Google+ Hangouts on Air allows anybody with a computer and a Gmail account to broadcast an interactive conversation with the world — for free.
Theatrical Event Using Google+ Hangouts on Air was ‘a giant leap of faith’ for Sustainability in Theater Conference organizers.
W
hen the Minnesota Theater Alliance and the Twin Cities Sustainable Theaters Group
collaborated on the first national con- ference on sustainable practices for the performing arts, they wanted to have attendee participation from around the United States and the world, but they didn’t have the budget to fly people in, said Leah Cooper, the alliance’s execu- tive director. They did, however, have access to a beta version of Google+ Hangouts on Air (HOA), a free platform for webcasting interactive video. And that, Cooper said, turned out to be just what they needed. HOA is a webcast extension of
Google+ Hangouts, which allows up to 10 people — or computer screens — to communicate simultaneously. The
“On Air” feature lets users broadcast a Google+ Hangout on the Internet by way of a personal computer or mobile device. It makes it possible, among other things, for a moderator or speaker
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to video-chat with nine more individu- als or groups in a conversation broad- cast to a virtually unlimited audience. Sustainability in Theater Confer-
ence organizers used a password- protected event-broadcasting service to webcast keynotes and presentations on the first day of the two-day conference, held April 30–May 1 in downtown Min- neapolis, and used HOA on the second day for breakouts. “It was a giant leap of faith for us,” Cooper said. “And, amaz- ingly, everything worked.” There were approximately 90 par-
ticipants on site, with 30 more remote attendees in the U.K., Canada, and other parts of the United States. For the breakouts, between five to 10 remote attendees participated in sessions that were “entirely interactive,” Cooper said. Remote attendees “were able to converse with local participants in a totally conversational manner. It was really amazing.” Google released the Hangouts on
BREAKOUT
Not Just Hangin’ Out Using Google+ Hangouts on Air (HOA) to bring speakers and attendees together is a great way to “dip a toe” into webcasting, particularly for conferences that run on a shoestring, according to event technology expert Brandt Krueger. But there are also many other possibilities for using the interactive platform before and after events, he said.
Krueger has suggested to clients that they use HOA to promote upcoming events. “Get your speakers talking to each other and to attendees,” he said. “Or turn your iPhone to the rear-facing camera and take attendees on a walking tour of the facilities.” With HOA “still in the experimentation phase,” Krueger said, “my mind just starts going to all the potential uses.”