Hello Friends,
I am extremely elated to write this recap to re-live March 16, 2025.
I am pleased to observe the Responses and Reactions of all the participants during the GG kick off meet-up first and subsequently followed in GG meet-up–02, GG meet-up–03 and GG meet-up–04. There were 38 participants including the Meet-up Moderator (MM), Guest Speaker and Connect Moderators during the fourth meet-up of GG series. I am thankful to all of you who supported this idea and made this happen (MTH).
I have captured the gist of this meet-up under various heads. Please go through and share your views.
Quick Introduction of the Attendees
The participants have introduced themselves by sharing their Name, City, LG level and the Connect id. They were also requested to write down these details in the chat box.
Participants were also requested to join the virtual meet-up on time to pay respect to the Guest Speaker and the co-participants who have joined on or before time.
Overview of the Meet-up
The MM explained the objective behind starting this GG Meet-up series and how it got conceptualized.
Ghummakad Gossip Meet-up series is created for all of us, by all of us and with all of us. This is to create more cohesive and collaborative platform to Share & Learn for everyone here. The MM also share some basic ground rules to make the meet-up effective for everyone.
He also explained, why the series is named as Ghumakkad Gossip? Ghumakkad is a Hindi word which in English means ‘Wanderer’ and Ghumakkad Gossip means ‘Talk with Wanderer’. Here, the emphasis is on Traveller and not on Tourist when we talk about Ghumakkad.
Introduction of Guest Speaker
The topic for this meet-up in GG series was on Local Guides Community and Connect Overview.
This year, we are celebrating 10 Years of Local Guides, therefore it becomes more important for everyone here to know the genesis of our LG community and the Connect forum. And to enlighten on this topic who else could I have been the Guest Speaker than the one who is the Accessibility Champion, Meet-up Champion, two times Guiding Star, the Connect Moderator - Naresh Darji (@NareshDarji). He is the face of Local Guides Community in Indian LG fraternity.
Gossip with Guest Speaker on the topic
Conversation with Guest speaker started with his journey as a Local Guide. He talked about Google Map Maker and Google City Experts Program which was launched in the year 2013 in New York.
MM posed a discussion point on Local Guides Program. Naresh added that Local Guides Program was first launched on January 15, 2015 just 10 years ago from now. He talked about how the invitation used to come to join Local Guides Program then.
The way to contribute as a Local Guide was by virtue of:
- Adding New Places
- Uploading Photos
- Sharing Reviews
- Fixing Information
- Answering Questions
Initially only Five levels were there for the Local Guides and even the point system was quite stringent. For Example: upload 5 photos to the same place would earn you only 1 point.
MM further posed a discussion point on the evolution of Local Guides Connect forum. Naresh Talked about the global launch of Local Guides Connect forum in August 2016. He also shared some of his fond memories of Connect 1.0 from his archives. The participants were quite appreciative about his way of conserving the data and sharing with them during the meet-up.
Naresh also discussed about how the official meet-ups were happening then, what was the process for Summit application and about Connect Live events.
MM started the discussion on how the Local Guides Level in the overall program got changed and introduced upto Level 10. Naresh added to this by saying, the new levels were announced in June 2017 where in, there were total 10 levels from Level 1 to Level 10 and that’s when Connect 2.0 came into picture. And, the same Levels are present now also.
Now, we are using the new and improved Connect which was globally gone live on October 26, 2024. It is full of great features with lot of improvements in the design and its usage.
Attendees to seek more clarity
Despite lot of improvement and new features in the New Connect, participants have shared their concern during the meet-up about its usage on mobile devices. The main concern was it is not user friendly on the mobile devices. Naresh and MM suggested the participants to share their feedback to the team through feedback form.
There were couple of more questions raised by the participants during the meet-up. Here is the summary of discussion around those asked questions:
- Is there any monetization while contributing to Google Maps.
- No, we contribute on Google Maps voluntarily.
- Why some of the Reviews and/or photos are hidden?
- Some tips were shared like: avoid posting duplicate/redundant photos, no selfies etc.
- For details it was suggested to go through Maps Policies and Prohibited Contents Guidelines.
- If I want to see who joined Connect today, how can I do that?
- There is no direct way to find out.
Special Thanks
I would like to extend my special thanks to dear @PrasadVR, @K.K.Sharma, @Shrut19, @Ptrivedi, @AjitThite, @KetanChhaniyara and @ShreyaMusings for capturing beautiful candid moments which I couldn’t resist myself from sharing here.
Debriefing & wrap up
The MM summarized the overall discussion and thanked all participants for joining and making this meet-up a success. A BIG THANK YOU to our Guest Speaker Naresh Darji (@NareshDarji) for sharing his precious time and knowledgebase with all of us.
All participants were eager to know the next topic, name of the next Guest Speaker and the date of next GG Meet-up. Thanks for your interest and enthusiasm. And, there is a BIG news for you as the topic we are going to have in our next GG Meet-up is very closed to many of us and is very much important for the society.
Please block your calendar for the upcoming power packed meet-up. See you around.
This is an opportunity for the Local Guides to Support and Shine, Share and Learn.
I express my sincere gratitude to all who have joined and expressed their interest throughout the session.
Ankit Kumar, @AjitThite, AP, @Aashutoshkumarbhardw, @Aravindchaudhari, @Ashish.Ranjan, Bhaskar V, @deepakjhic, @K.K.Sharma, @Gouri_S_Prakash, @jagatji, Kapil, @KetanChhaniyara, @MadhurG, @manumaan, @astromilan07, @ShreyaMusings, @NituSingh, Pranav Poojary, @Ptrivedi, @PrasadVR, Purushothaman KP, Prashant Kyada, Rahul Kumar, @RosyKohli, Rushabh Sindhav, @Ssiddharth2000, @Sagarkanherkar, @sandesh.kamble, @sanskarsojitra, @Shrut19, @Tejal, @TravellerG, @TusharSuradkar, @VijendraPatidar, @Gvipin, @NareshDarji
Please let me know if I have missed any name.
This photo is the testimony of togetherness for the reason we all have met up for.
Key Takeaways
- Local Guides Program is a volunteer program.
- Help the community selflessly.
- Maintain the genuinity and truthfulness while contributing to Google Maps.
- For any suggestion/issue in regards to New Connect, share your feedback to the team through feedback form.
Key Success Factor
- Meet-up promotion through various networking channels (Thanks @TravellerG, @NareshDarji).
- Friendly gesture to coordinate and handle participants flow of interactions. (Thanks @TusharSuradkar, @deepakjhic, @AjitThite).
- 80% participants joined on or before time helped MM to start and end the Meet-up at the scheduled time. Thank you all. This also avoids waiting time to Admit the participant, if they join on time.
- Mock-up session/s before the final meet-up between MM and the Guest Speaker.
Recaps of past episodes of GG Meet-up series in chronological order:
• Recap: [Virtual] India, January 17, Ghumakkad Gossip: Supporting Small Businesses
• Recap: [Virtual] India, February 08, Ghumakkad Gossip: Editing Roads For Beginners
• Recap: [Virtual] India, February 16, Ghumakkad Gossip: Importance of Co-Host in the Meet-up - Part 1
• Recap: [Virtual] India, March 16, Ghumakkad Gossip: Local Guides Community and Connect Overview - [This Recap]
to you and 
, ISO 9001? That’s too kind!