Microsoft Teams Live Events is part of Microsoft Teams in Office 365 and allows you to broadcast online events to audiences of all sizes, both publicly and/or internally.
In this blog, we discuss exactly what Teams live events are and the roles and responsibilities of presenters.
What are Teams live events?
Teams live events are made for situations where the few are presenting to the many — unlike Teams Meetings which are designed for interactive and collaborative participation from many, if not all participating in the meeting.
Teams live events allows you to stream live video and content to an audience of up to 10,000 who can participate via text-based Q&A.
This makes Teams live events ideal for webinars, business presentations, conferences and product demos.
Great features that enhance user experience:
- Live Q&A chat
- Live captions and translation
- Transcripts
- Post-event video downloads
- Attendee engagement report
With Teams live events, you can assign members of your event team as producers or presenters. Working on separate devices the events team can coordinate smooth and engaging online events from anywhere in the world, regardless of where your presenters are based – perfect for remote workers.
Do I need a Teams live events Licence?
There is no specific live events licence but to be able to create a live event, you will need the following:
- An Office 365 Enterprise E1, E3, or E5 license or an Office 365 A3 or A5 license.
- Permission to create live events in Microsoft Teams admin center.
- Permission to create live events in Microsoft Stream (for events produced using an external broadcasting app or device).
- Full team membership in the organisation (can’t be a guest or from another org).
- Private meeting scheduling, screensharing, and IP video sharing, turned on in Team meeting policy.
Note: You may need to ask your IT administrator to use the Microsoft Teams Admin Centre to grant you permissions to create live events in Microsoft Teams and enable other permissions.
Who can attend live events
Public events
If an event is public, anyone who has the link can attend without logging in.
Private events
If attendance is restricted to your organisation or to specific groups or people, attendees will need to log in to join.
If the event is produced in Teams, they’ll need a license that includes Teams. If it’s produced externally, they’ll need one that includes Microsoft Stream.
Note: Attendees need to enable third-party cookies in their browsers to watch a live event.
Event Team Roles and Responsibilities
There are four key roles involved in running a Teams Live Event properly:
- Organiser
- Producer
- Presenter(s)
- Attendees
The Organiser in Teams live events
The organiser is the person responsible for selecting the event team members and their responsibilities, scheduling the live event, configuring the event permissions and settings and distributing invitations to potential attendees.
The organiser should also take responsibility for the event setup and any testing required before the event.
Microsoft has a great Teams live events Organiser Checklist that’s worth a read.
Producers in Teams live events
There is only one producer who effectively acts as a host. The producer sends the event live and also finishes the event.
The producer controls the live event, making sure the correct content and format is being presented at the right times to the audience, ensuring they have a great viewing experience. The producer can share their own video or screen share, as well as video and content from the presenters.
Presenters in Teams live events
You can have multiple presenters on your live events. Each presenter can present their audio, content (screen sharing), or live video (webcam or camera) during the event – but only if the event is being produced in Teams (as opposed to an external platform).
Presenters can also act as moderators if you have switched on the live Q&A session option.
Teams live events Attendees
Your Teams live events attendees can be external or internal attendees – depending on whether you make your event public or private. Attendees can join the event via their invitation link and can either view the event in their web browser or Teams app if they have it.
Public attendees can choose to either view the event as ‘anonymous’ or they can log in with their Microsoft account. If they do choose to join anonymously, they can still set a name for themselves if they wish to — which can optionally be displayed when asking questions during a live Q&A session.
So there you have it, your complete round-up of what Microsoft Teams live events are.
Netitude are Microsoft Gold partners, so if you want to find out more about Microsoft Teams or live events for your business, get in touch to talk with a Netitude specialist. We’re very friendly!
