Tag: Town Halls

Microsoft Teams – Town Hall and Webinar events

Town Hall events – available NOW

In place of Live Events (which have now been deprecated in Imperial), Microsoft are providing a new feature called Town Halls.  This offers many of the features that were available in Live Events, such as anonymous audience viewing and a moderated Q and A using the Teams Q and A feature which has evolved and is available more generally across Teams meetings.

In addition, Microsoft have added a feature to Town Halls which allows additional presenters on the screen – so it is much easier to hold Q and A sessions with multiple presenters at the same time or for multiple speakers to appear on screen together.

To request access to schedule a Town Hall event, you will need to complete a new Town Hall request form. Please only complete this form (https://forms.office.com/e/jdi6yP53EQ) to request Town Hall capabilities if you need to deliver a large-audience meeting with anonymous, unseen audiences.

Webinars – Available NOW

If you want to run a webinar, which is more like a normal Teams meeting but with greater audience control and with a registration form, then please complete the Webinar request form at https://forms.office.com/r/RDq7yw8Vmv

Teams Premium License – Available NOW

We recommend purchasing a Teams Premium license through ICT to gain full functionality, including the advanced features in Town Halls and Webinars.

Teams Premium licenses enable all the registration and communications features in Town Halls and Webinars, and in Webinars, allow for the restriction of numbers and the ability to run a “wait list”.

In addition Teams Premium licenses offer AI meeting notes and tasks features in normal Teams Meetings.

To request a Teams Premium license (which costs £20 + VAT per user per licensing year (01/11 – 31/10) or part thereof) please complete the form on the ICT Service Desk pages (https://servicemgt.service-now.com/ask?id=sc_cat_item&table=sc_cat_item&sys_id=62ad78231b060a14557837b5464bcb97)

Retirement of Teams Live Events

In September 2024 Microsoft will turn off Live Events in Microsoft Teams. This will affect any users who have had access to Public facing Live Events.

What Now?

A new feature, called Microsoft Town Halls is being rolled out with greater capabilities than Live Events.

Town Halls feature a “green room” for pre-event preparation and bringing speakers together.

Town Halls also offer the ability to bring multiple speakers into view along with content such as presentations of screen shares or for panel style sessions with multiple speakers (up to 7 in view at any one time) – something that was difficult with Live Events.

Town Halls also offer the ability to send integrated emails for attendees – so no copying and pasting the attendee link into a separate calendar invitation in the future. Emails may also be customised further when the organiser has a Teams Premium license.

Live Events switch-off

Live Events capability will be switched off on the 31 July 2024. Staff who have Public Facing Live Event capabilities will be contacted in the coming weeks to discuss current and anticipated requirements going forwards.

New Town Hall users

ICT will shortly publish a new request form for Town Hall capabilities. Staff who wish to use Town Hall features will need to apply for this capability at least one month in advance of their planned event to ensure time for the College events team to review the request and for capabilities to be enabled, rehearsals held, etc.

Find Out More

You can find out more about Town Halls and the feature set at the following Microsoft pages – Introducing Town Halls in Microsoft Teams and Retiring Microsoft Teams Live Events – Microsoft Community Hub