Scenes from “HoHoTO”

Never let it be said that Accordion City’s nerd, media and PR community can’t throw a good party and raise a lot of money for a good cause! Last night, the HoHoTO party (T.O. is local shorthand for “Toronto, Ontario”) took place at the Mod Club in Accordion City’s funky College West neighbourhood. Although the party was put together in a matter of days and relied largely on Twitter for promotion, the event was run as if it had been planned months in advance, sold out in a week (over 600 tickets!) and raised over CAD$20,000 for the Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank.

Here’s what the dance floor looked like when the event was at its peak. Not bad for a Monday night during the Christmas season:

 

Being nerds, they couldn’t resist setting up a program that displayed Twitter messages about the event on the club’s giant screens. A good number of people used their mobile phones to post to Twitter, and we also got a number of greetings from people who couldn’t make it but wanted to send us their best:

The organizers even managed to get some custom-made vinyl tops for all the club’s tables that showed the HoHoTO logo and the names of all the sponsors:

Everybody dressed up for the event, but Pete Forde gets bonus points for breaking out the white suit, sassy T-shirt and old-school Polaroid camera:

We got a special video greeting from Mayor David Miller, who thanked the organizers for their efforts and their ability to get the whole thing together so quickly, and the rest of us for raising so much money that the event was one of the food bank’s most successful fundraisers this year.

 

The music was excellent, and we have DJs Duarte Da Silva and Ryan Taylor to thank. They took requests the old-fashioned way, but they were also monitoring Twitter for requests – you could send them a request by posting a message tagged #hohotodj. You’ve got to love the 21st century!

 

In addition to the attendees who were generous not only with their admission money but also their raffle ticket purchases, credit has to go to the sponsors and for their generous (and swift!) support:

• White Label Sponsors:
  • Agoracom
  • Fused Network
  • Grupo Unaio na Capoeira
  • MaRS
  • Microsoft
  • teehan+lax
  • up time software
  • RedFlagDeals
  • The Death of Alice Blue
• Red Label Sponsors
  • Hyndman Law
  • idee Inc.
  • MCC Planners Inc.
  • mesh Conference
  • Molson
  • Sequentia Environics
  • viigo
• Green Label Sponsors
  • apolitic
  • Bar Skins
  • brainpark
  • Cello Products Inc.
  • CommandN
  • CommunityLend
  • echo communications
  • echo consultants
  • EmbarkOnIt
  • eventbrite
  • Facebook Cookbook
  • Freshbooks
  • Fair Trade Jewellery Co.
  • Microsoft Advertising
  • Mindjet
  • Mischief Media
  • nexj media
  • Rypple
  • StartupNorth
  • Say Yeah!
  • The Blog Studio
  • Unspace
  • Varicent
  • VizThink

  

The event wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the volunteer squad, who counted my wife, The Ginger Ninja, among their number. Thanks for your time and effort!

I had a blast, and I suspect that most of the crowd did as well. My thanks to everyone who took part in HoHoTO, from the organizers to the attendees, for a job well done, a party well thrown and all the funds raised for those less fortunate than us.

Shall we do this again next year? I certainly hope so.

Links

• The HoHoTO official site
• News Release: GTA Geeks Gather to Give Generously
• The Globe and Mail: Twitter and “Flash Crowds” For Good
• Masthead Online: The Power of Twitter in Toronto
• Twitter posts tagged “HoHoTO”
• The HoHoTO Flickr photo pool
• Flickr photos tagged “HoHoTO”