ALL ABOUT THE TOT BONANZA
Tanzanians on Twitter Bonanza (TOT Bonanza) is a gathering and platform made with the intention of getting all Tanzanians using twitter in one place. But in reality, it is more than that, it is a moment of sharing ideas with different people since it has no limitation on who comes in and who doesn’t. TOT Bonanza is a made up of games like football and basketball but also it is made up of people filled with smiles and excitement of knowing each other beyond the tweets, replies and retweets.
For some people it is an opportunity to meet their role models and to other people it is an opportunity to see or even talk to those they admire, but to do all this you need to have “connections” as most of the attendees of the event kept joking in their tweets on the day of the bonanza.
To the entrepreneurs it is a day of meeting their customers who always support them with the likes, retweets and comments. But even more interesting it is the day for pop up shops, here these entrepreneurs bring the products of their shops with them to the bonanza and they have the chance to do the sales and mingle with their customers. To some restaurant owners it is the day for moving their grills to the bonanza grounds and supplying food to their customers.
To the novelists and booksellers, it is the day of bringing knowledge to their customers. In this year’s bonanza I had a chance of meeting Lello Mmassy and bought his book named “Mimi na Rais”. After that I had a chance of talking to the business developer of BookMart Tz and heard of the book selling business and how powerful start ups books are and why we should read them.
To the startups it is a day of telling or selling your idea to people and how you intend to use it to solve their daily problems. This year I had the chance of learning about FIX Chap, a startup that helps you to get services from the best professionals like Computer repair experts, paintings, carpentry and plumbers to come and fix the problem at your place and at your convenient time. To know more about them just visit at www.fixchap.com
To the photographers it is a day of capturing moments and sharing those moments with all the attendees of the event later in the evening. They make this day memorable to many people and that is why the chant that keeps going on is “when will the next bonanza be”. They work tirelessly and most of all they market themselves from every angle.
To the attendees it is a day of catching up, laughing together, playing games together and even drinking together. It is a day of putting aside all the differences that these individuals may have in their tweets and replies and understanding that life offers more than that. It is also a day of contributing to the needy, as in this year’s bonanza there was blood donation and a table for contributing to feed the needy.
To the organizers, it is a day of making many round within the grounds of the bonanza but also getting various comments from the attendees on how enjoyable the event is or how what should be improved on the next time ad this is because they are sure that there will be another TOT Bonanza only that it will be bigger and better. But they also deserve the credit for organizing such an event for a platform with such a diversity (Twitter) and most of all not limiting it on the basis of who may come and who may not.
I did not have the chance to talk to all the entrepreneurs in their booths or all the participants in the bonanza but I had the chance to think of the bigger picture of TOT Bonanza. It is more than a gathering and more than an event. It is a platform which shows that Tanzanian youths have much more to offer to each other. A platform for people sharing ideas and being part of the solution to the problems we face. The only thing you can now be sure of is that TOT Bonanza is more than what I have shared here with you and rest assured there will be another TOT Bonanza and you should not try to miss it.
