Crafting a Seamless Webinar Experience with Microsoft Teams: Your Guide

Crafting a Seamless Webinar Experience with Microsoft Teams: Your Guide

Executing a successful webinar demands meticulous planning and leveraging the right tools. Microsoft Teams offers an extensive webinar feature that simplifies the process, allowing organisers to effortlessly connect with their audience. In this guide, we'll take you through the steps to set up and manage your webinar effectively.

Step 1: Schedule the Webinar

1. Access the Calendar:

   • Open Microsoft Teams and navigate to the Calendar tab.

2. Create a New Webinar:

   • Click the arrow next to "New meeting" and select "Webinar."

3. Enter Webinar Details:

   • On the New Webinar page, input the title, date, start and end times, and a brief description.
   • Add presenters and co-organisers if needed.

4. Adjust Registration Settings:

   • Choose between "Public" and "Your organisation" for registration visibility.
   • Set a later start time on the registration form to allow preparation time for presenters.

5. Meeting Notes:

   • Use the meeting notes section to add agenda items, notes, and pre-webinar tasks for presenters.
   • Note: Attendees won't see these details.

6. Save and Send Invitations:

   • Select "Save" to move to the registration step.
   • Invitations will be automatically sent to attendees when you save the event.

Step 2: Add Co-Organisers

1. Open Event Management:

   • If you've already created a webinar, open it from your Teams calendar and select "Manage event."

2. Enter Co-Organiser Names:

   • In the Details section, add co-organiser names in the designated space.

3. Save Changes:

   • Select "Save" to confirm the addition of co-organisers.

Step 3: Add Presenters

1. Open Event Management:

   • Follow the steps above to create a webinar or open an existing one and select "Manage event."

2. Enter Presenter Names:

   • In the Details section, input presenter names in the Presenters space.

3. Save Changes:

   • Click "Save" to finalise the addition of presenters.

Step 4: Add External Presenters

1. Access Teams Calendar:

   • Go to your Teams Calendar and select an upcoming webinar, then choose "Manage event."

2. Add External Presenters:

   • Select "Add external presenters."
   • Enter email addresses of external presenters in the provided space.

3. Save and Send Invitations:

   • Click "Save" to send invitations with unique join links to external presenters.

Step 5: Regenerate or Copy External Join Link

1. Access Town Hall Details:

   • Open a town hall in your Teams Calendar.

2. Navigate to External Presenter Tab:

   • In the town hall details, select "External Presenter" to find the External presenters tab.

3. Regenerate or Copy Link:

   • Select "Unique join link."
   • Choose "Copy" to copy the link to your clipboard or "Reload" to generate a new one.

Promote Your Webinar

Now that your webinar is set up, it's time to promote it and ensure a robust turnout. Here are some effective promotion strategies:

1. Create Compelling Invitations:

   • Craft engaging email invitations with a clear value proposition and a call to action.
   • Highlight key speakers, topics, and benefits of attending.

2. Utilise Social Media:

   • Share teaser posts on various social media platforms.
   • Create a dedicated event hashtag to generate buzz.

3. Leverage Teams Channels:

   • Post announcements in relevant Teams channels.
   • Encourage team members to share the event in their networks.

4. Email Newsletters:

   • Include the webinar details in your organisation's newsletters.
   • Emphasise the educational or informational value of the event.

5. Collaborate with Partners:

   • Reach out to partners and collaborators to promote the webinar.
   • Explore cross-promotional opportunities.

6. Countdown Campaign:

   • Start a countdown campaign a week before the event.
   • Share daily reminders with intriguing snippets about the webinar content.

By combining a well-structured webinar setup with strategic promotion, you can ensure a successful and well-attended virtual event. Microsoft Teams provides the platform; now it's time to make your webinar shine.

Need help with running your webinar? Contact Faye Eldridge, our webinar specialist.

If you need some last minute sign ups and support driving traffic to your sign up page contact us.

We can also help with only 48 hours notice (last minute) getting you extra registrations/ registrants to your webinar.

We have experience getting IT Directors, IT managers, COOS, CTOs, CEOs, managers and other senior leaders to webinars at very short notice.