Hi guys!
I wanna share experiences for my 1st time host of meet up in Bangkok, Thailand.
For me, I would say that it successfully went well and I receive a great feedback.
The objective of this meet up mainly was to get to meet with local guides who want to sign up for Connect Live 2019, and I also invited our mentor who had previously joined the Connect Live or event in earlier years.
I submitted the meet up for approval around 2-3 weeks in advance, and once it got approved. I didn’t hesitate to promote it to the local community by sharing it to my Facebook page, and Facebook group where local guides Thailand also connected and more active in there.
The meet up was hosted in a meeting room just under my condo since there were many good facilities here already. But we were overly prepared with the materials, power points, snacks, and drink.
You may see that I had the mobile phone on the table, there were actually someone who joined with us from distance (from Hadyai, Songkla province) so, we arranged to use Google Hangouts to get him in the conversation.
The meeting started early in the morning 10.00am to 12.00 pm. Some people arrived few minutes late so, that made me a little nervous for not many people would be coming at first. But the quality is always more important than quantity. Just to share with you that you may allow some time for those who may arrive late or you maybe think it’s possible if not everybody who RSVP will show up.
Agenda
●Getting to Know
●Connect Live 2019 Overview
●Tips for Connect Live 2019 Application
●Sharing Experiences by Guests
●Q & A
Then, I started by introduce myself (Name, work, hobbies, local guide level, and why I love being a local guide), then we went around the table to get to know every one. Our group are quite serious local guides from level 5-10, and I’m a local guide level 7. I also got one of my friend to help me with the food station, photograph, and video; and she is level 1 so, she could also learn quickly from our group.
Most people like foods, travelling so, we’re like taking photos as usual and use google map very often to travel or go from places to places that’s how we start to be a local guide. And then, it’s much more meaningful when we know that what we do can contribute to help the communities, local businesses, and help people travel better, or even help checking and editing the facts or add missing places for small street vendors.
We then talked about the Connect Live 2019 event details, criteria, and tips. I would say it was very fruitful conversation like the group discussion that I just initiate the topics, and then everyone else started to share more ideas.
We were lucky enough to have Joseph Dewen, the #36 level 10 in the world, and Sun Panupong Yokyongsakul, serious local guide contributors in Thailand, to join us in today’s meet up. Thank you for their presence and care about helping other local guides to achieve the objectives together.
We had a really hand on experiences including:
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Discussed on key criteria and what should we focus
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Logged into local guides connect for profile assessment
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Engaged in local guides connect platform and discuss about how it works
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Went step by step to create new lists together
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Saw the examples of some successful video clips from YouTube
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Recorded 1 minute video to see the whole process of how it might work
I can’t thank enough for my friend who help me to set up this meet up, the guest who came to make this meet up so much productive and useful, all participants who care about bettering the map and contributing to local community, and of course Google to create wonderful campaign “Connect Live 2019” that inspire us to do more to be part of the event.
Thailand local guides will be sending people to represent Thailand in global stage. See you other local guides fellows in San Jose, CA in November 2019.
, you are kind like the beautiful temples of Thailand 
A land of smiles