A Visit to Sin City

This post is totally about you guys: We had two major events proving, again, the power of the Waze community. 

In the US we took over sin city, and in Slovakia the community showed its strength in the country's top motoring event. 

Read on to learn more.

High Rollers..

US Champs in the house!

The North American meetup took place in Las Vegas this year, in the Mirage hotel. We had an impressive attendance, with champs from the US, Canada and even Mexico. After a nice dinner (with lots of drinks) on Friday, we had the main event in the hotel's lovely conference room. 

The community and the Waze team discussed the next phases in the WME development, methods of identifying and dealing with cheaters and abusers and lots more. 

The conversation was decidedly two sided: one of the main presentations was given by orbitc and vectorspace, talking about the amazing mentorship program. sketch closed the day nicely with a presentation about road types.

It was a great meetup with lots of new faces - and lots of fun.

Show Busters

On April 8 the Slovakian community raided the Autosalon event, Slovakia's top motoring event, with more then 130 exhibitors. 

Tomas Gursky, Slovakian Waze Master

Well, they had a permit, actually. The guys set up a stand with materials about Waze, and screened a demo about the app using tablets and other high-tech gear. They highlighted the app's social side and real time updates, and explained about the community's role in all this, all this while wearing T-shirts printed for the occasion.

The community's stand attracted the attention of a popular radio station, "Zelena vlna RTVS", and the result was an interview about the app. All in all a great success for an initiative which was 100% community. Inspiring, and very cool. 

Wazer Spotlight

Enhket, Chilean Local and Global champ

What do you do when not editing maps? I am an Industrial and Computer Science Engineer. After working for 2 different companies I realised

Enhket, Keeping it Cool

I hate having a boss. So I started to work with my Dad. If I had to define what I do, I would say that I am a "problem finder". He sends me to some companies and I have to find out why things are not going the way they should. It can take months sometimes. The last time I had to bring my "thermodynamics skills" back to life... but I always find the problem. We do some real-estate investments too, especially in times of crisis. As you may know from the Rothschild quote: buy when there is blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own. Which car do you drive? S7 2012 when i am in the country. How long have you been a Wazer? April 2012 How did you get hooked on Waze? I was trying to get access to the computers of the police. They have GPS data about the location of their mobiles every day and i wanted to get it. Then a friend of mine told me about Waze. I didnt like it and quit using it. But there was this one time where i turned on waze in my daily jams and it worked. There were incomplete maps, I felt like complaining at someone and you know the story... What's your favorite part about the community? LATAM, the Spanish people and the Waze Gang. Two years ago, I used to have a very complicated relationship with Adrian: Adrian had been by far the most patient person that I have ever met, and I was a pain in the ass! Then I met Irad when I was editing the "RN40" in Argentina, because i used to request a lot of Areas in order to map all of it. Then I moved to map the PANAM with other CM's and that is how I met Damian from the staff and the LATAM global Champs you see now. So what is my favorite thing about Waze? Legacy. When I see Adrian, Irad, Damian, andrex77, meb001, houstonmg, edson and so many others, I think of what LATAM was when I joined Waze and what it is now. It is very thrilling. The nice part is we keep going, there is still more to come. ..And the worst part. Well, the trust. I hated in the past when all I would get was a "no, it is not possible". Damian was the first Waze staff member to trust me and you know? when people trust you, you feel moved to do great things even if you don't get paid for it, because you don't want to fail them. Then Adrian and Irad supported me (and still do) with other projects. It has been a long ride. So, don't be afraid to trust your most loyal wazers. We would not dare to hurt the community or Waze in any way. What's the funniest Waze story that happened to you? I didn't attend the Praga meet up because I was busy at the time and I didn't go to Israel because I was having a great vacation in Formentera. I was happy with the maps and the forum, I didn't think that meeting people for 5-7 hours would make a difference. And I thought the same about the LATAM meetup. I was busy on that weekend, and I wasn't going to attend. But then Adrian invited robindlc and I thought I should give it a try, I felt moved to go and discuss community projects with robin and other champs. Also, it was about time to meet meb001 and other Wazers. So what is the funniest thing? when I got to Rio, I thought that nobody except GC's and friends knew me. When I got there, some GC's and friends were in a rush because we had paid for a tour and the tour guide was waiting for us. We returned to the hotel by night and everyone was already there. After taking a shower I went downstairs to greet some people and it was unbelievable. I got such a warm welcome and it was so unexpected. It was funny to experience that moment because I thought that just 5 people knew me! and it made me understand that we are wrong about a lot of things. When this kind of thing happens, you understand that you have an impact on people's lives. I have rarely seen a group of 40-50 people that are able to cooperate that well. Adrian is lucky to have such a great team on his hands. What's your best Waze tip for newcomers? Points don't matter. People think that you will join the top teams by having a lot of points and it is not like that. I am top 9, Calan is top 2 and we respect robin even though I don't know what rank he is. If you really, really, want to do great things in this community, there is a lot to do and it is not about points. Sometimes people think that local champs and global champs feel superior compared to others. Trust me, we all need you. If you help on forums, participate, and you are always there, then we will see this and before you know it you'll be a local champ. Don't be afraid to voice your opinion. What do you listen to when driving your car? I don't usually listen to music when I am driving, because I am on the phone most of the time. But whenever a party is done and I am driving back home, I listen to this one. You have to love the chorus:

That's it for now! 

As always, suggestions and questions are welcome!

Safe driving!