It’s been a few months since the last Twespians event, and Laura and I have been busy planning what’s coming next for Twespians in 2012. We’re extremely pleased to announce that over the next few months you’ll see a number of Twespians events, aimed at different walks of Twespians life. However, before we get into the events, we thought we’d share the results of the Twespians survey that we conducted in February…

The Infographic

Click for the full infographic

Over the past two years, we’ve seen Twespians grow from a relatively small community to a large, buzzing, interconnected group of arts professionals and lovers alike. We started with a small aim… to bring people together in a pub. However, we were beginning to feel that we could provide a little more. Last year we started with Twespians Fringe sessions, hoping to provide a regular forum for people to learn, discuss, and debate around various areas. This year, we thought we’d take the Twespians pulse to make sure we were doing all we can to make Twespians awesome.

Thank you to the 80 odd Twespians who responded to the survey. We’ve taken all the results on board, and will hopefully deliver on what you’ve asked for over the next 7-8 months for 2012.

Instead of boring you stupid with endless stats and figures, we thought we’d throw them together into our own Twespians infographic. We think it gives a nice snapshot of the Twespians crowd, and will hopefully help us show other people the value of the Twespians group!

The Events

While the infographic and survey results are all well and good, we know you guys are hungering for some more Twespians events! Well, we’re very pleased to announce a number of great events coming up over the next few months.

It all kicks off with the ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ Twespians social, at London’s Drink, Shop and Dance in London on May 22nd. With The Great Gatsby being performed by every troupe possible, Noel Coward back in the West End, and the King’s Speech sadly shutting it’s doors in May, we thought we’d bring a touch of the 20s to Twespians. We invite Twespians to come down (fancy dress or no) and mingle with fellow Twespians, have a sing-a-long at the piano or pull out your Charlston later in the night to some electro swing classics. We’ll provide the venue, the looping silent films and Noel Coward, you bring the Twespians spirit to some Spring shenanigans! You can register for for the event now at the Meetup group.

The following week, Soho Theatre are offering 20 places for a Twespians Outing to see Ella Hickson’s new play Boys, as part of their Headlong Season. The show looks fantastic, so snap up your places when they go live this week! Remember, if you don’t turn up on the night and haven’t given us more than 24 hours notice, you won’t get to come to another Twespians Outing in the future.

On the 5 June, we’ll be hosting one of the ever popular TwespiansPR Fringe events, where three leaders in digital marketing and PR will present to the crowd, followed by a panel style Q&A session and drinks. In the line-up so far we have Laughing Buddha director Richard Le Cocq and PR-blogger, social media star and current foursquare mayor of Exmouth Market Stephen Davies. Again, spaces will be released within the next week!

A few weeks later, Twespians will play host to the first Ignite the Arts London, where a selection of Twespians will take the stage to talk about something they’re passionate about in quick-fire 5 minute presentations. We’re also extremely delighted to announce that we’ll have special guest Peter Gregson, who’ll be fresh from his appearances at Hay Festival and with the ENO, to open proceedings with us on June 21st. Want to find out more about Ignite? Interested in speaking? You might want to read the section below…

Finally, we’ll be wrapping up June with a good, old-fashioned Twespians Pub Quiz on the 27th of June, where Twespians teams will battle it out to become the Grand Master Winners of Awesome (that is the official title). Expect theatre geekery, some non-theatre geekery, many a beverage and lots of fun.

A Call For Speakers

Going back a few paragraphs, we’re on the hunt for speakers for Ignite the Arts London. For those who don’t know what an Ignite event is, it’s a series of 5 minute presentations, all centred around something you like talking about. Each speaker has a microphone and a slide deck. Their slide deck has 20 slides, with each auto-advancing every 15 seconds, whether they’re ready or not. The only promise is that Ignite events are never boring. We’re looking for a selection of Twespians to get up on stage and wax lyrical for 5 minutes on any topic they wish! All you need to do is email ignite@twespians.co.uk with your name, your talk title, and a short synopsis of what you want to talk about.

If you want to find out a bit more about Ignite, then see some in action on the official Ignite YouTube channel.

So, that’s what we’ve had hiding up our sleeves for the last little while. We hope to see you down at some (or maybe all) of the events over the next two months!

Just over a week ago saw the first Twespians event of 2012, with Sven Ruggenberg presenting his findings from a 6 month study of social media and london theatre (his full report is here). We hosted the event in partnership with Society of London Theatre, and had about 70 people come down to hear Sven’s findings. From the sound of Twitter and the general murmurings from the room, there were people who agreed and disagreed with Sven’s findings (he did promise that he would split the room), with the after-talk discussion getting quite interesting as a result.

There have been a few writeups from the event including:

• Chris Unitt’s wrapup of the event, with a bit of commentary on the side, as well as his follow up post on the Les Mis video, measurement and marketing.
• The Dog What Blogs mentioned us in his post. Funnily I didn’t see any Staffys in the room!
• Twespians co-founder Laura pulled together the best of the Twitters in her Storify of the event.
• And finally, Sven posted his Prezi presentation from the day, complete with videos, links and cats.

Next month sees a few outings, with Soho Theatre and Richmond Theatre offering Twespians tickets to What I Heard About the World and The King’s Speech. As I’m writing this there’s still 1 ticket left for Soho’s What I Heard about the World, but the waiting list for The King’s Speech is growing day by day. Jump on to Meetup to put your name down for either quickly! A big thank you to both Amy from Soho and Michaela from Richmond for sorting those out for us.

Keep an eye on the site for the results of the Twespians Survey, the next big Twespians event and some exciting fringe collaborations happening throughout the next few months. If you haven’t registered on Meetup, then make sure you do to snap up your place as soon as events are announced.

- Luke

We’ve been a little quite since the Twespians Christmas party in December of last year. Well, that’s because we’ve been busily working on making Twespians in 2012 a bigger, better and overall awesome-er affair. We’ve got some exciting things in the works, including a last minute fringe event happening in the next few weeks that we’ll be announcing over the coming days…

However, before we kick off properly, we wanted to get a feel for how you guys think Twespians is going… We’ve put together a fairly short questionnaire that will hopefully give us some clue as to what we can do to make Twespians better, as well as providing us with some valuable information when we’re talking to potential sponsors (to make Twespians another level of awesome).

Without further ado, fill in the questionnaire here… Remember, all answers are anonymous and confidential!

Last night saw the first Twespians event of 2011, returning to the Theodore Bullfrog for Social Media Week London. After 5 events in 2010, up to 60 people packed into the venue with a great mixture of new and old faces. Many drinks were had, many people introduced and hopefully some great things will come out of it.

Excitingly, this means that we are finally able to announce our plans for 2011! In 2011 we’re taking Twespians up a notch after the success of last year and making Twespians a regular fixture in the calendar. This means that from march, we will be holding a Twespians every third Tuesday of every second month at the lovely Old Red Cow near Barbican Station (our second home, really).

In addition, we are launching a Side track to Twespians called Twespians Fringe. What the Fringe offers is smaller, more specific events to help you become better arts and social media practitioners. We will also be using the Fringe to launch regionally, with the first regional Twespians happening in 2011. The first of these Fringe events will be a blogger session, with a handful of great speakers presenting some helpful tips and inspiration for anyone who is or thinking about blogging, and will be happening on Monday 21st February. Tickets will be released tomorrow.

So, to recap here are the announced dates for 2011:

Feb 21 – Fringe blogger session (tickets released 8 Feb)

Mar 15 – Twespians (tickets released 1 Mar)
May 17 – Twespians
Jul 19 – Twespians
Sep 20 – Twespians
Nov 15 – Twespians

Thanks and see you all soon!

Luke and Laura