Have you met the Geeks?

 Fatima Farhat (@DohaFarhat)

It was fantastic to see how large a number of people attended the #geekfestbeirut (Geek Festival in Beirut). Please note the hash tag; it is there because Twitter was used to promote the event.

This event was (un)organized by the #maniachi, a group that gathers together techies, web developers, photographers, bankers and a dentist. Saying that, anyone interested in social media can join the group.

The event revolved mainly around raising funds for #aheartforPhilippe (sadly, at the time of writing, Philippe is no longer with us). Shirts were on sale, and Fadi Nammour (@footnem) was capturing the good moments on film as a souvenir of the evening.

Chadi Abou Nohra (@cabn), a banker and a #maniachi member, took a moment to explain to the audience how they made sure to use the term ‘(un)organized’ because there wasn't a specific plan that they were following; the whole process was spontaneous and, as described on the website geekfestbeirut.com: “There are no officials, gatekeepers or people telling attendees what to do. There are no rules beyond the ‘no corporate behavior, selling and stuff’ one.”

Abou Nohra also explained how the #maniachi group was created. According to him, it started as a joke, and, bit by bit, more and more people joined. Today, the group also has a website, www.maniachi.com, where they upload all recent events and news from the tech world.

I never thought I would attend such an event. I was there with friends from the #lausocial class, a new media class taught by Ayman Itani (@aymanitani) at the Lebanese American University (LAU), which a friend of mine is taking and which she always says is so cool.

This class is having a lot of success. Most of the "tweeps" (the term used to describe people using Twitter) at the event were keen to know more about the class. To satisfy their curiosity, two students from the class, Karim Bekdache (@karimbekdache) and Eleena Korban (@EleenaKorban) gave a small presentation to the audience about what really happens in class.

It was nice to finally meet people who I have talked to on Twitter. I gained a lot of varied information, face to face, and “offline”. Being there I discovered a different world, one that I wasn't aware of; a world that I would like to discover more about.

This is the second Geekfest in Beirut (Geek Festival Beirut 2.0) and I believe we are all looking forward to Geekfest 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, etc...

Even though it was a light, fun event, technology also had its place, The Nokia people were there, including Antoine Naaman (@_Ant1_), who works at Nokia and is also a #maniachi member. Thanks to them, all Nokia phone owners got to install the OVI navigation maps GPS, for free. Well, it is a Geekfest after all!

All the people mentioned in this article can be followed on Twitter using their Twitter names (@...).As they say in the Twitter world, they are #mustfollow!!

Picture by Fady Nammour.