Since Microsoft Teams' worldwide launch in 2017, it's garnered a huge share of the collaboration and virtual events software market, and shows no signs of slowing down. Companies have a multitude of meeting and virtual event options to choose from, with regular Teams meetings, Webinars, Town Hall, and more. How do you choose which Teams meeting type for your event? Read on!
Goals and Considerations First!
Get clear on the goals for your meeting/virtual event and situation, then use that framework to help you determine what option best aligns with your goals. Questions to ask and answer to help you decide:
Who is your audience?
Internal vs external event?
Number of Attendees and desired interactions
Presentation format and features
Privacy and data concerns
Microsoft Teams Event Types: The Breakdown
Microsoft Teams offers a variety of meeting and virtual event types : regular Teams meetings, Teams Town Halls, Teams Live Events, Teams Webinars, and Virtual Appointments. Let's compare the options for you:
Standard Teams Meetings
For familiarity, ease of use, and flexibility, Microsoft Teams meetings is a smart choice for collaborative meetings and small virtual events with a simple, manageable presentation environment. It allows for screen sharing, whiteboard use, and two-way interaction. Something to note for privacy and security considerations: Attendee names are visible to all Teams meeting room participants.
- Ideal Use Case: Small to medium-sized gatherings, such as educational workshops, cross-department trainings, new employee onboarding.
- Key Features:
- Up to 1,000 attendees can unmute, turn on cameras, and share content. Organizers/Presenters also have the option to mute attendees and/or turn off their webcams.
- A view-only streaming experience is available for participants over the 1,000 person Teams meeting cap.
- Participants do not need to be part of your organization or have a Teams account to join.
- Presenters external to your organization are allowed.
- Engagement and moderation tools such as polls, Q & A, and/or chat available (optional).
- Captioning and recording available.
- Key Features:
Teams Town Hall
The newest addition to the Teams virtual event options, Teams Town Hall is moving in where Live Event is moving out. The best Microsoft Teams event format for large audiences, Town Halls are optimized for delivering well-produced, high-quality events in a one-to-many format.
- Ideal Use Case: Large-scale events, town hall meetings, company-wide reviews.
- Key Features:
- Up to 10,000 attendees/20,000 with Premium, for people both inside and outside your organization.
- 30 hours max event duration.
- Automatic emails to invitees.
- Organizers can manage what attendees see, and showcase up to seven presenters' video feeds at once (Premium).
- Presenters external to your organization are allowed.
- Structured attendee engagement through Q & A moderation (optional).
- Presenter green room (optional).
- Private chat for presenters.
- On-demand event recording (expires after 60 days).
- Live translated captioning with up to six additional languages (10 with Premium).
- Attendee engagement and participation reporting available.
- Host up to 15 concurrent events with a standard license, and up to 50 concurrent events with a Premium subscription.
- Key Features:
Teams Live Events
We should note that Teams Live Events is sunsetting , however, Microsoft is allowing time for customers to upgrade and transition on their own schedule. Live Events are also in the one-to-many broadcast category.
- Ideal Use Case: Large-scale broadcasts.
- Key Features:
- Up to 10,000 participants.
- Four hours max event duration.
- Event recording (expires after 180 days).
- Presenters external to your organization are allowed.
- Moderated Q & A option available.
- Private chat for presenters.
- Key Features:
Need some help deciding? Our event experts are covering this and more in our July Building Connections Webinar, "Choosing the Right Microsoft Meeting Type For Your Event," July 31st at 10:00 am Pacific. Register today!
Teams Webinars
Teams Webinars offer simple-to-use scheduling, registration, and reporting tools, and are a great choice when a more interactive environment for a smaller group of attendees is what you are looking for.
- Ideal Use Case: Webinars, workshops, educational purposes.
- Key Features:
- Basic event and registration customizations.
- Registration management and waitlist options.
- Manage Attendee view (Premium feature).
- Optional green room for presenters to prepare before going live.
- Q & A for up webinars with up to 1,000 attendees (optional).
- Breakout rooms for up to 300 attendees (1,000 maximum participants).
- Live translation of captions, with support for multiple languages.
- Key Features:
Virtual Appointments
A new addition to the Teams meeting line up, Virtual Appointments is an app for comprehensive business-to-customer engagement meetings for scheduling, viewing, and sending appointment reminders, with reporting and analytics.
- Ideal Use Case: Meetings with external users: lead follow-up, one-on-one demos, virtual consultations, virtual job interviews.
- Key Features:
- Scheduling on an appointment calendar.
- Seamless join experience for those unfamiliar with Teams.
- External users can join without a Teams account/app via browser.
- Key Features:
Note: Some webinar, Town hall, and meeting features are only available with a Microsoft Teams Premium subscription .
How EventBuilder Enhances Your Teams Events
With all the Teams options available, you might wonder where EventBuilder fits into the mix. We're so glad you asked! From seamless Teams integration and frictionless event access for your attendees, to end-to-end customization, expansion, and support, EventBuilder offers comprehensive solutions for scaling your webinar programs, delivering secure, engaging virtual and hybrid events, and supporting you with world-class, 24/5 customer care. Add, streamline, and simplify your Teams-based events with:
- Advanced, customizable registration
- Listing pages/Content hub
- Event templates for standardizing the layout, style, branding, and
- Automated Registrant/Attendee communication emails
- In-depth reports, including registration, attendance, and recording views
- Data visualization tools
- Enhanced security options, including allowlist/denylist options, registrant verification, and more.
- Event production and management
Success Stories!
Find out how we operate in the "real world" of virtual events and webinars to get an idea of how we can make yours rock:
EventBuilder for High Volume Training Programs
EventBuilder for Complex Teams Live Townhall
EventBuilder for Virtual Summits
Your Perfect Teams Event Awaits
Here's a quick breakdown to summarize how to choose the right Microsoft Teams meeting type for your circumstances:
- Standard Teams meetings: Best for small to medium-sized, collaborative meetings with up to 1,000 attendees.
- Teams Town Hall: Ideal for large-scale, one-to-many presentations for up to 10,000 attendees (20,000 with Premium).
- Teams Live Events (being phased out): Good for large-scale broadcasts with up to 10,000 attendees, but consider transitioning to Teams Town Hall.
- Teams Webinars: Perfect for interactive presentations with up to 1,000 attendees and registration management tools.
- Virtual Appointments: Designed for one-on-one meetings with external users, it's a great option for lead follow-ups!
- EventBuilder: Ideal for online training programs and webinars, virtual summits and conferences, multi-day and/or multi-session events, and complex events that require advanced customization, professional management, and production support.
Power Your Teams Events With EventBuilder
Our event experts guide you every step of the way toward realizing your goals and easing your administrative load; custom, complex registration, event security options, attendee engagement tools, reporting, technical support, and more. Easily produce and deliver professional webinars and virtual training programs, engage your audience, create registration and listing pages, gather analytics, and automate cloud-based recording and sharing with our professional services and feature-rich software. We've delivered more than 50,000 of Microsoft's own events, and we'll deliver for you, too. Schedule a free strategy session with our experts today!