OB Roundup (29 Aug 2014) - News, Discussions and Members to Watch
[We're still experimenting with this "community roundup" idea. Please let us know if it's useful or not!]
Coming soon
We've an exciting AMA with renowned consumer champion Chris Elliott coming soon - Wednesday, September 10, from 1-2pm EDT (5-6pm GMT). Chris will be taking questions on the modern travel industry and its all too frequent preference to put profit before pleasure. Watch this space for updates and please join us at the time.
We'll be shortly launching our new Groups features; a chance to create sub-groups for whatever subjects and issues we want to explore in more detail. Initial groups will include animal welfare in tourism, quality & ethics in travel writing and cultural sensitivity. We're open to suggestions!
Also in the near future is the release of our first set of curation tools, making it easier for people to share all the excellent content from Outbounding to their own audiences. We'll be starting small but there are exciting things ahead, please stay tuned.
Recent hot discussions
A truly excellent article for Nowhere Mag by Frank Bures on the pitfalls of press trips instigated this lively discussion that covered all sorts of hot topics including travel publishing, writer ethics and quality in destination writing.
There were also some other great additions to the subject of the travel publishing industry and the writing trade, see the Writing & Publishing hub for a summary.
The environment and responsible travel is never far from our minds and there were some interesting comments on climate change and tourism here.
And finally there was more lighthearted chat (a rare treat!) on the absurdity of reclining/non reclining airline seat etiquette.
#FollowFriday shoutouts
Just a few of our community members with some terrific contributions include Ellen G. Kempler, Mariellen Ward, Karen Catchpole and Gregory Hubbs. Many thanks to those and to everyone else for your contributions to the site.
Feedback?
As ever, any ideas or suggestions for AMAs, Hangout topics and other events are always very welcome!