Overview
Teams allows 3 different types of online gatherings. Those are Meetings, Webinars, and Live Events. This article will go over the differences between them and the ideal use case for each.
General Differences
Teams Meeting:
- Basic online gathering of individuals
- Defaults that everyone has access to talk and show their camera
- All participants are invited directly
- First 1,000 participants have full microphone and video access, the next 9,000 have view only access
- Can be run by one person
- Runs in real time
Ideal Use Case:
- Meeting with others for a collaborative discussion
Teams Webinar:
- Online gathering of individuals with predefined presenters
- Defaults that all attendees cannot speak or show their camera
- Gives more attendee control options
- Presenters are invited directly, attendees sign up
- Automatically creates a sign up page that can be customized and linked to
- Max 1,000 attendees
- Can be run by one person; can be helpful to have a second person monitoring chat and live questions if these features are enabled
- Runs in real time
Ideal Use case:
- Small online event that you can run yourself
- Attendee controls and sign up page add polish and help ensure the event runs as expected with minimal interference
A short Tech Talk video about how to set up Teams Webinars can be found here.
Teams Live Event:
- Highly structured online gathering of individuals with predefined presenters
- Presenters can talk and show their camera, attendees only interact through a specific Q&A tool
- Presenters are invited directly, attendees sign up
- Max 10,000 attendees
- Must be run by a producer which offers a a more polished look (Usually PAC)
- Runs with about a 30 second delay for attendees
- Works like a presenter on a stage and attendees can only listen
Ideal Use Case:
- Large scale online event that many people will be attending
- Having a producer and separate team to be able to help run the event will allow you to focus on the content.