Close your eyes and think at the first trip you remember without having Maps and our contributions, got it? Mine was a road trip across Germany and The Netherlands. It was around 15 years ago when with friends we decided to explore those two countries by a rented car and you know the fun fact, our car had a broken navigation (wow). Lucky I had a super phone those ages with one of those first offline mobile navigators, working not bad so at least we would have no problems for the driving directions.
Next step, where to eat? Here the selection was difficult, just spot places on the street without knowing what to expect and I do remember sometimes we had to search for very long for a not really satisfying result.
Today there wouldn’t be similar problems, especially in finding places where to go with the tremendous amount of information available on Maps thanks to us, the Local Guides.
Do you remember your first contribution? Well I have to admit not clearly because I used to provide reviews on other platforms as well for the help for help: you can search for a place so why not give a deserved thank you by leaving a review which will help someone else. But looking back, my memory went to a business trip close to Manchester. Last evening we moved to a hotel closer to the airport and we attempted to search for directions to visit the city center, however the hotel wasn’t very well located for transportation but we surprisingly found very good information on Maps while looking the area, which bus to take and at what time, more over even a coupon for a taxi service when attempting to book from Maps… Wow that’s super useful! When Maps did pop up for a review on the places where we have been, well it was worth enough after the help we got. The more information there are and the more helpful they can be to the others, and that’s depending on us… Local Guides.
Together we… are Local Guides out of this world! I love this sentence, why? Because that’s expressing everything. Not only the help but also the family behind this power group, a family driven by a life long friendship.
Connect is our public square, or our public cafe if you like an Italian expression ?. Well here we meet each other, we share knowledge, we share our achievements! But don’t forget we are real, so go and organize a meetup… you wouldn’t regret about it. Through the first meetups I started to join the Italian Local Guides community where I established very nice friendships. Local Guides are passionate people, are people driven by heart, are friendly, they are willing to share and contribute to help others and all those core values, no matter where we are, makes this great friendship and this great family.
Well it might be too serious, no! Local Guides are also fun people, you need to have fun. Just think at your passions, at your hobbies, at what you like to do. I’m for example a techie (yes I know it doesn’t seem like ?) and I really like it and when you like something and you put your passion, well you are having fun.
Having fun in contributing, having fun in helping people, having fun in friendship and build a better world. That’s what the Local Guides program means to me… stand by us, be a Local Guide!
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