Overview of meetings, webinars, and town halls

APPLIES TO: Meetings Webinars Town halls

There are multiple ways to meet in Microsoft Teams:

• Meetings
• Webinars
• Town halls

This article, intended for administrators and IT professionals, describes the differences between meetings, webinars, and town halls. You can use this information as a first step in planning for these types of virtual meetings and events.

The sections below include further information for planning and configuring these features, as well as links to information for your end users.

For a detailed look at which features are available in meetings, webinars, and town halls, see Meetings, webinars, and town halls feature comparison.

For more information on limits and specifications for Teams webinars, meetings, and town halls, see Limits and specifications for Microsoft Teams.

Manage who can create meetings, webinars, and town halls

You can manage which of your users can create meetings, webinars, and town halls by using meeting and event policies. For example, you might want to allow all your users to create meetings, but only people in marketing to create webinars, and only executives to create town halls. Anyone invited can attend these types of meetings, but only those you specify can create them.

For details, see:

• Manage who can start instant meetings and schedule meetings
• Manage who can schedule webinars
• Manage who can schedule town halls

Meetings

Meetings are generally best for situations where participants need to interact with each other via voice, video, or chat and where multiple people may be presenting. Microsoft Teams meetings can support up to 11,000 participants. The first 1,000 participants can fully engage with audio, video, and screen sharing. Any extra participants—up to 10,000 more—join in a view-only mode, allowing them to watch the meeting without interacting. Participants don't need to be a member of an organization, or have a Teams account to join a Teams meeting. They can join directly from the calendar invitation via the Join meeting link or call in via audio if available.

In addition to regularly scheduled meetings, your users can create channel meetings. With channel meetings, everybody in a team can see there's a meeting, join the meeting, and use the meeting chat.

Teams Premium offers additional meetings functionality through the Teams Premium subscription. For a list of Teams Premium features for meetings, see Microsoft Teams Premium - Overview for admins.

For detailed information on how to plan for Teams meetings in your organization, see Plan for Teams meetings.

Key meetings training for your users

The following table lists meetings training available to the end users in your organization:

Webinars

Webinars are structured events where presenters and participants have clear roles. A key difference between webinars and Teams meetings is that webinars support robust registration management, a customizable event and registration site, and event-oriented default meeting options. Webinars support up to 1,000 attendees.

Teams Premium offers additional webinar functionality through the Teams Premium subscription. For a list of Teams Premium features for webinars, see Microsoft Teams Premium - Overview for admins and Microsoft Teams Premium licensing.

For detailed information on how to plan for Teams webinars in your organization, see Plan for Teams webinars.

Key webinars training for your users

The following table lists webinars training available to the end users in your organization:

Town halls

Town halls are generally best for situations where a limited number of presenters are presenting to a large group of attendees and direct interaction via chat or voice conversation isn't needed. For these event formats, attendees don't use their cameras and mics, but instead use Q&A to engage with presenters and organizers. Town halls currently support up to 10,000 attendees, but with a Teams Premium license, organizers can create town halls with up to 50,000 attendees.

For a list of Teams Premium features for town halls, see Microsoft Teams Premium - Overview for admins and Microsoft Teams Premium licensing.

To understand key differences between live events and town halls, and for detailed information on how to plan for Teams town halls, see Plan for town halls.

Teams Premium

With a Teams Premium add-on license, you have access to enhanced administrative and telemetry support, as well as enhanced experiences, security, and protection for your users' meetings and events. To learn more, see Microsoft Teams Premium - Overview for admins.

To learn how to manage Teams Premium licenses and features for your organization from a one place, see Manage Teams Premium for your organization.

Best practices for large meetings and events

This section provides guidance for admins, along with tips that admins can share with their presenters and organizers.

To run a successful event, follow the practices outlined below:

• For the best experience in large meetings, webinars, and town halls, Microsoft recommends using the latest version of the Teams desktop client or Teams mobile clients.

• Ensure that all Microsoft Network Connectivity Principles have been followed both on-premises and for remote users. The network connectivity principles apply to meetings, webinars, and town halls.

• Use real-time data telemetry to monitor the event and identify any possible issues and its source.

  • Designate meeting monitors to analyze telemetry for users facing poor experience caused by metrics exceeding thresholds.
  • Set meeting monitors as presenters to disable rogue video streams, mute accidental live mics, and remove attendees if needed.

Related topics

• Plan for Teams meetings
• Plan for Teams town halls
• Plan for Teams webinars
• Teams settings and policies reference