How to Set Up Microsoft Teams Live Events

Connecting to your team has never been easier than with Microsoft Teams – and the new Live Events feature provides a convenient portal through which your organization can host important seminars, meetings, and outreach events.

Live Events is a new live-streaming utility embedded within Microsoft Teams. Here’s everything you need to know about one of the newest and most important Microsoft Teams features.

Why Should Your Team be Using Microsoft Teams?

An all-in-one communication and collaboration suite, Microsoft Teams makes it possible to keep your organization all on one page. With improved transparency and responsiveness, Microsoft Teams lets you coordinate employees, teams, departments, and offices regardless of where they are geographically located. Remote workers, in-office workers, and workers on-site can all connect to each other seamlessly through chat channels, private messages, video calls, and audio calls.

As a bonus, Microsoft Teams is completely integrated into the Office 365 ecosystem, making it simple to share information and collaborate on files. Microsoft Teams can be further augmented and customized with third-party applications and plug-ins, such as project management and customer relationship management solutions, creating a single, consolidated dashboard for employees and management.

Organizations are increasingly moving towards a team-based infrastructure, with some employees now being assigned to large numbers of individual teams rather than a single encompassing department. Microsoft Teams supports this new office infrastructure, creating agile, connected teams that can quickly communicate, sort through information, and collaborate on projects.

Why are Microsoft Teams Live Events Helpful?

With so many Microsoft Teams features available, what makes the Live Events special? Live Events are a type of team meeting that can be coordinated among large numbers of attendees. A Live Event is scheduled in advance and then launched, broadcasting a live stream to the attendees who choose to join.

Live Events can be used for many important company functions, including:

• Company updates. Company-wide notices can be distributed throughout the business to maintain transparency and to start a dialogue.
• Training sessions. A Live Event can be used for ongoing training sessions and continued education, training large numbers of employees at once.
• Team reports. Milestones can be discussed regarding specific projects and teams, to ensure that team members are on the same page.
• Events and seminars. Large company events can be simultaneously broadcast to the employees that aren’t available, keeping them in the loop.
• Webinars with external participants. Microsoft Teams Live Events let you reach out to an audience beyond your company, sharing your expertise with the world on a number of topics – like the benefits of Microsoft Teams.

Live streaming is becoming an important way to convey large volumes of complex information to a very broad audience. Through Microsoft Teams, Live Events can now be directed to any number of individuals throughout the company, thereby improving upon communication and creating a more effective and productive work environment.

How Do I Set Up Microsoft Teams Live Events?

Setting up Microsoft Teams Live Events is a simple, easy process, very similar to setting up any scheduled meeting. First, there are a few requirements, which include:

• Skype for Business Online
• An Office 365 Enterprise E3 or E5 license
• Permissions for Live Events under both Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Stream

There are a few other requirements as well, based on licensing – and you’ll also need to have the correct streaming equipment, which will include (at minimum) a web camera with a microphone. Your IT department can be consulted regarding availability of these Microsoft Teams features.

From there, the process is simple:

• Click on “Meetings“ and then “Schedule a Meeting.“
• Click on “New Meeting“ and then “New Live Event.“
• Add in the details of your meeting and then add attendees.
• Determine whether you want records available for download.
• Schedule your event.

While this process creates the Live Event, it doesn’t invite attendees to it. In order to do this, you need to:

• Click on “Meetings.“
• Click on your new Live Event.
• Click on “Get Link.“

You can then share this link with attendees by sending it through an Microsoft Teams channel or private messages.

To produce your event, you must:

• Click on “Meetings.“
• Click on your new Live Event.
• Click on “Join.“

Either the Quick Start or the Producer UI will guide you through the rest of the process. The Quick Start feature is intended to provide an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop interface for your Microsoft Teams Live Events, while the Producer UI offers more advanced features.

Microsoft Teams has several extraordinary utilities that can be used to enhance employee collaboration. Microsoft Teams Live Events are no exception. Through Microsoft Teams Live Events, your organization will be able to quickly connect with a large audience, holding broad-scope, scheduled live streams that can be distributed in video later.

Do you want to learn more about Microsoft Teams Live? Watch our video guide to setting up Microsoft Teams Live Events, contact Red River today to transform your organization through Microsoft Teams.