Choosing the Right Event Mode

Last updated: April 4, 2023

EventBuilder provides several Event Modes including Streaming and Simulated-Live options. Which mode is the best fit for your event? 

Determine Your Event Needs

Determining the needs for your event and working from that framework can help you decide what technology best aligns with your event and goals. 

Some questions to ask yourself: 

  • Who are my invitees?
  • Is my event internal to my organization or external?
  • How many attendees am I expecting?
  • Are there privacy considerations I need to be aware of?
  • Do I need/want a collaborative environment? (Desktop sharing, two-way audio for presenter-attendee interaction, etc.)
  • What information and data do I want/need to gather about my registrants/attendees?
  • Do I need to record the event for later on-demand viewing?
  • Can I produce the event on my own, or do I need assistance?

Once you have a clear focus on your event needs, decide which mode matches those needs best.

Microsoft Teams With EventBuilder's Live Webinar Mode

Scenarios best suited for standard Teams meeting environment with EventBuilder's Live Webinar mode:

  • Smaller events: Informal/conversational and topic-focused events are well-suited for Live Webinar mode, providing manageability while maintaining the interactive and collaborative feel of a face-to-face seminar or function. 
  • Collaborative events: When a simple, manageable presentation delivery method that allows for screen sharing, whiteboard use, and two-way audio attendee interaction is required.
  • Internal events: Organization/company events, such as new employee orientation, cross-department training, and team earnings updates.

Teams With EventBuilder's Live Webinar Mode Considerations:

  • Moderation - Maximum capacity for Teams is 1,000. Moderation and technical support for events with up to 1,000 interactive attendees can be challenging.
  • Privacy - Attendees that are external to your organization can see the names of other attendees in the Teams presentation environment, as well as any webcam feeds.

 

Teams With EventBuilder's Live Webinar Mode Capabilities:

  • Custom Registration Pages: Customized registration pages help you organize your webinar/virtual event and gain insights for shaping future event programming.
  • Automatic Communication Emails: System-generated customizable emails can be scheduled to send to your Registrants and Attendees for event invites, reminders, and post-event surveys.
  • Registration and Attendance Reports: Comprehensive registrant and event reports to help determine attendance and engagement.
  • Event Management: EventBuilder's professional event management services can provide a dedicated Event Producer for your Teams webinar, including technical support, event moderation, and post-event reporting.

Microsoft Teams Live Event for Large Events

Teams Live Event , an integrated feature in Microsoft Teams, offers users an opportunity to produce large events in a one-to-many communication format. Teams Live Event is a good option when hosting and managing very large events and need a platform that can broadcast to a wider audience.

  • Three connection types: 
    • Selected Groups/People — Only specified people and groups can watch the live event. (Sign-in required)
    • Anyone with a verified Microsoft 365 email address at your company (sign-in required).
    • Open to anyone — No sign-in required; best suited for attendees that are outside of your organization.
  • Unique features: Split-screen presenter webcam/presentation content view, Q&A panels, and the ability to scale for up to 20,000 attendees. (Microsoft's listed capacity until December 31, 2021)
  • Event Roles: Organizers can assign Producers, Presenters, and Organizers to keep large-scale events organized and well-managed. Note: This can introduce some day-of complications, so it's essential to have well-defined roles and to conduct a rehearsal or practice event.
  • Limited Reporting/Data Gathering: Teams Live Event offers limited data gathering.  When events are open to the public no attendee information is automatically obtained.

What EventBuilder Can Do for Your Teams Live Event:

  • Registration: Like Teams, EventBuilder's customized registration pages can be implemented with Teams Live Event.
  • Security - Set comprehensive event security options set at the time of event creation in our software. This is particularly helpful for Teams Live Events that are set as 'open to anyone.'
  • Reporting: Capture registration, event data, and attendee information both pre- and post-event.
  • Data Visualization Tools: Custom connectors for Microsoft Power BI and secure API access are available to Organizers in EventBuilder.
  • Event Production/Management: Professional event management/production with EventBuilder's team of professional event producers can assist your Teams Live Event with event management and support services.

EventBuilder Streaming/Simulated-Live Mode

EventBuilder Streaming offers a no-download, browser-based, any-OS streaming solution for webinars and virtual events. EventBuilder's bot joins the Teams’ presentation environment and streams to the attendees’ browser-based viewing console.

EventBuilder Streaming Features:

  • Larger events (up to 2,500): Content is presented to larger audiences from the familiar Teams environment.
  • Privacy: An attendee's personal information is not seen by other attendees, preserving PII.
  • One-click entry: Attendees are provided a URL with their registration confirmation email, which opens the streaming console. 
  • Live Captioning: Integrated, live Closed Captioning available.
  • Engagement Tools: Attendee interaction with live Q&A, "raised hand," Attendee sentiment, and integrated, real-time polling. See answers to your polls right away.
  • Security controls: Variety of security options, including allowlist/denylist, validation code, email verification, and more.
  • Automatic Cloud Hosting: Event recordings automatically stored to the cloud.