A.B.C. in this context represents;
A- An Act of
B- Bravery and
C - Chivalry
And you may be thinking; “why do I have such a title?”
It is no longer news; at least to those who have access to the internet", that there has been a nationwide protest in Nigeria against Police brutality under a movement tagged; “#Endsars”. A simple search using this hashtag will give you the latest updates and the most recent developments.
Now, your next question, will most probably be; “So, why did you not postpone the Meetup?” The answer to this question is the A.B.C.
Good day everyone! It has been a while and I have missed chatting with everyone on here.
In the month of August, 2020; discussions about hosting a Physical meetup to map a section of my community began.
Spurred on by @Sagir and @SanyaOdare , plans kicked up.
Finally, I received a Google approval on Tuesday; the 13th of October, 2020 just 3 days shy of the D-day that The Igando Photowalk had been approved.
So, what did I do?
- Get in touch with Mr. Sanya, No. Mr. Sanya actually got in touch with me, he knew of the approval before me and he shared tips with me
- Get in touch with someone who would make “Local Guides T-shirts” for us and nose masks
- Get in touch with the Supervisor at the Meetup location
- Prepared 2 letters; One addressed to the King of Igando and the other to the Public Relations Officer of the Igando Police Station.
- Share the news on Social Media and in the Local Lagos and Nigerian groups
Since attendance was limited only to 10, it was a little bit easy.
D-DAY
ATTENDANCE
Arrival at the venue was greatly marred by the nationwide protests, 4 of the Attendees had to reverse their cars and return home, as the roads leading to the Meetup venue was completely blocked by the Protesters.
For me, it took 1 hour to arrive at the Meetup venue for a journey that should take me just a little over 25 minutes.
One of the Attendees had to reverse, return home to park his car and then charter a motorbike that would bring him to the venue.
Eventually, 5 of us met along with my Assistant and what a meeting it was!
ATTENDEES
- Mr. Sanya Odare
- Mr. Damilare
- Mr. Kehinde Olalekan
- Mr. Abel Adeleke
- Ewaade
- Taiwo
MEETUP LOCATION
We met at the Treasure Palace Hotel and Resorts, Igando.
INTRODUCTION
We introduced ourselves;
- Mr. Sanya Odare is a Software developer and digital Marketer who is a Level 10 Local Guide, that has attended every Local Guide event organized within and outside Nigeria. What motivated Mr. Sanya to be active in the Local Guides program was the presentation at the Event hosted by Google in March, 2017 at Ikoyi, Lagos. He recalled a slide where the Presenter said; “Google has mapped 90% of the whole world and only require Google Local Guides to do the remaining 10%”. He was strongly motivated by this and made up his mind that he will be one of the 10%.
- Mr. Damilare is a Software Developer who is a fresh Nigerian Graduate. He is a Level 5 Local Guide and only knew about the program when he received a mail for Connect Live, even though he had always received messages and taken the time to answer all the questions asked by Google Maps. He became more enlightened when he was added to the Lagos Local Guides Telegram group.
- Mr. Olalekan Kehinde is a software Developer and only joined the Program last month. He had met Mr. Sanya at an event, who told him about the program, when he checked, he realized he was already a Level 3 Local Guide
Mr. Sanya also added him to theLagos Local Guides Telegram group. So, he took his time to add up all the places he had been to in recent times and attained Level 7 within a month! He also told of how Google had informed him, he was going to get ‘a perk’ in two weeks. - Mr. Abel Adeleke is a Seafarer (Sea Navigator), his job takes him around the world as he has to go for courses regularly, he is also a regular user of the Google Maps and just takes his time to add up places when prompted by Google. He was a Level 6 Local Guide before the Meetup but attained Level 7 after the Meetup.
- Ewaade runs a General Merchandise store and is a Level 8 Local Guide. She got to ‘really know about the Local Guide program’ after she got the mail to apply for Connect Live and joined Connect.
KNOWLEDGE SHARING
- How do you add a place to the Map?
- What is the benefitStreetview?
- How do you take a 360 photo?
- What is the benefit of Hosting a Meetup?
- How do you apply for and get approval for a Meetup?
- How do you add a place to Maps?
- How do you edit an existing place?
- How do you join Connect?
- Is there a Connect App?
The questions asked were fielded by Mr. Sanya and me, with Mr. Sanya answering many of the questions effectively.
- How do you add a place to the Map? Open Google Maps, tap ‘contribute’, tap ‘add place’, fill in relevant information
- What is the benefit of Streetview? It gives Virtual realities of places we visit or we intend visiting. Briefly, I shared with the group the “Trusted Photographer ‘for hire’ program”.
- How do you take a 360 photo? I made a demonstration of this during the walk.
- What is the benefit of Hosting a Meetup? Connecting with more people, interacting with a Global community. If you are going for Mapping, the likelihood of getting harassed when you are in a group is lower than when you are alone.
- How do you apply for and get approval for a Meetup? launch the ‘Meetup page’, scroll to the bottom, click on “host a meetup”, fill in relevant information. Note that; this information will change after the 21st of October, 2020
- How do you edit an existing place? Tap on ‘explore’ (mobile version) on the Home page of Maps, type in the name of the place you want to edit, click on “suggest an edit”, you can change details of a place or mark it as “opened, closed, duplicate”, etc.
- How do you join Connect? Type “localguidesconnect.com”, log in with your existing Google Maps Profile e-mail.
- Is there a Connect App? No
PHOTO WALK
- We took a tour of the Hotel Facility, shared some Tips as to how they could better improve their ratings, especially by adding Accessibility features to the Hotel including a Lift
- We went through the Local Market before we joined the Lasu-Isheri road, where we began our walk from the front of the Igando bus stop B.R.T. terminal.
- We made several stops along the way, the most interesting of which was discovering a Chinese restaurant and finally took a break at Marturion Cinema and Martify Supercenter
- At this location, we got to discover that it was the Brainfield Event Centre that had been converted to the Shopping Mall. We marked the place as Closed.
DEPARTURE
After a time well spent, we returned to our homes, richer by experience and newly formed bonds of friendship.
I appreciate everyone that came.
Thank you,
Ewaade
P.S.:- Did the Protests persists even as we carried out the walk? Of course!
