The largest forum for Twitter users in Saudi Arabia, #مغردون

Thursday, 28 April 2016

On April 18th, 2016, the fourth annual Twitter user forum (#مغردون), organized by MISK Foundation (@miskKSA) took place in Saudi Arabia in the city of Riyadh. The interactive forums offers a platform for key speakers to discuss how Twitter is integrated into Saudi life and shares Twitter best practices.

We were excited to join this year’s event through a speaking engagement, sharing information about products and event hashtags.

The event had around 4,000 attendees and kicked off with the presenters encouraging the audience to take a minute to Tweet.

The first debate had five regional ministers of foreign affairs from the Gulf states including:

  • His Excellency Mr. Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister (@AdelAljubeir)
  • His Excellency Dr. Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah, the Minister of state for defense in Qatar (@kbmalattiya)
  • H.E Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s Minister of state for cabinet affairs (@wwmo210).
  • H.E Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs (@khalidalkhalifa).
  • H.E Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates Minister of foreign affairs (@ABZayed)

The panelists explained how they personally use Twitter and their perspectives on how social media and Twitter should be used. In addition, they Tweeted about their participation in the event.



The event also had a big surprise guest: His royal highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, the deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia, second deputy prime minister and minister of defense. His Royal Highness made an appearance as a testimonial to the importance of this event, of Twitter in the region, and specifically in Saudi Arabia.

The following panels included experts in their fields discussing Twitter’s impact in culture, education, media, religion, and a case study by the ministry of commerce and industry.

Twitter was first and center at the venue, with hashtags across walls and screens. Top Saudi influentials at the event used a Twitter Mirror and the Twitter Challenger app to capture pictures, GIFs, and Twitter video.

In total, there were more than 190K mentions on Twitter about the event, along with massive local and regional media coverage, making it by far the most talked about social media event in Saudi Arabia.