DUBAI: Twitter held a #StartWithThem event in Dubai on Tuesday, bringing people together to discuss how the platform could be used to inspire others and create change. It featured interactive exhibits such as a sliding puzzle and 3D image viewers containing pictures of tweets, offering statistics about users in the region and interesting facts about the platform. Benjamin Ampen, of Twitter MENA, opened the event with a presentation of highlights and showing Twitter’s current reach. The Middle East is one of Twitter’s biggest markets and Saudi Arabia has the highest percentage of internet users who are active on there in the world. Ampen spoke about how Twitter could be used to enact change, citing the coming month of Ramadan as an example. The event also featured three female speakers who shared their Twitter experiences and how they used the platform to create positive change. Zeina Yazigi talked about how her donation challenge to three celebrities went viral, after she asked them to give money to Syrian refugees. The tweet had a link to UNHCR Arabia and, within a few days, the UN body had collected more than $100,000. Hatoon Kadi, a Saudi comedian, said Twitter had helped her to “emerge from her cocoon” and learn to interact with people in a positive way. She encouraged the audience to break out of their shells and learn something new. Farah Al-Ibrahim, head of social media at Al-Arabiya and Al-Hadath, recounted her experiences of using Twitter to go from a virtual unknown with no marketing experience to working with some of the biggest media brands in the region, simply by being active and utilizing her skills to make a name for herself. Future #StartWithThem events are also scheduled for other countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia.