How to Host a Microsoft Teams Webinar

One of the great ways to fully take advantage of MS Teams is to use Microsoft Teams for webinars. If your team is working remotely, it’s a good way to keep them together  – and even if you’re in the same office, it can be used to keep them on the same page.

Microsoft Teams webinars can also be useful for education, for training, for bringing in external experts to address your organization, or for team-building activities – helping you bond as a business and boost internal culture. 

If you’re not familiar with using Microsoft Teams for webinars, there are some exciting new features available and some advantages to using a system that is perfectly integrated into the Office 365 platform.

Let’s take a look at how to do a Microsoft Teams webinar.

Setting Up Your MS Teams Webinar

First, you need to know how to host a webinar with MS Teams. Using Microsoft Teams for webinars is simple and easy.

• Go to the “Events” section of MS Teams and then click on the “New” option.
• Fill in the date and time of your event, as well as whether it will be recurring.
• Select the “Do you want to stream this event” toggle and select the webinar streaming option.

At this stage, you’ll be able to determine the major characteristics of your webinar. MS Teams webinars can host up to 10,000 people (without engagement features). If you want to include engagement features, you can stream to up to 1,000.

Some important settings to consider:

• Lobbies. You may want people in your organization to bypass lobbies, but lobbies are critical if you’re hosting an open or public event to ensure that spammers or other disruptive individuals can be screened.
• Announcing when callers join or leave. This is useful for small groups but in larger groups it can become disruptive.
• Allowing attendees to unmute. In large groups, you want to have attendees muted – otherwise it becomes too distracting.
• Allowing meeting chat. Having people muted and allowing chat is usually ideal for larger webinars.

Think about the consequences of each setting choice for your webinar, then just save it. When the time comes, you’ll be able to launch your Teams meeting as an MS Teams webinar and invite people in.

How to Host a Great Microsoft Teams Webinar

Of course, even if you know how to host a webinar using MS Teams, that doesn’t mean that you know how to host a great Microsoft Teams webinar. If you don’t do your webinar well, the attendees might be bored, rather than engaged – and nobody wants that. Just like large meetings, the success of a webinar is all about preparation. If you prepare for your Microsoft Teams webinar, you’ll have a much better chance at a dazzling presentation that will keep attendees fully engaged.

Start With a Topic and Discussion Points

The best meetings are clear, and the best webinars are, too – whether you use Microsoft Teams or some other platform. Your webinar should be as short as possible given the material that you’re working with. When people are inundated with information right away, they often stop processing it altogether. Create discussion points that are simple and clear and build your information step-by-step.

A webinar is very much like creating a brief lesson plan. You have a central thesis and goal for the webinar, as well as an assortment of topics that you want to touch upon. At the end of your Microsoft Teams webinar, make sure your viewers know how to get more information.

Prepare Slides, Graphics and Interactive Media

The beauty of a webinar is that you’re able to share your screen, slides, graphics and more. Consider adding polls and other interactive media so that you can keep people engaged and keep them talking. The more interested the audience is in your presentation, the more will “stick.” Try to open things up more to engagement and discussion.

Send Documents to Attendees in Advance

Those attending should get some preliminary documents before the webinar even starts, so they can prepare themselves on what to expect and so that they come into the webinar with the right expectations. The more information they have about what they’re going to experience, the better! Running a webinar is a lot like running a classroom; think about it like sending someone a “syllabus” before a class. This also means you may be able to head off some basic questions before the presentation even begins.

Find Other Presenters or Experts

Guest lecturers, presenters and experts are a great way to build credibility, fill time and make sure that the webinar has value. For corporate events, having a presenter or expert from outside the company can be an exciting way to enhance interest.

Being able to host webinars is only one of the superb features of MS Teams. Microsoft Teams makes it easier for individuals to connect in a remote, work environment, as well as allowing for large groups to come together. It isn’t about just being able to hold excellent Microsoft Teams webinars – it’s about making your team more cohesive and effective, whether you’re in the office or dispersed around the country.

If you want to learn more about the benefits of Microsoft Teams (and how you can implement it for your company) contact the experts at Red River.