[MUSIC PLAYING]
JENNY BROWN: Hi, there.
And welcome back to the G Suite Show.
We're going to be sitting down and talking
with Lauren Gallegos.
LAUREN GALLEGOS: Yeah, it's great to be here.
Thanks for having me.
JENNY BROWN: Absolutely.
Lauren manages our Google Cloud community.
And we're going to learn a little bit more
about what she does and why it's important for you.
So Lauren, why does Google Cloud Connect exist,
and why should our customers know about it?
LAUREN GALLEGOS: Yeah, well, the main reason
we came up with Google Cloud Connect
was to bring together, connect, and support our large community
of Google Cloud users.
So whether it's through talking to different Googlers
about the newest features coming out,
or talking to other Google admins
as well to see workarounds that they can implement,
there's just so many reasons why our customers
should be using Google Cloud Connect as a resource.
JENNY BROWN: So tell me, who's producing the content for GCC?
LAUREN GALLEGOS: Yeah, it's a great mixture between people
like myself-- community managers,
also Googlers that are experts in their fields,
and then even power users as well.
One of my favorite parts about the GCC
is that there are a ton of different blog series
that we put out, so with everything from launch
announcements to change management, and even
security as well.
JENNY BROWN: Very nice.
I know that change management is a really hot topic.
I'm actually creating a training session on it
for one of my internal teams.
So are you saying that even I could contribute and submit
content for this?
LAUREN GALLEGOS: Yeah.
I mean, right now in our change management
blog we have a ton of great stuff in there, everything
from the neuroscience of change also
to things like how to get your employees to actually adopt
G Suite.
But the more the merrier.
That's how we feel about content at the GCC.
JENNY BROWN: So as a community manager,
what would you say is the most important part of the GCC?
LAUREN GALLEGOS: I would say Feature Ideas.
JENNY BROWN: And why is that?
LAUREN GALLEGOS: Feature ideas are the first of their kind.
For years we've been hearing from customers,
I want an easy way to submit my ideas to you guys
about how to make the product better.
And that's exactly what Feature Ideas does.
It allows you to submit, vote, and even search
on Feature Ideas that we eventually
pass over to the product team.
JENNY BROWN: And can you tell us a little bit more
about one of your favorite Feature Ideas?
LAUREN GALLEGOS: Yeah, I mean, that's a hard one.
There's been so many great ones over the years.
But if I had to pick just one, though,
it would probably be the ability to seamlessly integrate
your charts from Sheets over into Google Slides.
So the reason for that is it's actually a product now.
And it's something that we can do.
And that's something that I use every day.
So I love the success stories when it comes to Feature Ideas.
JENNY BROWN: So I'm all about testing out our new products,
or over here at Google we call it "dogfooding."
How can someone outside the company
get involved with one of our early adopter programs?
LAUREN GALLEGOS: Yeah, our early adopter program
is one of the newest features of the GCC
and one of the most popular.
It gives customers the ability to test out some of our newest
products, like App Maker, and also Team Drives, before it's
really out to the public.
So on the GCC, people can go in.
They can sign up and apply to be one of the members that
get access to it earlier.
JENNY BROWN: I've attended a few of our meet-ups before,
and it's so great to see the customers and partners really
getting together.
Can you tell us a little bit more about those?
LAUREN GALLEGOS: Yeah.
When we created the meet-ups, we really
wanted to be an extension of the community
and bring people together within their actual community.
And so when we're putting them on,
we bring you product roadmaps.
We get experts in from our product team,
and also even our engineering team,
to really tell you what's going on in the business
and get you to connect to people that are around you every day.
JENNY BROWN: Thank you so much for your time, Lauren.
We really appreciate you coming to talk to us about the Google
Cloud Connect community.
LAUREN GALLEGOS: Thank you.
This is great.
JENNY BROWN: Yeah.
And so we'll put a link in below for you guys
to go and check it out.
But you can also search Google for Google Cloud Connect.
Cheers.
LAUREN GALLEGOS: Cheers.
JENNY BROWN: See you next time.
LAUREN GALLEGOS: Bye.
SPEAKER: In a previous episode, we
went over the basics of Google Keep.
But since then, a whole slew of new features have been added.
JENNY BROWN: After we discuss each one,
we'll provide a link for you to learn more, right
at the bottom of the screen.
SPEAKER: Now Google Keep is available keep.google.com,
and as a mobile app on both Android and iOS.