Hello, fellow Google Guides!
My name is Caue and I was a proud attendee of Connect Live 2019, which as of this writing was about 4 months ago, in San Jose, California, USA. The event left such a strong impression on me, that I decided now that the registrations for Connect Live 2020 are ending, it is a good time to write about it to show a glimpse of what my experience was for those who haven’t had he chance to participate yet. This has impacted me more than I can probably convey to you in this simple post.
At the end of this post, I’d love to hear other participants’ opinions and takes on their experience during Connect Live as well, please comment! ?
I am a Brazilian entrepreneur living in Jakarta, Indonesia. Me and my other good mates have founded this startup company about 4 years ago and since we did, our lives have become exponentially busier and our free time has consequently decreased considerably. Which means we have to choose wisely in which activities to engage outside of our professional lives in order to make our personal lives worth living and to feel proud of our personal achievements. To me, one of these extra curriculum passions has been Google Local Guides. Even though I am certain I don’t use the platform in the same way or regularity most of you do, I think that’s the beauty of it, anyone can fine tune their way of contributing to fit their life style and rhythm. I am the type who gathers places and experiences to, only after a few months, do a marathon of reviews on that not so busy weekend (which is part of what I am doing now, by the way). What is your style of contributing to the platform?
I am the guy representing Brazil, Indonesia and Australia to the right of the group! ?
This is just an introduction to fill you in on where I am coming from, now on to the main observations.
Being at Local Guides Connect Live 2019 was definitely one of the most memorable experiences I have had in my life and after pondering about the subject I came to the conclusion why that is. Pretty much all the times we find ourselves as being part of something bigger than ourselves, something that makes us proud to just be there, it is related to some well known public institution, such as a religious, educational or professional organization. Except Google Maps isn’t any of those. It does belong to a large corporation, but we don’t really work for them. There is no dependency on either parts, even though both parties benefit from each other’s contributions. It is basically a community that sees no discrimination as per who is part of it or why they’re doing it. All you need to get in is some readily available piece of tech connected to the internet and once you’re in, you’re welcome to get out at any time. No one cares what’s you’re background, age, skin color or sexual orientation, but they do want to listen to what you have to say, so all that matters is your creative content and useful knowledge. That alone is attractive enough to get anyone on board, but there’s so much more. There’s what you get out of it! You get to help millions of people with incredible little effort all things considered, you get to appreciate everyone else’s contributions and you get a chance to participate in an event so unique, that it will almost definitely mark your life in an incredibly positive way: Connect Live.
An event that people get to participate due to a private company showing appreciation to their good will to contribute to society. To be part of it is like being set up on a blind date with some of the most incredible “not famous” humans in the world, while being pampered from the beginning to the end with only the best in terms of experiences tailored for “your kind” of people (happy, altruist, sociable travelers).
Let’s stop a second to think about how often we come across something like this.
It isn’t very often, wouldn’t you agree? How can they do it, then? I don’t have the answer to that in details, but I can say that being an entrepreneur myself, it isn’t easy to make it happen. In fact it is incredibly hard, probably even for a company the size of Google’s, to dedicate as many resources, both human and financial, to an event that is somewhat just a community appreciation event. Of course, at this point some of you might be wondering about the business interests Google has behind it, which undeniably exists. But to that I say that being able to see how they conduct the event first hand, that’s not the main focus, it feels more like a welcoming “side effect” for them and they put all their hearts into making it the best they can.
You only ever experience their genuine will to get useful feedback from you and even that is usually concentrated in the sharing sessions they provide, without feeling demanding. All sessions I participated were extremely well managed, with a great amount of care for what our experience would be. They also happened in an environment so well built that for us, it felt more like a fun activity we could learn from, rather than them getting our take on their products.
Googlers were always attentive to what each and every one of us had to say and it felt like any of them would be ready to jump in and help any of us at any given time. Just and incredible vibe altogether! Were there any negative sides to it, you may ask? There were definitely things to be improved and I have tried giving feedback when asked for it, but to say there was enough reason to spontaneously complain about anything at all, would be very unfair, to say the least.
So, this post is more of an overview of the Connect Live experience, without spoiling any specific details, because that’s for you to judge once you too are approved to be part of it and experience for yourself what for me was one of the best events I’ve ever had the pleasure to attend.
If you haven’t already, today is the last day to apply to Connect Live 2020, according to the official announcement post. Do it now, because there’s no chance in the world you will regret it!
P.S.: I added this post to Meet-ups, because I believe that’s the ultimate meet up for Local Guides, but if any moderator find this inappropriate, please feel free to correct me! ?
it was great experiences. And I hope, I get a chance to feel same euphoria this year. Good luck for us and salam dari Palembang 