Microsoft Teams Meeting or Live Event?
Microsoft Teams meetings are a great way for a group of people to have a discussion, but sometimes you want to limit what the audience can do, so you perhaps start considering Live Events. Here are some of the features that might influence your decision.
In short, Teams Meetings are good for meetings, seminars and group discussions among people cooperating with each other. Teams Live Events are good for webinars and information sessions, where you are broadcasting to an audience and want to control the audience’s interactions with speakers. There may be particular features of either which you need (e.g. anonymous questions) which might drive your decisions.
| Your Needs | Teams Meeting | Teams Live Event |
|---|---|---|
| Talking | Everyone can talk. | Only Presenters and Producers can talk. Audience can hear all conversations. |
| Muting | Anyone can Mute other delegates. Anyone can unmute themselves. |
Presenters and Producers can Mute, Mute All and un-mute themselves. Audience cannot talk or mute others. |
| Screen Sharing | Meeting options enable you to restrict who can share their screen. Screen sharing appears as soon as delegate activates it. |
Producer controls which content is broadcast. |
| Presenter video feed appearing with content | Presenter video feed appears underneath shared screen. | Producer chooses whether to broadcast video, content, or content with video. |
| Delegate can put ‘Hand Up’ | All delegates have ‘hand up’ option. | No ‘hand up’ option, as broadcast is not in real time. |
| Anonymity for the audience | All delegates can see all other delegates. | Presenters and Producers see each other. Audience sees only the broadcast feed chosen by the Producer. |
| Control of Q&A | Anyone can interject at any time. Meeting chat is visible to all. Questioner’s identity is known to all. |
Text-based Q&A only, curated by Producers and Presenters. Presenters and Producers control when Q&A is open. Questions can be asked anonymously. Answers can be private or published to the audience. |
| Recordings | Meeting recordings are available to all delegates within the host organisation, through Stream. External delegates cannot see the recording – it must be downloaded and shared. |
Recording is available to Presenters and Producers. An Event Option enables the recording to be made available online to the audience. |
| Post-meeting reports | Meeting notes, meeting chat, etc | Presenters and Producers have meeting notes, chat, etc. Excel attendance report showing audience join/leave times. Excel Q&A report listing all questions and answers, with status. |