As @TraciC explained in the post “Tips for hosting virtual meet-ups” in this situation we are difficult to meet offline as usual for our regular meetups. At the same time more local guides are online than usual. Therefore organizing virtual meetups by this time that fulfill the both requirements of stay home safely and meeting one another online. Another benefit of having virtual meetups are it is a great way to meet people residing at long distances.
Then I hosted this Sri Lanka Local Guides Virtual meetup on 28th March 2020 at 7.00 p.m. (+5.30 GMT), but there was no limitation on country to join. I did some experiments with google meet and online streaming before the meetup and got ready. I manged to live stream the meetup on YouTube as well. 8 participants from 4 different countries joined for this meetup. @IlankovanT confirmed his participation early but unfortunately he couldn’t attend.
Participants of the meet-up
Torben Mauch ( @TorM ) from Germany
Anuradha Piyadasa ( @AnuradhaP ) from Sri Lanka
Ravindu Samarasinghe ( @ravindus ) from Sri Lanka
Govinda (@Govinda) from India
Solaiman Hossain ( @SolaimanHossain ) from Bangaladesh
Rumal Vindula ( @Rumal95 ) from Sri Lanka
Yukthi Isuranga ( @Yukthi_Isuranga ) from Sri Lanka
First we went for an introduction round to get know each other. Then we started sharing our experiences with each other. @AnuradhaP shared his experience as a local guide for last four years. Also he invited all local guides to give him a hand with his project to locate and map government approved pharmacies around Sri Lanka during this pandemic situation. My self, @ravindus and @Yukthi_Isuranga talked about the role of Local guides during this time of corona outbreak with our own experiences. All shared their ideas to how we can productive being at homes during this situation.
@TorM and @SolaimanHossain also joined to the discussion. @TorM explained the situation in Germany and shared his invaluable experiences with everyone. @SolaimanHossain was glad to attend this meetup and he had some questions to ask regarding connect application.
After chatting with each other for about one and half hours time we ended our meetup. Everyone needed a another run. That is the story of another fruitful virtual meetup where we found new friends form different countries and learned lot of new things.
Thanks to everyone who has joined and watched us online. Special thanks to @TraciC for the great tips for a virtual meetup.
Here is the link to shared photo album of the meetup.
Enjoy following recap video.
