Hello LG Friends,
I’m really happy to share with you that last Friday, 29th August, the Connect Live '25 Tokyo; Experience sharing meetup hosted by me on behalf of our Bangladesh Local Guides (BDLG) has ended successfully. The total number of attendees of this meetup was 72. Among them, apart from me and @MahabubMunna (Mahabub Hasan, Founder Moderator, BDLG), 54 others were active local guides of the BDGL community, who were selected through the registration process (I sincerely regret that, despite our wishes, we were unable to open this conference to everyone due to limited seating). Also, 16 students from United International University (UIU) joined us, who have a great interest in the Local Guides program. Along with the students, a teacher from this university also joined us. Also, @SoniaK ( Sonia Khorshed, Advisor, BDLG) from the USA and @Trishatishu (Tahmina Aktar Trisha) from Tokyo, Japan, joined us online in this meetup. Thanks to all of them for joining us.
Venue and Organizing Partners:
This meetup was organized at the auditorium of the renowned United International University (UIU) of Dhaka. UIU Developers Hub was the co-organizer of our meetup this time. Thanks to UIU and UIU Developers Hub for joining us.
Welcome Session:
At first, as the host, I welcomed everyone and announced the start of the meetup. Then, United International University Teacher Md. Tarek Hasan (Lecturer, Department of CSE) gave a welcome speech on behalf of UIU, and Fatin Shadab (President, UIU Developers Hub) gave a welcome speech on behalf of UIU Developers Hub. Both of them welcomed everyone present to UIU in their short speeches. At this time, Mr. Fatin Shadab presented a learning website they had developed to everyone. Through the website, they will teach students programming, and if students want, they can increase their experience by participating in contests.
Introduction:
Since sixteen university students were present at this event, at the beginning of the event, the presenter of this meetup, Local Guide @SajolKDas (Sajol Kumar Das), gave a brief talk about
- What is Local Guide?
- What is Connect?
- What is Connect Live?
- Why is Connect Live organized?
- What is the invitation process for Connect Live?
During this time, several photos taken by me and Mahbub Hasan at Tokyo ConnectLive were shown on the projector. The students participating from the university really enjoyed this session.
Experience Share:
This was the main interesting session of this meetup. At this stage of the meet-up, the presenter called me and Mahbub Hasan to the stage, and connected Sonia Khorshed and Tahmina Aktar Trisha with us online. At the beginning, I shared my first Connect Live experience with everyone. This time, in response to a question, I said:
“Networking with multicultural and multilingual local guides was a great experience for me. Also, being able to use the features alongside those working on the upcoming map features and provide immediate feedback was an exciting experience for me.”
You have participated in many international meetups so far. Was there any difference between the meetups you participated in before and the meetup you participated in this time in Tokyo? In response to the question, Mahbub Hasan said:
“The meetup organization has also changed over time. Earlier, this program, which used to be three days long, has now been shortened to about one and a half days, representing a significant change. Also, in the past, top contributors were thanked at each event, but this time, they are inviting real local guides to do something better in their product and community development. Where everyone will give valuable feedback to make the products even better. Also, I noticed one more thing in this meetup, they are planning to add artificial intelligence to almost every product feature, which was not so widespread in other times.”
This was your first participation in an international meetup. How did you feel, and how much experience do you think you were able to gain? In response to a question like this, Tahmina Aktar Trisha said:
“Participating in Connect Live Tokyo '25 was truly a milestone for me since it was my first international meetup. At first, I felt a mix of excitement and nervousness, but the atmosphere was incredibly welcoming. I was able to exchange ideas with people from diverse backgrounds, learn new perspectives, and gain valuable insights into global collaboration. The experience expanded not just my knowledge, but also my confidence in engaging with an international community.”
We heard about the Tokyo Connect Live experience from Mahbub, Biswajit and Trisha. You attended the New York Connect Live program this year. So, did you notice any difference between Tokyo Connect Live and New York Connect Live? And if you have anything to say for the new local guides, please. In response to such a question, Sonia Khorshed said:
“The first difference I noticed was the cultural blend. In the New York event, most of the Local Guides were from the Americas, so in terms of attire and outfits, they all looked quite similar. But in the Tokyo event pictures, I could see people wearing traditional outfits from Japan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and even Nigeria. It was truly beautiful.
I also noticed a difference in the food. At the New York event, it was mostly American food, whereas in Tokyo, it was a mix of Japanese and continental dishes.
For the new Local Guides, I wanted to put Trisha forward as an example. With her dedication and passion, she was invited to CL in less than three years of her LG journey. This shows that the length of your journey doesn’t matter-what matters is the quality. I’ve seen several LGs invited to the New York event who didn’t even know what Connect was, but their Maps profiles were rich with information. Their reviews and photos were simply mind-blowing.
That’s the kind of quality I want new LGs to focus on. You don’t need to write a post on Connect every day just for the sake of posting. But when you do write, make sure your post has an impact, carries a message, is of good quality, and most importantly, is related to Google Maps or the Local Guides program.”
Gift and Snacks:
At this stage of the meetup, everyone present was given official stickers and chocolates brought from Japan. And the six most active Local Guides were given official Connect 10th anniversary pins as gifts, which we received from the ConnectLive program. Those six LG are @AbdusSattar @Papel_Mahammud @Soykot_azam @MohammadPalash and @Nurul_Hasnat @NasimJ At the same time, everyone present was given a snack box as an afternoon snack.
Photo Session:
This was the last session of our meetup this year. After everyone took a group photo together, we declared our meetup over.
Conclusion:
I think this meet-up was very productive. Students interested in the Local Guide Program and other participating Local Guides will all benefit from this meet-up.
Gratitude
With this post, I would like to thank @Kristen_NYC and all the Googlers who selected me to join Connect Live Tokyo. And I would also like to thank @AbdusSattar for playing a huge role in successfully organizing this meetup.
Note:
It is worth noting that apart from this year, several members of BDLG have had the opportunity to participate in each of the last three editions of ‘Local Guides Connect Live’, and each time, an experience sharing meet-up has been organized by the BDLG community with the participants after the main program of the connect. This meetup was also a continuation of that.
Our previous post-connect meetups
- Connect Live ‘17; Experience Sharing Meetup
- Connect Live ‘18; Experience Sharing Meetup
- Connect Live ‘19; Experience Sharing Meetup
Media Coverage:
Our meetup has been covered by some national online portals. Click on the link below to read them.
Thank you very much for reading my post 
