How the World Government Summit unfolded on Twitter

Wednesday, 24 February 2016

This year’s World Government Summit (@WorldGovSummit, #WorldGovSummit, #القمة_العالمية_للحكومات), which always hosts a global lineup of speakers, also came alive on Twitter. Twitter best practices were deployed throughout, from raising awareness for the event, to live coverage and Twitter content creation during the event, to concluding the summit with only-on-Twitter government announcements. These were world class use cases of how live and conversational communication can reach a global audience.

Some of the speakers included:

  • President Barack Obama (@POTUS) who addressed the summit through a televised speech
  • His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (@HHShkMohd), Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and ruler of Dubai
  • Jim Yong Kim (@JimKim_WBG), President of the World Bank Group
  • Prof. Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum
  • The Honorable Paul Kagame (@PaulKagame), President of Rwanda
  • Kathy Calvin (@kathy_Calvin), President and Chief Executive Officer of UN Foundation

How the World Government Summit unfolded on Twitter

Here are some of the top Tweets from the conference:



In an unprecedented only-on-Twitter moment at the Summit, @HHShkMohd announced the largest restructure of the cabinet in the history of the UAE through a series of Tweets — a testimonial to how to how Twitter can be embraced as the platform for open communication. Some of these Tweets include:



These Tweets were the source of news for traditional local and international media outlets, example here.


At the end of day three, His Highness concluded the summit through a series of Tweets announcing the details of the cabinet structure:

How the World Government Summit unfolded on Twitter

Twitter was live and at the center of the summit, with many types of integrations:

  • A large hashtag on display at the venue
  • A social wall displaying a live stream of Tweets (in addition to infographics and data visualization on how the conversation unfolded on Twitter)
  • A heat map showcasing how the #WorldGovSummit trended globally
  • An auto-responder sharing the day’s agenda of the summit when you Tweet #WGSAgenda
  • Dedicated teams on the ground live-Tweeting from different sessions
  • A custom poll was used throughout the summit, soliciting input from the global Twitter audience on a topic about which announcements were made at the end of the summit.