I have been encouraging two local guides to host a meet up and do a photowalk together. In the midst of writing out the instructions and suggestions, I created a list to assist them in the process - as they’d never done it before.
Then I thought to myself, hey, this might be helpful information for others who might want to collaborate on a photowalk together. How would you do it? What things do you need to keep in mind? So, voila, this is a ‘how to’ guide of sorts.
The first step is to talk about the content and information that you want to cover and places to visit.
Then create a list of places to visit which you can do on Google Maps list. You might even want to collaborate on Google docs and share the document to allow for mutual editing etc.
Some things to keep in mind when creating your list and route:
- Length of walk you would be happy to do e.g 3 km or 6 km?
- Toilet breaks, water breaks, food/snacks etc
- Where will you start and where will you finish?
- Will you finish at a place where you can gather to share and recount day’s experiences? (Always a good idea.)
- When will you start and when will you finish?
- Is lunch going to be part of the Meet-up? If so, will the restaurant be able to cater for a group, do they do split bills?
- What is the weather likely to be during that time of year?
- What shelter will there be along route?
- Will you postpone or cancel or still go ahead if there is bad weather?
- Will someone do a quick reconnaissance of the places that you are planning to visit?
When you’ve hashed out the content, create in Google Maps a saved map of your planned route.
Then create a shared Google Photos album where participants of the walk can share their photos to and where you can also then refer to when writing your Recap.
Choose an opening photo to use for your Meet-up.
Decide how you will be identified by a group of people who might not have met you before e.g. use a Local Guides flag, mention a particular outfit or cap you will be wearing etc. If you don’t add this to your main meetup post, you can save this to be included in one of your announcements. But I think mentioning this in the main post makes things more straightforward for newbies.
Then decide which of you will do the post on Meet-up.
As no changes are possible after you hit the submit button on the Meet-up>Host a Meetup page, it might be a good idea to write out what you want to say first in another document (e.g. Word or Google Docs).
When you have gotten all the bits and pieces together, go to the Meet-up page and fill in the details - including a link to your Google maps route, shared album and list of places to visit (the last is optional).
On this post, you will have the ability to make three announcements about your meet-up to those who have RSVPed. Choose wisely when and how you will use this announcement. There is a 500 character limit on this. I would suggest an announcement about 7 to 10 days from your walk, another about 1 to 2 days leading to your walk and save the last one for the day itself in case you have to cancel, or if you don’t use it, use it after the walk and thank people or direct their attention to the shared photo album that they can contribute to etc.
Allow up to 2 weeks for approval of your meet-up. This can be very quick and only take a couple of days but to be on the safe side, allow 2 weeks.
When your walk is approved, a post is created automatically for you on Local Guides Connect that people can comment on. This is where you can interact with people. But the RSVP link will send them to the Meet-up post page which doesn’t allow for comments etc.
If you have a Facebook account and other social media account (WhatsApp etc), you can advertise your walk using the link to the Meet-up. Promote it as widely as you can.
My suggestion is to allow about 3 to 4 weeks to promote your walk/meet-up. So, you’ll need to work backwards as to when you schedule your walk in relation to when you submit it. What I mean is, allow yourself about 7 to 8 weeks to start doing the work of preparing things before the actual date of the walk - especially if this is your first time and you’ve not created your personal map or route in Google maps nor used lists nor google docs for collaboration.
In the days leading up to the walk, check the weather and see who has RSVPed. Check the connect page and ‘chat’ with people who have responded.
On the day of the walk itself:
- Arrive about 10-15 minutes early
- Bring/wear whatever you said you’d be identified by
- Do introduce yourself, welcome everybody, facilitate introductions with the others who do turn up.
- Take a group photo that you can include later in your recap
- Don’t walk too fast, be mindful of how interested people are in the places you are visiting, but don’t be too slow either.
When you have finished the walk, one of you might like to take the lead in doing the Recap. A note about Recaps (learning from my mistakes): - There is a 20,000 character limit
- You have a 1,000 photo limit in all your posts, use photos you want to include judiciously - it is best to create a Google Photos album that you can send people to to view other photos of your Meetup
- Sometimes long posts might not save correctly online, I suggest writing your recap in word or some other document first - when you are happy with it, then copy it over
I think that’s about it. Perhaps I’ll think of a few more things later and edit this if I think of it (!).
Have fun! Hope this has been helpful.
PS I just read a great post on how to write a great recap by @AriMar . Here’s the link:
https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/Help-Desk/How-do-I-write-a-great-meet-up-recap/ba-p/1376614
