Hi my LG Friends, before you start reading I would advise you to put this song in the background in order to make the experience more pleasant. It’s an idea that I “stole” from my dear friend @Julien44 by reading one of his last posts that you can find here . Thanks bro!
SMALL PARENTHESIS
Before the post I would like to open a small parenthesis for the situation that we are currently experiencing almost all over the world due to the COVID-19 or Coronavirus. Especially in the most affected countries like China and my home country, Italy.
I ask all LG friends who live in these countries to hold on and not give up, soon the situation will be resolved and it will be only a bad memory.
By following the guidelines our governments have given us, we can defeat the virus and limit the damage as much as possible. Stay safe!
This post is in response to one of the questions I most like to explain when someone asks me: “What does the Local Guides program mean to you?”
This question asked for participation in Connect Live 2020 contains within itself a world of emotions and important points to touch that are not easy to explain in a few words.
In fact, although for me the fundamental objective of the Local Guides program is to help users by providing useful content, this would not be enough to explain and to make everyone understand what it means for me to be a Local Guide.
Being a Local Guide means having a great passion for exploration, travel, the discovery of new activities and places not only as a personal experience
but above all to share these experiences with the rest of the world. In fact I think sharing is the key word for any Local Guide that
wants to help others with useful information and personal opinions, from sharing the best restaurant in town to updating the maps,
but also from the creation of the list of the best places for a holiday to the organization of a meetup to clean their land from waste.
As I said in the participation video and as I often repeat to other Local Guides, for me the important thing is not the LG level, the number of views,
the number of reviews or contributions uploaded on Maps … for me the important thing is to provide REAL quality content that can help people at any time and anywhere. Statistical data or the new option introduced with followers, as in social networks, are only accessory functions of the program
that I can encourage Local Guides to give more, motivating our improvement … but for me they are not essential characteristics of the program. I love writing reviews, I love to advise and give my opinion on the last restaurant where I went to eat just to share and help everyone with my experience.
The views, the number of likes or the followers are the last thing I consider. The quality of contributions for me comes first.
I am even happier if thanks to this “quality” in my contributions, the activity that I reviewed derives a benefit as for example it was in the case of
Barber Corner a small new business in my neighborhood of which I recently became a customer, here you can find my review .
The owner of this business after writing a review of his business said to me:
"I read your review and thank you so much for how well you described my activity and my passion. A few weeks after reading your review I noticed an increase of new customers who had found my barber shop thanks to reviews like yours and because in the search results on the browser I was among the first"
These words from the owner made me immensely happy and motivated me even more to continue on this path.
But beyond the possibility of helping local activities, in my opinion the Local Guides program has the power to make our land known outside the territorial borders and show art and culture, especially of places little known in the world such as my region, Sardinia.
Being able to make my home known to the whole world has a meaning for me
of great importance since my land has always suffered (due to the way people and local institutions represent the region) the isolation and the scarcity of information to the rest of the globe in order to be known and explored, implementing tourism and improving the local economy.
I was able to make my land known to many people from all over the world thanks to the participation in the Connect Live of 2019 which was held in November in San Jose, California.
I brought 200 photos to the event as a gift for my friends Local Guides with a small description on the back (you can find the post about it here)
with the idea of letting them discover a place still unknown for many and the hope that one day they will travel to visit it in person.
Take part this huge event with all these beautiful people and in the country that fascinates me most in the world,
the United States of America, it was one of the best experiences of my life for me and that i will never forget.
A dream that has come true and that has moved and moved me every day. Thanks this wonderful experience made me grow not only as a local guide but especially as a person on a human and cultural level. I learned a lot from the people I met and I hope I have given some useful teaching to them too.
Meeting these people again this year would mean realizing another dream with greater awareness thanks to past experience.
I feel I can give more and more to the community thanks to the motivation that Google and the local guide program are giving me in everyday life!
I must say that the thing that impressed me a lot about this important event was the ease with which strong ties were created between the participants and that even today these relationships have not vanished! Beautiful friendships were created in no time despite cultural diversity and everyone really loved each other! I haven’t seen any kind of racism, discrimination or other bad attitude. Respect, admiration and love have triumphed in this edition of Connect Live and I’m really happy for this.
Keyword
This is what the Local Guides program means to me: sharing, helping others with quality and not just with numbers and letting everyone know about their land!
I really hope to see you at Connect Live and I wish you all the luck in the world for your application!
P.S. here in description you will find the link for my video and my list for the selection and participation in Connect Live 2020!
If you don’t have clear ideas yet, you can take a cue from my clip and list, but you still have time to share everything.
BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
. Thanks mentionning my post and the song! By the way, Ehrling is one of my favorite song at that time!
I could not fail to mention you after your brilliant idea of putting a song in the background. 
And now I find that we also like the same songs, but it’s fantastic! 
I hope to see you again at CL20 good luck my friend! 
All the best and good luck to you! 
Even for food we Italians often say: quality before quantity! 
Good luck for your application, I hope to see you even this year! 
