Greetings Waze Champs!
We are more than excited to update that we’re opening the registration for new Community Self-Organized Local Meetups and Waze Cafes for 2022! We aspire to have as many in-person Meetups as possible while adhering to local COVID regulations of each country, while still providing the option for members to join virtually.
As it was before the pandemic, your event will be organized by us with the help of SO&CO, the event management company who is in charge of our Meetup logistics and production.
This means that community leaders (Coordinators/Global Champs/etc…) do not need to send us venue proposals for local meetups nor coordinate with the hotel.
To organize your Local Community Meetup in 2022, please read the instructions below carefully:
Step 1 - Sign up
- Go to the Meetup Information Website.
- Check the Meetup Calendar 2022 on the website to see available dates.
- Fill out this form before December 11, 2021.
Timing and location of meetups:
Participation can be strongly affected by the accessibility of the Meetup location and its schedule. In the past, Meetups struggled with participation when the event was scheduled on a holiday weekend.
In addition, it’s very important to choose a location that’s convenient to reach for most editors, and will also encourage new editors who might not want to travel far to get to their first Meetup. We strongly suggest organizing Meetups in central metropolitan areas.
Step 2 - Confirmation
- Once we review the dates/location submitted on the Self-Organized Meetup Form, Danit (danitt@waze.com) will email you to confirm your event and will give you a list of “next steps” to follow.
- The dates will be added to the Meetup calendar by the order of submission, first come first served.
Step 3 - Next Steps
- Please follow the Self-Organized Meetup Checklist provided by Danit on the “next steps” email.
- Send out invitations to your community members using the registration form provided by your Community Manager.
- Approve participant list.
We believe that Meetups are an incredible opportunity to bring in new Editors. Especially if their editing activity has been fluctuating and you’re not convinced they will stick around - few things make as much of an impact on meeting the community. In general we encourage you to bring as many editors who haven’t attended meetups before as possible. Feed messages could be a great way to reach them.
We remind you that each participant is allowed to attend one Local Meetup per year, unless there is an exception from your community manager.
Need to refresh your memory on how meetups work?
Take a look at the 2022 Meetup Information Site where you can find descriptions of meetups, a calendar of events and a whole bunch of FAQs.
What to Keep in mind about Local Meetups:
- Waze in-person Local Meetups can take place as long as local COVID regulations allow it.
- Local Meetups are 1 day-long meetings, initiated and planned by local community leadership to gather new and experienced editors and discuss local issues.
- They are events designated for the local community only, which typically consists of one country or smaller neighboring ones.
- Waze covers one night stay at the event hotel for each community member. Participants may choose which night - the one leading to the Meetup or the one after.
- Waze covers food and beverage during the meeting: breakfast, lunch, and 2 coffee breaks.
- Transportation costs are covered to the city where the Meetup is being held (by train, flight, etc…), but do not cover the cost of additional transit to the Meetup location (taxi, rental car, etc.).
If you prefer to have a smaller, less formal meeting with your local community of Waze editors, you can get together using the Waze Cafe meeting format.
A few rules to remember about Waze Cafes:
- Waze Cafes can take place as long as local COVID regulations allow it.
- Waze Cafes are small, casual gatherings of 10-15 editors from an area.
- Local editors meet to collaborate on any editing/community issue.
- Waze covers the cost of food/beverage (dinner/lunch). Please note that Waze Cafes are typically held in casual environments such as restaurants/ coffee places and Waze does not reimburse venues such as hotel conference spaces.
- Please make your Waze Cafe 2022 Request with a minimum of 4 weeks prior to the event date.
Waze Meetups - Looking back through the years:
Self-organized Community Meetups emerged years ago as a bottom-up enterprise. Since 2011, Waze Communities across the globe have shown us their amazing Waze spirit by taking initiative and meeting each other spontaneously. Editors wanted to meet each other in-person to talk about Waze, map editing and technology, and started to just meet in a restaurant or at someone’s house, enjoying the event and sending Waze HQ a summary and some pictures.
As we reinvent the way we gather in a post-COVID world, we want to maintain Local Meetups as a fundamental community experience. Waze Staff’s presence can be nice to have (either in person or by video conference), but we don’t want it to overshadow the communal and local spirit that made the original Local Meetups so special. Regional Meetups will still be an excellent opportunity to discuss high-level issues between the Community and Staff, while Local Meetups are a great format for local editors to meet their leaders, and for Champs to demonstrate their leadership.
Looking forward to bringing the community back together with you in 2022! 
The Waze Communities Team