Recap: We Came, We Mapped, We Got Sunburnt at #USAMeetup2026! 
Well, the sunscreen has finally dried, the sand has mostly washed out of our shoes, and our phone batteries have finally recovered. The very first USA Local Guides Meetup in Key West, Florida (June 4–7, 2026) is officially in the history books!
If you weren’t there, picture this: a small island populated by wild iguanas, roaming chickens, vacationers trying to relax, and roughly dozens of highly enthusiastic people aggressively photographing every menu, historical plaque, and accessible ramp in sight.
Here is the breakdown of what happened when the internet’s favorite map nerds took over the Southernmost City.
“Wait, you’re a real human?!”
The absolute best part of the weekend was realizing that the avatars we’ve been talking to on Connect for years are actually real, living people—and not just highly sophisticated AI bots built by Google to review lighthouses and restaurants!.
The planning committee put an immense amount of blood, sweat, and spreadsheets into organizing this, but nothing could prepare us for the pure chaos of putting dozens of Local Guides in one room. The conversational transition from “It is so wonderful to finally meet you!” to “Wait, let me show you this incredibly niche road I just added to the map” took approximately 4.5 seconds and “How many billions or hundreds of millions of views do you have on maps profile”.
| Pics with Localguides | Group shots of Localguides |
|---|---|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__yfv8DNT7A | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAfl-SQ65H4 |
Tagging fellow localguides who are in the videos above: @BrittanyShae @Sandra1961 @H-C-Davies @DustinBerg @mycalsee @Twyla @Rednewt74 @JustJake @SoniaK @Denise_Barlock @JessicaBerg
The Great Storage Space Crisis of 2026
Key West is famous for its sunrises and sunsets, which means the meetup basically turned into a competitive extreme sport. We dragged our sleep-deprived bodies out of bed early for those group pictures and sunrises. We all got drenched in the rain before hitting our lunch spot on day 2. Some of us visited Mallory Square and I ended up going to Southern Most point to capture Sunset Colors.
If Google Photos servers briefly went down over the weekend, we apologize—that was just us uploading 40,000 identical photos of a sailboat silhouetted against an orange sky, trying to find the one with the absolute perfect contrast. (Spoiler: they all looked great, and we are keeping all of them).
The Overseas Highway: A Scenic drive to Miami
While the meetup technically wrapped on June 7th, a bunch of us decided to drive on a spectacular 113-mile stretch of U.S. Route 1 Overseas Highway from Key West all the way to Miami.
Driving across the Seven Mile Bridge with a pack of Local Guides is an exercise in extreme patience. Do you know how hard it is to get anywhere when every passenger in the car wants to pull over at every single scenic overlook to check if the business hours of a fruit stand are updated? We made it to Miami eventually!
Pictures with our fellow travelers @SoniaK and @backpacktraveling
A Massive Shoutout!
What began as a mere concept at ConnectLIVE: NYC has now become a reality, all thanks to Denise’s vision, hard work and dedication.
A legendary thank you to the planning committee (@justjake, @Denise_barlock , @Rednewt74 , @Soniak , @Twyla , and @jayasimha78), organizing wizards, and forum veterans who helped make this madness a reality. You kept us organized, fed, and pointed in the right direction.
Special thanks to @kristen_NYC for joining us for a couple of days! Your presence made the first-ever #LocalGuides USA Meetup incredibly special. 
Special thanks to Dave for grilling those, burgers, cheese burgers and hotdogs for welcome cookout and supporting Denise for the first US Meetup. Thanks to my wife Anju for helping out for the welcome cookout, now she is trained to handle dozens of localguides! Also thanks to all the localguides and their guests who helped out in setting up and cleaning during the welcome event.
Finally my sincere thanks to @AdrianLunsong who helped us in putting together this event with his immense experience, artistic skills and his amazing webapp specially designed and developed for this event.
We left Key West with fuller hearts, emptier phone storage, and a shared agreement that Key Lime Pie counts as a vital food group.
Did you survive #USAMeetup2026**?** Share your funniest memory or your most chaotic group photo in the comments below! If you missed out, let us know where we should bring our cameras and mapping opinions next! 
till then let’s cherish the memories from Key West 
a treat to the eyes 
