After a few months of not going out much during quarantine, I decided to spontaneously drive to Vancouver during the September long weekend for some good food. Things were more relaxed by that point and many restaurants had opened back up.
On my list of to-do’s was to finally meet @Shirley , who is a Connect Moderator based in Vancouver. It was great to finally meet her in person after chatting virtually for over a year!
We ordered mango sago/grass jelly dessert from Sweethoney Dessert and chatted about our shared interests in all things Google, data science, and life in Calgary/Vancouver.
She also gave me some cool swag that she had accumulated from her years of being a Local Guide! I’ll be sure to give those out to other Local Guides when we can organize in-person meetups again.
Later on, after I was chosen to attend Connect Live 2019, we continued to connect more since we were part of the Canadian group of Local Guides selected to attend the summit and she had lots to share with me since she went to all the previous ones.
We kept in touch over the next months and shared info about our Local Guides experiences, interests in tech, and just life in general. Shirley even introduced me to the Google Products Experts program and with her guidance, I’m now a Silver Product Expert for Google Translate, Chrome, and a Bronze Product Expert for Google News!
It was so great to finally meet you in person @Oscar_Kwok !!! I’m so glad that our COVID restrictions has eased a bit so that we can hang out and have some dessert! The timing worked out really well, so I’m glad you mentioned to me that you’re coming over!
Oh no!! I can’t believe I forgot about my little swimmer Lego!! I was very focused on finding you some swag! Hope you enjoyed it all! The Princess Leia is definitely one of my favourites as well! And it’s great that you’ve crossed over to Product Experts as well. I think there are many similarities between Local Guides and Product Experts as both have a focus on helping others! I was also introduced to Product Experts by a fellow Local Guides @iyudhi ! I think it is great to be able to help users become more familiar with the products (including Google Maps) that they are using.
I hope you had a wonderful time eating through the city here. Any other food highlights?
Wow you have so many swags @Shirley ! So lucky that you have it @Oscar_Kwok ! It’s so nice to read the story. Congrats of being Product Expert too! Thanks for sharing
Yes likewise @Shirley I think I came at the perfect time because right after I left, the smoke situation started in Vancouver. Also the cases have gone back up since school started. Hope you are keeping safe!
I was looking forward to have your little swimmer meet my little piggy that I brought along on the trip, but maybe next time. Little piggy enjoyed herself though as you can see
I definitely enjoyed the swag. I was always hesitant to place my stickers anywhere since I only had a few, but now that you gave me so many, I can rep Local Guides everywhere I go!
Yea I love how everyone in the Product Experts community has such a willingness to help others out, just like with the Local Guides community. My goal is to become a Gold Product Expert and hopefully be able to attend the PE summit someday!
Although the dessert we had wasn’t that great, some of the other food made up for it. I love the cheap good eats at the Crystal Mall food court and your recommendation of Phnom Penh was so helpful! The garlic fried chicken wings, and Butter Beef was amazing! Sushi Garden and Santouka Ramen is always a go to. I was a bit disappointed with Mazesoba though as it too heavy. Rain or Shine icecream also had unique flavours like mojito and it was pretty good!
Looking forward to our next meetup! Let me know if you ever visit Calgary.
Thanks @KarenVChin !
Its amazing how many virtual meetups you have been hosting and all the useful content you are creating. I’m inspired by how you became such an influencer in Crowdsource in such a short period of time! I should set my sights next to become better at Crowdsource
Hope you are doing well and keeping safe with all the fires that are in your area.
It is very amazing how being a Local Guide has created not just connections but even friendships, love it to see it! I’ve never heard of the Google Product Expert Programme before. Looking forward to testing it out!
Hi @Oscar_Kwok here we do new normal phase. We’re not allowed to have a big event but some people didn’t follow the rule. Hope everything is going to be okay soon
@PritishB The dessert was actually not that good because there wasn’t very many mango pieces in it and was more watery. But the most important thing is the connections made so I guess I’ll let it go
@iyudhi Yea we are lucky that we can still meet up with people in Canada but cases are climbing up so I feel we will have more limitations again soon. How are you doing in San Fran? I heard the smoke situation is getting better?
Yea @LaloPadilla it was really fun! Hopefully we can all have more in-person meetups soon. Virtual meetups are nice but it can’t really compare with the connections from in-person ones.
I think I came at the perfect time because right after I left, the smoke situation started in Vancouver. Also the cases have gone back up since school started. Hope you are keeping safe!
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