This post is part of #ConnectTurns5Challenge started by @AdrianLunsong Week 2 - What Connect Means to me …
If you know me well I can’t just post one photo for the challenge, here are some photos on how my connect community journey started and where I am today in the community!
Even though I joined LocalGuides Program on 23rd July 2017, I joined connect only on May 2nd 2019 as part of ConnectLive 2019 application process. Till connect live I hadn’t met any LocalGuides. The first interaction I had was in fact with Adrian, on one of the meetups before ConnectLive 2019 to get to know each other. That was my first exposure to other LocalGuides.
Here are couple of shots of ConnectLive 2019 day 1 reception. After this event I have interacted with several Local Guides in these pictures.
Here is a shot of attendees of Coffee meetup hosted by @KarenVChin during the ConnectLive event. You can see Adrian and Karen in the picture along with other popular LGs and LG Moderators!
Fast forward one year from ConnectLive 2019, due to covid, virtual meetups exploded on the connect platform. I was able to build much more closer relationship with several LGs during this period. My every weekend looks like this now, specially since I started participating/hosting weekly state Challenge meetups. Apart from State challenge there were so many meetups I have attended and got to know lot more LGs during this process.
I love seeing all those smiley and familiar faces here in this post @jayasimha78 … Connect is really something indeed, right! I became LG in 2017 and my first presence in Connect was September 2018 (if my private statistics served me right :)). But not until 2019 I posted my first piece in Connect. Well, hopefully I can write down some posts with this them as well
@indahnuria You are absolutely right. It is really fun to interact with LGs all over that world. I am pretty sure you have a great collection of pictures from the meetups you attend regularly.
Fabulous post @jayasimha78 !! Loving the photos from Connect Live 2019 as it brought back so many great memories!
The welcome reception was super awesome and I love my breakout session which was a visit to local businesses in Japantown. And I remember dragging myself out of bed at crazy o’clock in the morning for @KarenVChin 's much anticipated coffee meet-up! I think I slept at 2am and woke up early for the sweet, sweet taste of Philz coffee (I Philz coffee!). And I also recall the conversation I was having with @TanTurner about her police husband as we had just taken some photos with the local police force that happened to be at Philz for their coffee break! And the digital wall of fame was soooooo amazing!!! Love, love, love it!
You’ve come a long way very quickly @jayasimha78 and I’m sure the community stands by me when I say that your contributions to the community are amazing! Thanks for being awesome and for continually supporting the community!
@jayasimha78 — to refresh your Philz Coffee morning on the last morning of Connect Live 2019, I like to share a better “action” photo of our caffeinated group via from @LuigiZ’s Samsung
@jayasimha78 - it’s nice to see you being so active here on Connect. You are an inspiration. I wish I had the same amount of energy and time to be on Connect these days as much you do.
@jayasimha78 just looking at all those photos make me smile. Some moments where we giggled from a silly jokes especially the StateChallenge meetup. It feels like a Saturday ritual now and when I miss it I can feel it that something is wrong, sound silly but that’s the truth!
@KarenVChin Hah… I would normally not ask for a photo like that… but heck, it was so obvious that we were all a mad bunch of tourist snapping photos left, right and center, so I was a bit cheeky and got the photo taken! Oh, how I miss the coffee though… super nice!! Definitely worth the morning trek to get them! Thanks for the great meet-up!
The best thing about going to Connect Live every year is to take candid photos like this @AdrianLunsong – when your subjects least expect it! I have a photo for every occasion or topic. LOL
@Velvel I am looking forward to meeting you in person too. You are right it was hard to know everyone within 4 days time. We are making good connections after the event working on various common interests.
Philz coffee!). And I also recall the conversation I was having with 
And the digital wall of fame was soooooo amazing!!! Love, love, love it!
Oh, how I miss the coffee though… super nice!! Definitely worth the morning trek to get them! Thanks for the great meet-up!