For large audience events online, Microsoft are introducing Town Halls to replace Live Events on Teams from end of September 2024. Introducing Teams Town Halls Town Halls will provide a new way of hosting and delivering large-scale online events, simplifying the overall experience for users with its integration onto the more familiar Teams platform (that Live Events was not built on). What’s happening? Microsoft are ending support for Teams Live Events from September 2024. All new features released will now port to Town Halls. Town Halls are available for scheduling large events through Teams, and we recommend Live Event organisers familiarise and seek to use it for future events now. What are the differences? Many features have already been adopted in Teams Live Events, including maximum 10,000 attendees, but others, as seen in the box below, provide exciting opportunities for hosts and attendees alike. Feature Teams Live Events Teams Town Halls Maximum duration 4 hours 30 hours Manage what attendees can see (including Q&A) No Yes Essential emails* No Yes Live caption translation One of six languages chosen by the host One of six languages chosen by each attendee Layout** Single Video, Video + Content Dynamic focused curated view *Pre-configured, rather than manually-created, emails sent by the organiser for the event invitation and recordings. **Unlike Live Events limitations of layout, Town Halls will automatically optimise the layout for the audience automatically, based on the content and video feeds on screen. Frequently Asked Questions What do the new roles mean? In Live Events, there are organisers, producers, presenters, and attendees, in comparison to Town Halls, where there are organisers, co-organisers, presenters, and attendees. The Live Events producer role is to be divided up into the organiser, co-organiser, and presenter roles in Town Halls. More about the event roles What will happen to my Live Event recordings after it is retired? Live event recordings will be retained until 31st December 2024. If you will need access to your recordings after this date, download them and upload them to another location. What will happen to my pre-planned Live Events? Microsoft will end support for Live Events from 30th September 2024. If you are planning to host an event, only host your event on Live Events if it finishes before this date. You have access to schedule Town Hall meetings now and we recommend that you familiarise with it now and use it to host your large events which pre-dates 30th September 2024. For Organisers How to organise an event? Organising a Town Halls event is similar to organising a Live Event but is more like scheduling a regular Teams Meeting or Webinar. However, we still recommend that you take time to familiarise yourself with it, before the real thing. See guidance about scheduling a town hall below: More about scheduling an event More about customising an event More about cancelling an event Top Tip for Organisers: If the town hall will have a designated host (and co-hosts), consult them about the "Meeting Options" to ensure they decide which on/off settings will be optimal for their event. For our lunchtime seminars which are in a webinar format, we provide 'organisers' with a handy check list covering key steps to organise the event. This can apply to any format of event. This includes Event Planning Stages; task list at each stage; linked procedure; and event planning roles. Feel free to copy this example and modify your copy for when organising your events: Example Event Planning Checklist For Hosts How do I host a Town Hall? Guidance on this website is included for the event organiser, presenters and attendees. However, we appreciate that for this type of event you may have a dedicated host and co-hosts (like a meeting 'chairperson' or an event coordinator) separate to the person administering the schedule (an organiser) so the following guidance is specifically about hosting a town hall. About the role of host: You might also be the person scheduling the event (they also have the host role) but this doesn't change the guidance about how to host one, multiple hosts can be designated by the originating organiser. When you're a designated host for a town hall, you direct the event flow from start to finish. Prepare in the green room, start and stop the event, spotlight presenters, and more. Hosting a town hall compared with live event: If you've hosted a Teams meeting or Webinar, the experience should be more familiar to you. Despite a green room (off-stage private area for event officials to prepare), unlike live events, town halls are native to Teams and there's no studio and no dedicated producer is necessary. You still control what the audience sees on screen by sharing content (more like sharing content in a regular meeting E.g.: PowerPoint Live) and bringing the presenter on screen (similar to spotlighting someone in a meeting). The host (or a co-host), the organiser or other presenters can easily see and control who's off screen and who's on screen. See the information linked below for full details about: How to host a town hall in Microsoft Teams Top Tips for Hosts: As always, the key is to schedule some practice events with colleagues to familiarise each other with the new experience, prior to the real thing You might not be the organiser but are hosting the event, you can schedule a practice town hall (just like a meeting or webinar) from your own calendar in Teams Remember to check the on/off settings in your "Meeting Options" are appropriate for how you want to run your event Options can be switched on/off when scheduling, or afterwards, by opening the event from the calendar (outlook or teams) and choosing "Meeting Options" If you will host the event but are not the organiser, make sure you review the "Meeting Options" with the organiser and tune them for your event Agree who will control aspects of the town hall event; practice how to do it; and stick with it to achieve a smooth running event for your audience For Presenters What are the changes in presenting styles? Teams Town Halls’ new features will give organisers and presenters more control over attendees and what they can see and access. Prior to the meeting, presenters and organisers can enter in a green room. This is a separate space that attendees cannot access, dedicated to the hosts preparing for the meeting. Presenters and organisers have their own chat that attendees cannot access or see. More about the changes in presenting styles How are managing Q&As different? Better management of incoming questions for organisers and a focus screen on the presenter will make the experience more in-person like, removing opportunities for attendees to interrupt the Q&A. More about managing the Q&A What is new with sharing content? Sharing content is now organised so that hosts will produce a more smooth-sailing meeting. For instance, only shared content by the presenters/organisers, and participants invited by the presenters/organisers, will be viewed on-screen by all. More about sharing content For Attendees What's the difference for attendees? The attendee experience should be familiar to anyone who’s attended a live event, meeting or webinar using Microsoft Teams. Attendees can watch the live event and engage in Q&A. Attendee microphones and video feeds are automatically disabled at the beginning (and during) the event, and there won't be an open chat. More about the attendee experience What will happen with recordings? No changes will be made to the recordings, with hosts, as normal, being able to publish them. This will automatically send an email to the attendees, giving them access to the recording. Town Halls does allow hosts to extent the expiration date of recordings from the default 30 days to 60 days if desired. More about Town Hall recordings Help & Feedback For more information, click here. To give your feedback about how we can improve our guidance, please complete this form. This article was published on 2024-10-08
