Is my contribution good enough to hold a Local Guide Meetup Meetings?

Hello Local Guides,

After I have applied for the Google Connect Live in 2019, I am triggered to be more active in publishing or creating a discussion on this website.

Before I log in to my account, there is information about this website that we could create a greater connection worldwide and sharing our experiences with one another. I was so excited to join this community and my pride being a local guide is escalated.

However, when I search for a local guide meetup meetings, there is only a few or even none in my regional area which is Bandung, Indonesia. Hence, I am triggered to create a local guide meetup meetings to have a greater impact on my region or even to the world. But the questions in my head are:

  1. Am I good enough to hold a local guide meetup meeting? Is it based on my contribution or is there any minimum requirements like age or something else?

  2. What should I do / the best agenda in the local guide meetup meeting?

  3. Is the local guide meetup meeting sponsored or getting noticed by Google Management?

  4. Does my contribution to Google Maps increase if I hold the meetup meeting?

  5. And many other questions…

Many people would have this question as well. So through this post, I hope Local Guides could give answers to at least those mentioned questions or even could give another additional information since this post would be read to other local guides that want to hold a local guide meetup meeting.

Looking forward to your comment! :smiley:

Cheers from Bandung, Indonesia

17 Likes

Halo, Kak @Billychrist .

Setahu saya, Local Guides yang bisa menjadi Host Meet Up adalah Local Guides level 3 ke atas. Tidak ada persyaratan khusus yang terlalu rumit.

Dan untuk membuat Meet Up, agenda Meet Up-nya bisa berkisar antara Photowalk, Geowalk, Foodcrawl, atau Map Editing.

Ada baiknya Meet Up juga dikomunikasikan dengan Local Guides lain di kota Anda biar pesertanya rame dan ada yang bantu-bantu dalam penyelenggaraannya (walaupun Meet Up dikelola seorang diri juga bisa, sih).

Nah, tips untuk membuat Meet Up yang baik bisa Anda lihat di sini: How to Organize a Successful Meet Up.

2 Likes

Untuk pertanyaan nomor 3, Kak @Billychrist , setahu saya, sih, tidak, ya.

Tapi kalau untuk mengundang Connect Moderator, sih, rasanya masih bisa. Soalnya Beliau juga pada dasarnya sama-sama Local Guides seperti kita. Cmiiw.

Untuk pertanyaan nomor 4, apakah dengan menjadi Host Meet Up, kontribusi kita akan bertambah di Google Maps?

Kalau sepemahaman saya: tidak. Karena yang bisa menambah poin kontribusi Local Guides di Google Maps ya cuma foto, video, review, rating, editing, add place, tagging. Tidak termasuk menjadi Host Meet Up.

Koreksi saya bila salah.

Terima kasih.

2 Likes

Hi @Billychrist anyone can run a Meetup. There are no minimum requirements. Running a Meetup doesn’t change your points on your contributions but you do get plenty of kudos out of doing it.

Hi good on you for starting to organise a meetup, you should also make a meetup entry here https://maps.google.com/localguides/meetup so that important details like location, time and date and a description of your proposed Meetup are known to everyone who might like to come along.

Have a read of How to Organise a Local Guides Meetup and HowTo: Leading a Photo/Food/Geo Walk

I hope your Meetup goes well.

Regards Paul

4 Likes

Hello @Billychrist it’s good that you are motivated to do a Meet-Up!

A Meet-Up works well if the participants want to be a part of the Meet-Up. The question is, will the local guides benefit from it?

  1. Do you feel ready to do a Meet-Up? By that I mean, have you planned it out thoroughly in your mind as to what the Meet-Up will be about?
  2. Is the Meet-Up going to benefit everyone present? Some may have traveled miles so the end result has to be worth their while.
  3. Do you have the expertise of a host to deal with all kinds of situations that will occur. No two situations will ever be the same. They happen all at once too ie. different personalities and requests etc, etc, etc.

If you feel you have the resources at hand and know you can guide a team of local guides in a Meet-Up, you should try setting one up.

You can find the post about how to organise a successful Meet-Up, here:

How to Organize a Successful Meet Up

The Meet-Up isn’t sponsored by Google so you can’t link the Meet-Up with Google.

As a Meet-Up is to get to know local guides better, it would really benefit the participants present, not Google Management.

Your Google Maps’ review views can increase rapidly after you’ve blogged about the Meet-Ups but it may not.

I arranged my 2 Meet-Ups but friends couldn’t make it, yet the views of my reviews on Google Maps have been increasing in rapid spurts, since then.

With my 3rd Meet-Up it will have to be after I have spoken to 1 Local Guide who I now know and whether he can go on the Food Crawl that day. Then I’ll see who else can make it.

I will only set the date after I know how many I can get to attend. Not easy, right?

I hope you can now decide whether you want to do your Meet-Up now or when you have the minimum of possible attendees and a clear idea of what the Meet-Up will be about.

Good luck!

Kol (Colleen)

2 Likes