BeachMeet – The day twitter became mainstream in Australia
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 Category: General News, Innovation, Software, Start Ups 3 Comments 
Today I attended BeachMeet at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney. Don’t let the name throw you, it was initially scheduled to occur on Bondi Beach but relocated due to weather. I must say, I didn’t mind the fact that I didn’t get sand in my shoes, and I am sure all the Suits there today agreed!
This was rather an interesting event, it seemed to be focussed on teh Twiter newbies, since most of the people there today had been members for less than 3 months (actually prompted me to check how long I have been a twitterer – 2 years baby!). Discussion was interesting and some really interesting views by audience and panalysts which all had varying degrees of experience.
For me the thing that was by far the most interesting aspect was the media coverage! There were news crews frmo all the major TV stations as well as some radio. For a Twitter event!!! Obviously Mark Comms did a great PR job on this one 
On this news event – you can see the back of my head (black T-Shirt guy in the first cut to crowd), then me on the iPhone and my profile on screen. So, my back got its 15 minutes of fame…
But it did feel that with the twitter events over the last week, being Oprah’s “First” Tweet and Ashton Kutcher’s 1,000,000th follower, the BeachMeet event meant that Twittering has now hit mainstream in Australia. Good going down unda!!!
Some noteable highlights for me was that I briefly caught up with the guys from the longly anticipated Punch @congo & @penbo. Hope to catch up with these guys in the future, feel I might be able to add some value/ contribute to their project. Also met Travis Kalanik or better known as @konatbone. Little did many realise who Travis is, he’s probably the most successful Web 2.0 Entrepreneur in the room today. He’s the guy behind Scour and he recently sold Red Swoosh to Akamai for reportedly USD$19M. Cool guy, hope to catch up with hi for a beer while he is here before heading back to SF.
Check out more about the event here and the stream here.
UPDATE: Here is Channel 7′s report. Although the link is hopeless (thanks Yahoo!), go here and click the “Twitter comming to your Office” thumbnail! Again, my back played a staring role
UPDATE 2: My back made another appearance as did those ‘quick typin fingers’ on SBS’s news report.
UPDATE 3: So there seems to be some contreversy about the PR on the evenet, and a conversation between myself (@snaglepus) and @silkcharm has been quoted in the story. There is a video as well.
It’s time to revisit our Australian version of Twitter – TRIBES
Today is a big day for Twitter.com with mainstream Australian media covering a PR event on Twitter.
So is this the time to revisit the local version of Twitter that we built two years ago and put in the “great idea but no business case” basket.
Australian Twitter – “Tribes”
So what did we build? ( And why did we shelve it? )
We built a local version of Twitter with all their features so it would work in Australia. (Currently twitter.com doesn’t deliver SMS updates to Australia – it used to… ) People register, choose a user name, search for their friends or people they want to connect with, and start to post their messages and follow their chosen “tweets” as Twitter calls them.
We added some features – People could submit their posts online, via email, or via SMS. People could follow people online, by receiving SMS or emails. All great features but we thought that it needed more so we used our technology to extend the messages from 140 characters to full content Picture Messages.
Try texting f480 to O41O 125 125 to experience an XY Picture Message.
Why did we shelve it?
Well the service is great but the business case is harsh. If people select the update via SMS option (and that was the power of the original service – and why it was limited to 140 characters) then the economic kicks in. Image you have 100,000 users and they all follow 1 person. If someone updates their message then this generates 100,000 SMS messages. If I use 20c as the cost then this is A$20,000. You then compound this with more uses and more messages and the costs make you go hmmmmm.
So not to be discouraged we built a “user pays” service. People could buy credits and have the service delivered – Or the messages could be branded & paid for by a sponsor. Then we thought lets built a broadcast model where people could update their information and the service would update their “chosen” friends. All great stuff but a little hard to promote because people are used to FREE on other social services.
And then there was the cost of making the service known to people. Another major investment for a service that has no revenue stream or very limited. So this sounds like a field of dreams build and we had to look at other services to pay for 12 months of toil.
Should we relook at it?
Sitting on our servers is a generic service that could be rolled out in days and be whatever a brand wants it to be.
Is it a brands dream to be able to have a one to one relationship with their target markets? Is it a media company’s dream tool to bridge the gap between their static media and online? Is it a researchers dream to have a tool that tells them what the pulse of Australia is “in real time”. Is it a simple tool for the average Australian to keep in touch with their “tribe” or “things they are interested in?
Or is a dream that will sit on our servers and eventually be deleted?
Now is the time to talk to your friends or people that you think might be interested in bringing this concept to life. IS IT TWITTER LOCAL FOR SALE or a tool that should be nurtured for the good of Australian?
Talk to me – Paul Hughes at paul@xyinteract.com.au for more information