Scheduling Teams Webinars

Microsoft Teams webinars provide the tools to schedule your webinar, register attendees, run an interactive presentation, and analyze attendee data for effective follow-up.

 

How webinars are different from ordinary meetings

Ordinary meetings generally include a lot of back-and-forth among the participants: discussions, sharing, assigning and accepting tasks, making plans, maybe coming to a consensus.

Webinars, on the other hand, are more controlled, and the participants have clear roles: One or several experts (the presenters) share their ideas or provide training to an audience (the attendees).

Please note: If the registration requirement is removed, the event becomes a regular meeting.

 

Roles in a Webinar

The Organizer

• Schedules the meeting
• Prepares the registration
• Arranges for presenters
• Sends out meeting invitation to Presenters
• Shares the event details with attendees
• Downloads the registration report data
• Manages Break Out rooms / Assigns room managers

Presenters

• Receive a Teams meeting invitation
• Do not have to register for webinar
• Can share screens
• Mics and cameras default to “on”
• Can be spotlighted when speaking

Attendees

• Do not receive a Teams meeting invitation
• Receives a link shared by the organizer
• Registers for the event
• Mics and cameras default to “off” – Organizers can change the permissions during the webinar
  
  

Scheduling a webinar

Generally, the only people who receive an invitation to a webinar are the presenters. The attendees are given a link to register for the event and can add it to their own calendars.

1. In the Teams calendar, select the arrow to the right of New meeting and then select Webinar.

2. By default, the webinar is open to everyone. You can change it to For people in your org by selecting the down arrow next to Require registration.

3. On the New meeting page, enter

• • Title for your webinar
  • Date, start and end times
  • Description

Note: The info that you enter on this page is for the webinar presenters only—attendees won’t see it.
If you want, you can set a different start time for attendees on the registration form so that you’ll have time to prepare with the presenters before the attendees join.

4. In the meeting notes section at the bottom of the invitation, you can add agenda items and notes, and assign pre-webinar tasks to the presenters. This info is shared only with presenters.

 

Add presenters

To allow people besides yourself to present content during the webinar, list them on the invite. Presenters don’t need to register. They join the webinar in the same way that they join a regular meeting.

1. In the Add required presenters' space, enter their names.

2. If there are optional presenters, select Optional presenters and enter their names.

• • By default, anyone in the Washington State WaTech tenancy can be added as presenters.
  • If you add external presenters, they will join the webinar as attendees. The organizer can promote them to presenters.

Customize the registration form

Potential webinar attendees get this form when they select the webinar registration link. They fill it out and submit it to receive the Join link for the webinar.

To begin, select View registration form.

 

 

1. This form allows you to upload an image that represents your webinar.
   
   
2. Enter event details.

• • The info that you enter on this page appears only on the registration page—it does not affect the start and end times on the webinar calendar event.
  • If you want, you can set a different start time for webinar presenters so that you’ll have time to prepare with the presenters before the attendees join.

3. Registration details.

• • The minimum information required is First name, Last name and Email.
  • Additional fields can be added.

 

Send the invite to Presenters

After you’ve completed the basic info for both presenters and attendees, added any additional presenters, and customized the registration form, send out the invite.

Important: You need to do this even if you’re the only presenter.

1. Select Send in the upper-right corner of the page.
2. The presenters will receive the invite.
3. The registration link will become active so that prospective attendees can register.

Publicize a webinar

Only the presenters will receive an invite from Teams. The organizer will need to add the registration link to:

• Websites
• Email
• Chats
• Outlook calendar items

1. Double-click the webinar event in your calendar.
2. Select Copy registration link near the top of the page.

 

View webinar registration report

After sending the webinar invite and publicizing your webinar, track who registered and what they entered on the registration form.

1. In your calendar, double-click the webinar.
2. Select the Registration button to download the report as a .CSV file that you can open in Excel.

Look for the file in your device's Downloads folder.

 

Webinar attendance report

You can download a current attendance report during the webinar as well as a final report afterwards. The final report includes info such as the percentage of registrants who attended and average attendance time.

After the webinar:

1. In your calendar, double-click the webinar event and select the Attendance tab. You can view the data directly in Teams.

2. To download the report, select the Details tab and then the Attendance button.

 

What Attendees see

1. When attendees click on the registration link, they enter the required information and register for the event.

2. The attendee will receive confirmation email.
   
   
3. Attached to an email is a calendar item that allows the attendee to add the event to their personal calendar.

4. The attendee will be placed in a lobby and will be informed their camera and mic have been disabled.

5. The organizer can control attendees’ mics and cameras.