I am a level 8 Local Guide. I really love helping people with information whether it is offline, online, on Google Maps or on Local Guides Connect. Before the Local Guides, I was a Regional Lead in Map Maker. I love mapping as it has a huge impact on the world.
Like every Local Guide, I love things like adding & editing places, adding photos, reviewing, answering the question, etc. But the most interesting thing I’ve done as a Local Guide is hosting Local Guides meet-ups. Through meet-ups, I have met a lot of new people, made friends, explored new places & foods and made a good impact on the world through Google Maps.
Here are a few of the meet-ups I have hosted for which I am proud of and my personal impact:
So far this is the meet-up I am really proud of. I hosted this meet-up collaborating with some friends from my village. In this meet-up I got an opportunity to introduce Local Guides to more than 30 people. Young guys were excited to know about the Local Guides program. We did a short Geo & Photo walk. We added about 10 places and ended with some small snacks arrangement. Through this meet-up, I was able to reconnect with friends after a few years. The recap of this meet-up featured in the Meet-ups label. ?
This was the very first meet-up I had hosted. It was in my University canteen mostly with my friends. I introduced the Local Guides program to them. They were super excited to know about the program and they started contributing their local knowledge on the Maps. Hosting this meet-up was one of the best things I have done in my life. Because I was always a shy guy especially when it comes to talking to the public. But after doing this with my friends I got to know that I can do it and I should do it more often. From then I started hosting meet-ups regularly.
Charbhadrasan Photo & Geo Bike
This is another exciting meet-up I hosted in my village. We rode about 35 kilometers on bikes! In this meet-up we added, edited and uploaded photos to locations that lack good photos mostly to schools. It was really fun riding with friends and exploring places I have been to. You may also want to watch this amateur video recap. ?
This was a very interesting meet-up for me because I was the only one who attended the meet-up. I call this a solo meet-up. ? In this meet-up day, I did an amazing photo-walk by exploring shopping malls, streets, and beaches. In October in my first Thailand tour, I wanted to meet some local guides from Thailand and wanted to meet-up. So I created three meet-ups in three different cities and I named it Thailand Tri-Meet! When I created these meet-ups many of my fellow local guides had wished me luck. I also wished I would be able to meet a few LGs but unfortunately, I couldn’t meet any. I met one Thailand local guide from Connect ( @Ant_Bad_Yogi ) and we are in touch throughout my tour. The recap of this meet-up was featured in Some of the best meet-up recaps from January 2020.
Hosting Local Guides is meet-ups has a very good impact on the community. By hosting and attending meet-ups we can make friends, explore places, taste new foods, learn new things, guide others, more opportunities to contribute, reconnect with people, build community and have fun.
Thank you for sharing this nice post with us.