Recap: Africa Virtual Meetup 1.0

Caption: A photo collage showing pictures of some participants at the Africa Virtual Meetup 1.0

The meetup commenced with a welcome message by Emeka Ulor and the introduction rite was done. Sixteen Local Guides introduced themselves at the beginning but a total of 26 LGs attended the Meetup.

After the introduction session, Local Guides shared their experiences and some challenges faced in their communities with some practical solutions

How to grow our communities

After the introduction session, Local Guides shared their experiences and some challenges faced in their communities with some practical solutions

@Raphael-Mahumane @shared a recent experience where he was invited to a radio station in South Africa. He discussed the Local Guides program and how Google Maps impact the community. He underlined the accessibility project which enables persons with disabilities to move around with less assistance. Raphael confirmed that people called in to indicate interest and subsequently joined the Local Guides South Africa Face book community

Grar @nkwetche informed us that he began hosting meetups since 2018 every month. He created a Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp groups to organize Cameroun Local Guides. This strategy has been critical to the development of the community

@JanVanHaver @Connect Moderator) from Belgium, supported the idea that media publicity can significantly help create awareness to grow a Local Guides community. An example is a Google-sponsored documentary in Belgium where his contribution and journey was broadcast across the country. His pet project Let’s Guide Podcast is also a great platform for sharing success stories of Local Guide
@Sagir , a Level 10 Lagos Local Guide was invited to share his secret to success as part of a recent newspaper publication highlight his Google Maps contribution as a Firefighter. Sagir advised Local Guides to be dedicated rather than focusing on perks. he stated that our contributions would be appreciated when more people are being assisted across Afric

@Hajer-G said that Google Maps in Sudan is largely not updated. So she took up the challenge by creating groups on Facebook and WhatsApp to coordinate other Local Guides to improve the maps. Hajer created YouTube videos to teach others how to make various contributions in Arabic.

Q&R Session

The question and answer session followed.

Fortunately, two Connect Moderators Jan (Belgium) and Raphael (South Africa) were available to answer some of the numerous questions. They were supported by Connect Live Attendee- Grar (Cameroun) clarifying certain issues raised by participants.

Some of the questions include:

  1. How to find Local Guides in a community easily for engagement
  2. Nura asked how to improve the accuracy of Maps in Kaduna Nigeria.
  3. Alpha (the Gambia but schooling in Cyprus) wanted to know how Google enables indoor mapping outside Nigeria and South Africa. He has faced challenges mapping businesses in the Gambia.
  4. Jeremiah inquired if he could add a location in another city, state, or country.
  5. Ken Ozordi wanted to know how best to fasten the approval of suggested edits and merging of duplicated places.

Resolution

  1. We would continue the virtual meetup as a series to meet new African LGs and treat salient issues.
  2. Local Guides should leverage the new Location Features on Connect to find other LGs in their communities. Also, social media should be employed to grow our communities. Where possible, broadcast media - TV, Radio, and Newspapers could be approached with the support of Google country offices.
  3. Local Guides were highly encouraged to contribute to the Connect Forum by posting useful content, asking questions, following interesting LGs, and finding fellow community LGs too.
  4. LGs were encouraged to reach out to Connect Moderators or Google Moderators where they have useful information or challenges on Google Maps.
  5. Local Guides were advised to stay safe and obey all government regulations during the Corona Virus Pandemic.

Attendees were from Belgium, Cameroun, Congo DR, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Sudan.

See a photo album.

The Meet-up ended at about 2:10 pm
Africa Virtual Meetup 2.0 would be announced subsequently.

Stay Alert! Stay Home!! Stay Safe!!!

67 Likes

@EmekaUlor Hi!

It seems you had great Meet-Up. Lots of topics and great Local Guides joined there.

Thanks for sharing this nice Recap.

Happy Guiding!

6 Likes

Thanks for this awesome meet up @EmekaUlor

It was great Hangouts with other Guides across Africa.

I was moved by way @Hajer-G is contributing in Sudan. Keep doing great Hajer .

Regards

Sagir

8 Likes

@EmekaUlor excellent recap. write full details it’s really helpful to other for write there virtual meetup recap

10 Likes

It was a really fun experience @EmekaUlor and I was happy to be there - it was my first time in Nigeria, even though it was even in a virtual way :grinning:

6 Likes

Great recap @EmekaUlor . I missed out, but thankful the recap is vivid enough. I love those resolutions.

I was 15 minutes late for the meet up, I attempted to join for another 20 minutes, but no-one let me in (probably some network glitch).

Also I notice there is no link to the photo album.

4 Likes

Thank you very much Sagir for this nice comment. It was a great honor for me to meet all of you. Thank you again :sparkles:

5 Likes

@EmekaUlor well-done meet ups are a source of information and encouragement

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Hey @EmekaUlor thank you for sharing your recap with us!

Please note that I am going to relabel it to Meet-ups.

3 Likes

Hi @EmekaUlor thank you for sharing this recap, I enjoyed being part of the meetup too and I learnt a lot from other local guides who come from other countries such as India, Nigeria, Belgium, Sudan and more.

Coming together is the way to help each other grow and share this important tips, facts, issues and solutions. I am looking forward to join other upcoming meetups. Cheers!

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Bringing an entire continent together through technology is beautiful.

@Raphael-Mahumane
Great work you are doing getting the radio station involved.

@nkwetche
Great work on the community organization.

@JanVanHaver
Sounds like an amazing story with the podcast

@Sagir
Commendable and hardworking. So good to see you bring everything together.

@Hajer-G

So looking forward to seeing your work in Africa.

6 Likes

A lot of information has been shared here. I think everyone needs it. Helpful meetup. Thank you very much for the nice meetup recap @EmekaUlor my dear brother.

2 Likes

I enjoyed reading this recap and appreciate the resolutions you provided. I think in a way, this pandemic has made the wide global LG community much smaller through these virtual meetups.

Thanks for hosting this @EmekaUlor !

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Thank you @user_not_found

It’s was a great pleasure to talk to you.

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@EmekaUlor What a wonderful recap of an amazing meetup. Looking forward to the second meetup

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Hello @EmekaUlor great recap and meet up a pity I missed that.

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Thanks for this #AVM1.0

Can’t wait AVM2.0

I’M READY… I Hope you toi guys! :v: :wink:

Y-Nick

2 Likes

Awesome efforts, looking forward to attend the next meeting !

1 Like