Hello local guides
On 11th July we celebrated our connect’s birthday where we all shared our precious memories of connect.
It was very nostalgic we had local guides from different countries. Few of them joined connect at the the 1st year and some joined in past year.
We started with introduction and everyone shared about their journey on connect and Google maps.
@NareshDarji
He was excited this year as he has been a part of community since 5 years
He joined connect on 20th July 2016 just 5 days after connect was launched.
For him friendship built over years is a precious achievement.
Happiest moment was being selected for connect live 2018, being recognised as guiding star 2020 and being featured on Road mapper.
@RosyKohli described how she wrote her first review when a business owner asked her to review them while she was in Delhi. She met Shruti during an event of Neighborly where Shruti introduced her to connect and local guides program. Her favourite memories are
Meeting everyone at physical meet up before lockdown where she met everyone first time.
After lockdown she has been very active participant in all virtual meet ups, made friends around the world. Learnt more about Accessibility, she started writing post and also conducted virtual meet up with help of fellow local guides. Her happiest moment was being recognised as guiding star 2020 and her trending posts on connect.
@KashifMisidia shared the memories from 2018 when he joined and use to post about reviews, put up information from different sources than how Googlers helped him to share more about the personal experience and since then he has written many posts, hosted meet u
His favourite connect memories are
Being selected for connect Live 2018 as well as 2019.
Becoming a connect moderator in 2020
He cherishes friends he made around the world.
@KamalHossenR started his connect journey 2 years bac
His favourite part is to conduct meet up for supporting small businesses.
His happiest moment was when Mukul travelled from Dhaka to support his physical meet up.
He likes to add new places on maps.
@NGUDAPE finds connect a great place where he met local guides around him (in Mumba
His favourite moment was the first virtual meet up conducted in 2020, it was very new to make use of technology and connect with so many people around the world.
He also thanks the community which helped to stay positive during the difficult times.
joined connect 4 years back and loves to conduct and participate in meet up with the Gujarat local guides community.
They love to explore beaches, forest and historical places.
His favourite memory was the post along with Googlers being featured on connect and also a part of local guides email.
@Ratri likes to be a super supporter she always loves to read and appreciate posts by fellow local guides.
Her favourite topics are travelling, photography and local stories.
She loves to participate in meet up and meet local guides around the world.
@Erna_LaBeau shares that meet ups are her favourite part of connect journey
Even at odd timings she is so excited to meet everyone virtually that she gets up and joins us. Even while travelling and also during vacations.
She is very happy to meet new people and also loves to share beauty of Michigan by writing travel posts.
She wants to share accessible parks on Google earth.
Her recent favourite memory is meeting Denise
It’s our dream that if we ever go for connect live we will extend our stay for a week and explore together in a big van or a mini bus 
@AnikSetyawati shares how happy she is to find a virtual family around the world she plans to visit them all soon
Her first destination on wishlist is India
(Ps. I am so excited to see her soon )
@Gurukrishnapriya
She shares memory of her first meet up with TravllerG and other local guides.
Meet ups helped her make so many friends.
Her wish is to visit Mumbai, Northern part of India and Indonesia.
She loves to write posts about tress, architecture, art and temples.
She loves to explore historical places.
@indahnuria shared how connect helped her to connect with local guides in Indonesia, she is very grateful to meet amazing local guides who are great friends
Her favourite memory is her first physical meet up in 2018 where she met everyone
Recently she met doc and Devi where they had a girls day out exploring together
Connect is very precious to her.
@kasunaa has been on connect for 2-2 and half year
His favourite memory is exploring underwater with fellow local guide ravindus
He misses scuba diving and waiting to go again.
It makes him happy to connect with them virtually and wishes to meet them someday.
@Nyainurjanah shared how connect helped her to connect with local guides around the world.
The best part about connect is everyone is kind and supportive, everyone is welcoming and friendly
During pandemic she attended many meet ups her favourite memories are
Being a part of connect live 2019
Becoming connect moderator in 2020
Becoming a guiding star in 2020
@shrut19 happiest moment was being featured for toilet mapping initiativ
Her favourite memories were the amazing meet ups both physical and virtual.
One of her favourite meet up was Asia one, it was the first time she travelled by plane and met 100+ local guides.
The announcement of guiding stars 2020 where she was happy to see fellow local guides being featured.
For @Ddimitraconnect means connecting with everyone
Her favourite memories are meeting Jakarta local guides, tangarang local guides, after pandemic she wants to meet local guide family around the world.
TravellerG - shares how connect helped him get a huge friendship base.
Meeting local guides for the first time in Chennai, sharing posts, so far he has made 1000+ friends around the world
He likes to share posts related to photography, technology and travel.
He is grateful to the community as being in touch with everyone helped his mental well-being.
Ajit joined in April 2019 he use to read post and analyse how local guides are sharing their stories what all things they do to create and impact. During lockdown 2020 he virtually connected with Shruti, Anil and traveller G later he was part of Maharashtra community where we met more local guides.
His favourite memory was being a part of WGS meet up series where he met local guides around the world, designed banners and helped to conduct meet ups.
He learnt a lot more about contributions and how to make them helpful from different meet ups and posts.
He says connect helped to know how he can give back to the community.
Happiest moment was the announcement of guiding star he truly appreciated that fellow local guides who are doing great work are being recognised.
@sophie_menusee feels inspired to see fellow local guides and things they do. Connect is a big global family for her in 2019 she met 100+ local guides in Asia one meet up where she met Ambrish and learnt more about connect, she also attended tree plantation meet up and many other physical meet up in Delhi
Her favourite memory is making friends and exploring new places with fellow local guides.
@sujataTawade is new to connect and I was very happy to see her for the virtual meet as it was her first virtual meet up. Her favourite memory was meeting local guides during food crawl meet up
She enjoyed exploring and eating together and learning more about local guides progam.
She is motivated to write more reviews
Her happiest moment was the announcement of guiding star, she was happy to see local guides being appreciated and recognised for theirs work.
The meet up went on for 2 hours and seeing everyone express their love for connect was priceless.
Connect has helped us bring world more closer and celebrate our diversity.
Meet up album here
Share your favourite connect memories and happiest moments on connect in comments 
for your successful Meet ups and It’s Gorgeous Recaps too!.
from 
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