Greetings Waze Coordinators!
Whoosh! Can you believe another year of Meetups is almost in the rearview mirror? But here’s the scoop – we’re not hitting the brakes! Get ready to dive into the excitement because registration is officially open for the 2024 Community Self-Organized Local Meetups and Waze Cafes.
This time, based on your invaluable feedback, we’re focusing on In-Person Meetups only and will no longer provide the option for virtual participation.
While we acknowledge the value of allowing virtual participation, it comes with a fair share of challenges that can’t be overlooked. You’ve rightly highlighted that the virtual setup doesn’t guarantee equal participation and the technical aspect can also ruin the experience for both those in-person and those attending virtually. Our goal is to create an enjoyable and fruitful experience for everyone joining in.
With that said, it’s important to clarify that we’re not letting go of Virtual Meetups altogether. If you’re interested in having a Virtual Meetup on top of the in-person one, we’ll absolutely support you. In this case, simply connect with your community manager to coordinate the date and content, and we’ll be right there to assist with the registration process.
Already know the drill? Skip the below instructions and submit your request right away. If you’re not quite sure how the process goes, check out the below guide and get the ball rolling for your 2024 In-Person Local Community Meetup:
Step 1 - Sign Up
- Head over to the Meetups Information Website and check the Meetups Calendar for available dates.
- Complete the request form by November 4, 2023. With about 4 months of planning needed, the earliest Meetups can be scheduled for late February, 2024.
- To ensure the best service from our production company, we’ve limited the spots for how many Meetups can take place each month. We will be assigning dates on a “first-come, first served” basis.
Timing and location can make or break participation. Watch out for holidays and opt for convenient, central metropolitan areas.
Remember, we might not be able to accommodate requests that don’t meet these criteria.
Step 2 - Confirmation
- After reviewing the dates and locations from your submitted Meetup request form, we will confirm with you the chosen date.
- Once we’re sure there are no clashes with holidays or other Meetups, the dates will be added to the Meetups calendar & the Registered Events list. We’ll do our best to green-light your preferred dates. Date allocation is on a first-come, first-served basis, so while we’ll make every effort to accommodate your first choice, we might need to schedule the Meetup on a different date based on the order of your listed preferences.
- Danit & Romi (danitt@waze.com, romia@waze.com) will send you an email with the next steps to follow a few months prior to the Meetup to kick off the registration.
- This time around, our trusted Staff Community Managers will assist you in growing and approving the participants’ list, seeing that one of our shared goals is to nurture and strengthen the community.
A quick reminder:
- Local Meetups are the perfect opportunity to welcome new Map Editors to the Waze family. There’s nothing like a face-to-face chat for igniting editing enthusiasm, particularly for those whose editing experience has had its ups and downs. We encourage you to invite as many new editors as possible. Even if their activity isn’t consistent, give newcomers a chance to shine.
- Each participant can join one Local Meetup per year in their country/region of residence, unless there’s an exception from your Community Manager.
- If editors are out of the country during the Meetup weekend, flights from outside their country of origin won’t be covered.
An overview of the Meetup format:
- Local Meetups are 1 day-long meetings, initiated and planned by local community leadership to gather new and experienced editors and discuss local issues.
- Meetups start on Saturday morning and wrap up by 4:00 PM for a safe journey home.
- These Meetups are tailored for the local community, usually encompassing one country or neighboring ones.
- Waze covers food and beverage during the meeting: breakfast (part of the room booking for participants staying at the hotel), 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.).
- Please be aware that there is a cap on the amount of reimbursement for car refueling for those traveling to the Meetup by car. The cap is set at $300. However, if there is a need for exceptions, Meetup participants can reach out to us, and we will consider such requests on a case-by-case basis. For very long distances, our recommendation is to consider taking a flight.
- For more details on Local Meetups, go to the Meetups Information Site.
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 format.
Before you send in your Waze Cafe request, we advise you to review the recent forum post that outlines all the latest updates to the format.
When submitting your first Waze Cafe, please indicate whether you prefer 2 yearly Waze Cafes with transportation reimbursements or 4 without.
We’re beyond excited about what 2024 holds for us!
The Waze Communities Team
