We’re thrilled to introduce this month’s Meet-up Champion, @Jesi ! Jesi had a lot to share about hosting virtual and in-real-life meet-ups on her own and with others. So let’s dive right in!
What do you love about meet-ups?
I love how they let us interact with other people who are as passionate as Local Guides as we are. They are great for having fun, making like-minded friends, and talking about things related to the experience of being a Local Guide that only another Local Guide would understand.
What was your first experience with meet-ups?
It was an accessibility meet-up back in September 2017. They had recently added the first accessibility features in Google Maps, and there was a campaign to host accessibility meet-ups. @TraciC came to Buenos Aires and hosted a meet-up in the Google office and the surrounding area. We learned how to add accessibility information on Maps, saw videos [on how] this information can make a difference in the lives of wheelchair users, and roamed the streets adding accessibility details.
Sadly, the neighborhood we visited had old architecture, so most of it wasn’t accessible. But the fact that so little of it was accessible only made me think how unfair that was. [I thought,] if I could help by doing something as easy as letting people know if a place is accessible or not, I would do it for sure, and that motivated me a lot. The meet-up had a HUGE impact on me, my perspective, [and] how I contribute.
You’ve organized a lot of different meet-ups: food crawls, accessibility, virtual tours, and more. Do you have a favorite meet-up theme?
Hard to choose just one theme! I love the topic of food, especially if we can actually taste it, like in real-life meet-ups, but I also love accessibility meet-ups. It’s a really nice feeling to see others become aware of it and start contributing accessibility info. I also really like learning more about photography.
As a member of #TeamArgentina and the One Accessibility initiative, you’ve hosted quite a few collaborative meet-ups. What goes into planning a meet-up with other Local Guides and how do you distribute the tasks?
When you do collaborative meet-ups, you can expect lots of planning, decision making, and giving and hearing opinions on different ideas. You can do everything by chat or, with meet-ups with more complex ideas or things to do, via calls, too.
In most of the collaborative meet-ups I co-hosted, firstly, we ask people if they want to participate via private message. Then, [we] talk a bit about the idea over chat with everyone involved, including the date and time of the meet-up. We may plan a video call to brainstorm. If we have a video call, it’s to decide stuff like the general idea, who will do what, and maybe start working on slides or other things together, and we give “homework” for the next call. That could be researching something, continuing the slides, creating designs, and more. We have as many video calls as we need until everything is ready, and, if [we’re hosting] a virtual meet-up, an extra call to rehearse, the same day or the day before [the meet-up].
What are your top three tips for hosting a virtual meet-up? And your top three tips for hosting an in-real-life meet-up?
My top three tips for hosting a virtual meet-up would be:
1. Plan ahead and rehearse**.** To plan, you should ask yourself things like:
- What time should the meet-up be, so it’s convenient for my desired time zones?
- How long should you wait before starting? (People usually wait at least five minutes)
- How long will each activity be?
- When will you take a group photo?
- Are you sharing slides? What should the slides show?
- If you are co-hosting, who will present the slides or do each thing?
You might even have to plan what music to put on at the beginning to have a fun start. Whatever you plan, it’s important to rehearse it at least once! Have alternatives, too, [in case] something goes wrong. For example, if a co-host has a bad internet connection or a tool you were planning on using doesn’t support as many attendees as you have.
2. Make sure your device and internet connection are good enough**.** To prevent technical problems, make sure your computer and connection are at their best. I always reset my computer some hours before the meet-up, so it’s not running unnecessary programs or in case I’ve missed a system update warning. If possible, connect your computer via cable to get faster internet, too. Having good light and a camera with a good angle is also nice, but not necessary. You can have great meet-ups where people have fun and learn just through good content!
**3. Make it interactive and fun!**This one might be a personal or cultural thing, but in Argentina and Latin America, we love interactive meet-ups where people can participate. Others who have joined our meet-ups seem to like that, too. 
This tip is about interacting with the audience, and it’s especially relevant in meet-ups where the plan is to just show slides and have a few people talk. You can ask the attendees questions (so they try to guess something or to get their opinion) or play a game in the middle of the meet-up to keep their attention. You can interact with people over chat or go a step further and ask them to talk on their microphone if they are comfortable with it.
My top three tips for real-life meet-ups are:
1. Plan ahead! If you’re visiting just one place, consider the time it opens and the activities you want to do there. If you’re going to a restaurant, you might have to make a reservation. And if you’re going to more than one place, find the best route to take. It can pass by businesses, so you stop and contribute a bit; or it can be a nice route, where you take photos; or just a quick, [direct] path. Street View helps a lot to check the road and even “practice” how it would be like. And like with virtual meet-ups, plan how long you would wait until people arrive.
2. Check the weather**!!** It’s better not to do the meet-up on days with extreme temperatures, especially if people would have to be outside. If the meet-up could get suspended because of rain, you should clarify this in the description of your meet-up. And if it rains, alert everyone that it’s suspended.
3. Have a way to communicate with the attendees**.** With meet-ups where you visit big places or more than one place, you should know how to contact attendees easily in case you lose them, or they forget something. They should know how to contact you, too. You can do this via private messages here on Connect or external chats if they are comfortable with it.
For both real-life and virtual meet-ups, invite people who you think might be interested and share the event on social media with the hashtag #LocalGuides!
Do you have a favorite meet-up you’ve (co-)hosted? What about a favorite meet-up you attended?
I loved last year’s virtual meet-up series Recorriendo Argentina, [where we] showed our country. Also, this year’s virtual Valentine’s Day meet-up about chocolate, which @Velvel invited me to co-host. I love chocolate! Of the real-life meet-ups I’ve done so far, one of my favorites is Helados de Recoleta, a food crawl where we ate ice cream from different places and compared them. It was perfect for the summer!
My favorite meet-up that I attended was @PaulPavlinovich 's 36 walk in San Jose in 2019. It was a few days before Connect Live 2019 [and] it was almost like the start of the event. A lot of [Local Guides] that I met online were there, and I have this great memory of everyone hugging each other. Also, Paul had organized [the meet-up] very well, and there were no problems besides us being so many. It had food, places to photograph, and it was a nice tour of the city.
What one piece of advice would you give to someone who’s about to host their first meet-up?
Make a plan and [keep in] mind the things I shared above. But if something doesn’t go as planned or not so many attendees show up, that’s fine! Lots of us, if not all, have hosted meet-ups where fewer people attended than we expected. Many of us have hosted meet-ups with no attendees other than ourselves, too! You learn for next time [by] thinking about what could have caused this.
What do you think a good recap post should include?
Well, besides a summary of what was done, I think it’s nice to see photos or even videos related to what’s mentioned. I especially love photos where you can see people having a good time.
You can share [photos] on their own or in a collage and also add a link to a Google Photos album where attendees can put their photos.
For real-life meet-ups, it’s also great when people share links to theirs and other attendees’ reviews (besides the Google Maps links of the places) or even lists they made for the meet-up or with the information gathered during it. And if they visited places with accessibility features, I love it when they add a paragraph describing that.
I also like it when recaps are written like a story, mentioning fun things that happened, how [the meet-up] was planned, or anything that would make the reader feel as if they were there having fun, too.
Have you attended any of Jesi’s meet-ups? Do you have a question for her? Let us know in the comments below.
Want to see who else is a Meet-up Champion? Read our previous post here.
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