Google has recently introduced a new feature called Google Hangouts On Air. We are really excited about this technology because it enables small groups of people to hold small video conferences that can be simultaneously streamed to YouTube and saved for future viewing. We would like to use this technology to host hostel industry panel discussions with experts from our community.
Cool huh? We decided to do a quick test to see how this might work. On the mock video panel discussion below we were all located in different locations. Brian was in Romania and the rest of us were in California. Google Hangouts will allow us to have panel discussions with people in our industry located all over the world.
Here's what I learned from this test. I need to turn off alerts and other sounds on my computer before beginning. Participants should use headphones to prevent echoes. I need to learn to look directly into the camera instead of the screen. This is a learning process for us all. Alaric is currently writing a tutorial for panel moderators, panel participants, and viewers. We will likely schedule another test panel discussion with questions via twitter in the near future. In the meantime, please let us know what you think. What sort of panel discussions would you like to see? Let us know in the comments below.
