What does the Local Guides program mean to you?
The local guides program allows me to help businesses and people connect with each other. I enjoy submitting reviews and hearing about how many people I’ve reached with my photos and information about places I’ve visited. As an avid traveller, I rely on Google maps to find my way around. I also rely on reviews to choose good places to eat out and fun places to visit. As someone who appreciates all these things, I want to contribute back to the community.
Since I attended the Google Connect Live conference last year, I’ve met hundreds of people from all over the world.
I’m now part of an international community of like-minded people who also enjoy helping others. Whenever I have a question about contributing to Google maps, I can jump online to ask my new local guide friends.
Through this network, I’m also better connected to other parts of the world than ever before. During this current worldwide health crisis, I’ve been touched by the kindness and support the Connect Live community have shown each other. Despite many of us being stuck indoors in ‘lockdown,’ I don’t feel socially isolated, because I have a network of people who are sharing their stories and experiences with me every day. During this time, human connections are even more important than before.
I’m grateful to have had the chance to attend the Connect Live conference last year, not just because it was such a fun event in itself, but also because I have remained connected to such a diverse community of people.
Putting pop-up venues on the map
If I’m lucky enough to be chosen to attend Google Connect Live again in 2020, I’d love to share my ideas about how large events and festivals might be added to the map for their duration.
Over the past year, I’ve volunteered at 8 festivals in both the UK and Australia and one idea I had was what if pop-up businesses, like food carts, could share their location online at these events? This would help customers find the food stall they’re looking for and help vendors get repeat business from one festival to the next.
The iconic Glastonbury festival is so large it takes an hour to walk from one side to the other (and longer in the mud), so knowing where your favourite food stall is located each year can help people support their favourite small businesses.
The Adelaide Fringe Festival is a month long arts festival that is the largest in the southern hemisphere and happens to be held in my hometown. Many bars, clubs and arts spaces convert into festival venues for February and March, yet it’s not always clear which venues are connected to the festival. The Giant Sing Along (shown below) is one example of a pop-up venue that was available for the month long Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2020, but may not have been that easy to find.
As a festival volunteer, I see how lost people get at these events and how they struggle to find their favourite stalls and venues in large spaces. Wouldn’t it be great if you could add an event with set dates for the year and then tie pop up venues to it, so the information automatically disappears when the event ends?
The same could be done for food vans, so they can share their location with their followers, without having to remember to un-share their location later. Although there is the possibility of adding a service area on Google maps, it would be great if those business could update their actual location for a set amount of time, so their customers can easily find them.
I’d love the chance to share my ideas at the next Connect Live event about how pop up venues and vans could update their location temporarily. Hopefully, I’ll see you all again at Connect Live 2020, so I can share these ideas and others with the Googlers and other local guides.
