had set up the Facebook and Twitter pages – complete with graphics – by Friday 25 March. We’ve got quite a few of our friends to help blast out the event and invite their friends to the event’s page on Facebook. We received decent feedback and response. Perhaps not many Malaysians are using Facebook as a serious tool for communication yet. On Twitter, though the number of followers were initially small, the interactions and conversations are at a more intimate level. I was more focused on Twitter due to certain ‘undisclosable limitations’.
Boom!
It was exactly 1 week after the commencement on Friday, when I went back to my hometown to have dinner with my family, when I noticed a post on a Facebook page that says “Nobody nobody but you! Can you guess who it is?”. I automatically thought about the Wonder Girls, but said to myself, “hey, is this possible? The line-up of stars aren’t that huge, and now the Wonder Girls are willing to perform?”
It was during dinner that my Sharifah called me and confirmed that they were going to break the news, that the Wonder Girls are performing. That was exactly 7.00pm. When I reached home at 7.30pm, the Twittersphere was already hyped up with the buzz. People were asking on Twitter, “I heard that the Wonder Girls are performing, is it true?”. All I needed to do was to tweet “Yes, it’s confirmed. WG are coming to perform”. In our analytics, there was a clear surge of likes on our Facebook Page and hoards of followers on Twitter. It felt almost effortless. All we need to do is to connect the dots and send updates from our side, and the people themselves will provide the latest news to each other.
Who I Met at the Concert
While the conventional paradigm of networking is to meet people physically and then keeping in touch with each other by phone or e-mail, contemporary networking goes both ways. It’s great to finally meet some of the people whom have been actively ‘talking’ to us on Twitter. Among some of them were the bloggers who received our media passes, like @AsyariAmir91, @gugubird, @malikridhwan, and @tianchad. I certainly hope to keep in touch and collaborate with them in the nearest future. The luckier team member would be Sharifah, who received a signed CD directly from Al McKay from the Earth Wind & Fire Experience. She also took a photo with Doug and Dan of Hoobastank hugging her.
She refused to make the photo public! =D
