Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate 10 years of Local Guides - from the #LG10ScavengerHunt to the Community Spotlights and Connect Live, it’s been awesome to see all the ways this community came together to explore, share and celebrate.
And we’ll be doing more of that in 2026! To make sure you’re eligible to receive invitations for events and experiences near you, please double check your email preferences and location associated with your Local Guides account. You must be opted-in to receive Rewards emails and your city should be updated to reflect where you spend the majority of your time.
We’ll be hosting ConnectLIVE in new cities and beta testing a new event type in even more places. We’ll share more details in early 2026.
Who is eligible to attend a Local Guides event?
Events are for leading members of the Local Guides community who regularly share helpful, relevant, and accurate information on Maps.
What can I do to increase my chances of being invited to an event?
While there is no one thing you can do to guarantee an invitation to ConnectLIVE or other Local Guides events, here are some things that we do look for:
Consistently share high quality information on Maps
This year has been amazing, @Kristen_NYC. Thanks to the Googlers for all of the fun and new ways for us to interact with Connect, the Maps, and each other. I’m super excited to see what y’all have planned for next year!!
Thank you @Kristen_NYC for such great updates.
I hope the coming year will bring happiness for all of us, and I strongly believe that many people will meet fellow Local Guides for the first time and will participate in official Google events, including me.
Your efforts throughout 2025 were valuable, and I want to thank the entire Local Guides team for that. I also want to congratulate you for the great work you did for the Local Guides community this year.
Thank you.
Many thanks to the local guide team for the overall organization of this year’s Special Program Connect Live’25, and I hope that next year they will organize more beautiful events and that qualified local guides will have the opportunity to participate.
This is inspiring news, @Kristen_NYC! Thank you for the announcement about the 2026 events!
I’ve been actively contributing to Local Guides for about 6 months now - organising meetups here in Cambodia, creating content on Connect, working on Street View projects, and building our local community. Seeing this great news about additional events and opportunities in 2026 is well-timed and highly motivating!
It’s wonderful to know that the program is expanding with ConnectLIVE in new cities and testing new event types. As someone relatively new but deeply committed to growing the Local Guides community in Southeast Asia, I’m thrilled about what’s ahead.
I’ve already double-checked my email preferences and location settings. Really hoping we can bring some of these experiences to our region!
Looking forward to an amazing 2026 and continuing to contribute!
That’s wonderful to hear from you, @Kristen_NYC. The year 2025 has truly been an exceptional one for Local Guides in every sense. We have thoroughly enjoyed each initiative, challenge, and event organized by the Local Guides Team at Google, and we are genuinely grateful for such a remarkable and memorable year.
Your effort in highlighting the broader and high-level engagement criteria for potential invitations to Google-hosted events is also greatly appreciated. It’s an encouraging step that brings even more clarity and motivation to the community.
I am truly excited to discover what’s in store for 2026! I am confident that the coming year will be even bigger, bolder, and filled with inspiring opportunities for all of us.
This year has been amazing @Kristen_NYC thank you for the opportunity and initiative and challenges they were fun and informative and help me grow a lot I met so many amazing local guides which I never thought that I will meet so looking forward to more such opportunities and to explore more here on community
2025 has been a fabulous year for many of us. Thank you for sharing this exciting news @Kristen_NYC Offline events and online events have been very inspiring and engaging to many of us. Thank you for highlighting this and we look forward to 2026 with more motivation. One good thing about 2025 is that I see the unity among the small local guide community at my home country, the Cambodian local guides. We are expanding n ow. There are many who contributed to Google Maps and now known about Connect.
“Thank you for the update @Kristen_NYC. I’ve recently become active again on Local Guides after almost three years, and it’s amazing to see how much the community has grown. The 10-year celebrations looked incredible, and I’m excited to contribute more regularly now — sharing helpful info, photos and discoveries from London and beyond. Looking forward to all the new events coming in 2026! ”
@Kristen_NYC fantastic year this has been. Look forward to seeing more such celebrations in the coming year ! It’s keeps up the energy and vibrancy ..merry Xmas and happy new year in advance!
Thank you for sharing your insights, @Kristen_NYC,
The year 2025 will be truly memorable. It’s evident that all community members and local guides actively participated in various activities throughout the year, making it a remarkable time.
I am also looking forward to 2026. I hope the new year will be filled with many activities similar to those in 2025, and that the local guides across all committees will successfully complete these endeavors through their dedication.
Best wishes to everyone! Happy guiding, and remember to stay safe.
! I hope 2026 will be an amazing year for the Local Guides community.
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