Teams Live Events

Internal and External (public) events

Your Live Event can be internal or external (public). When requesting your Live Event you will be asked if you want your event to be public, and your answer to this will decide who can access your Live Event. 

Internal events

Only University of Edinburgh users with the join link can access your Live Event, as users must log in using their University of Edinburgh log-in details to access the event. 

External users can still join internal events as producers or presenters - For example, if you only want University of Edinburgh attendees, but have an external producer or presenter, the event does not need to be public. 

External (public) events

Anyone with the join link can access your Live Event.

If you decide you want your event to be external (public) you should consider:

• Users can join the event anonymously without logging in 
• Do not post join links on public social media - posting your Live Event join link on public social media has a risk of causing unwelcome disruption to your event by allowing anyone to join. 
• Ensure you have a moderator for your Q&A - this would prevent external users from being able to distrupt your event, as the moderator can delete any inappropriate messages.
• Consider the University's Information Security and data protection policies - you can read the University's information security policies from the Information Security webpages. You should also review the University's policy on Data protection on the Data Protection webpages.

Internal and External Presenters / Producers

You can have both internal (University of Edinburgh users) and external presenters and producers in your Live Event. External users require additional steps to allow them to take part.

Adding external presenters / producers as guests

If any of your presenters or producers will be external, you must add these users as guests to a Team before they can be added as a presenter or producer. You should do this before requesting your Live Event.

You can create a new Team specifically for the event, or you can add the user to an existing Team. 

To add the user as a guest to the Team:

1. Go to your Team
2. Click "More options" (ellipsis icon) beside the Team name
3. Then, click "Add member"
4. Then, type the external user's email address
5. Then, click the "Add external user's email address as guest" box that appears under the typed email address
6. Next, add your guest's name by clicking "Edit guest information" (pen icon) 
7. Then, click "Add" 
8. You should then inform the external user that they will receive an email invite from Microsoft Teams to become a guest on our tenant. They will have to follow the prompts in that email, and accept to become a guest user or they will not be added as a guest. 

External presenter / producer cannot access your Live Event

We strongly recommend that you schedule a practice event to make sure your external presenters / producers can access your event. 

If your external presenters or producers cannot access your Live Event, please see the "An external presenter / producer is having difficulty accessing the Live Event" FAQ on our Teams Live Events FAQs page.

Recording your Live Event

Events are recorded if you select "Yes" to "Do you want to record your event" in the request form. The recording will be made available for download soon after your event has ended. This includes a transcript, captions and, if you have requested it, a Q&A report. These are found by opening your event from your calendar in Teams and scrolling down to the 'Event Resources' section.

You can also ask for recording to be turned off when requesting your Live Event, by selecting "No" to "Do you want to record your event". 

Please see our advice on what you should consider when recording online events, on the following page:

Guiding Principles - recording of online and digital events

Request to Host a Live Event

Given this is a limited resource and is for very large scale broadcast events, eligibile staff can request to host a Teams Live Event by filling out a form.

You will be asked to provide the following:

• Do you want a practice event? - we highly recommend that you have a practice event. If you select "Yes" to this option, you will be asked for your practice event details first. 
• Title and description of your event
• Target date & time of your event
• Email addresses of your producer(s) and presenter(s)
• Do you have guest / external presenters? - If you intend to have an external presenter in your Live Event you must add them to a Team as a guest before requesting your Live Event. For information on how to add external users as guests, see "Can I invite guests (without a University of Edinburgh account) to my Team" under the Guest User FAQs heading on our Teams FAQs page.
• Do you want to record your event? - If you do, you must inform your producers and presenters of this. Please read our "Guiding Principles - recording of online and Digital Events" drop-down before deciding if you want to record your event. 
• Do you want an attendee engagement report? - this will generate a report, after your event ends, of users who attended your Live Event
• Do you want Q&A? - this allows your audience members to type questions into a Q&A box during your event. This can be moderated by a producer. 
• Will your event be public? - you should decide if your Live Event will only be for University of Edinburgh users or if anyone, with the join link, will be able to join your event. See our "Planning your Teams Live Event" section below for considerations you should take when making your Live Event public. 

Fill out the form below to request a Live Event:

Request to host a Teams Live Event

If eligibile your Teams Live Event will be scheduled for you centrally by Information Services Group Facilities.

You should now start preparing for your practice and main event, by asking your producer(s) and presenter(s) to complete the training below under "Producer and Presenter training", and by reviewing the "Planning your Teams Live Event" section. 

Update or Cancel a Live Event

You can request an update to or cancel your Live Event by filling out the form below:

Update/Cancel your Live Event

To update or cancel your Live event you will be required to provide your current Live Event title and date. 

You can requests updates to any of the following:

• Date of your live Event
• Start time of your Live Event
• End time of your Live Event
• Disable recording, Q&A, captions and attendee engagement report
• Add new producer(s) and/or presenter(s)
• Add anything else you need updated in the "Additional details" box, and the central booking team will assist you. 

Before hosting your Live Event, your producers and presenters are required to complete the following training. 

Producer Training

Producers should review the following training video before the Live Event:

Producer Training Video

Presenter Training

Presenters should review the following training video before the Live Event:

Presenter Training Video

Important Note- Once your event is scheduled, you, as the event organiser, will self-manage all aspects of the event. The designated producer(s) will support the presenter(s) and the audience during the event. There is no guarantee of Information Services help during a live event. We strongly recommend you schedule a practice event and read the following information, to make sure you, your presenters and your producers are happy with running the event. 

Further information for your producer(s) and presenter(s)

Your producers and presenters should review the training above before the Live Event. However, it may also be helpful for you to provide them with some guidance and information before your Live Event.

An example of this information is:

• Tell them exact time you want them to arrive by (make this earlier than the start time
• Tell them to use either the desktop versions of Teams, as the mobile version will not work
• Ask them to mute their microphones during the event until it is their turn to speak
• Discuss how you want the Q&A to be moderated
• Provide them with an outline/agenda for the Live Event. 

Information on Screen sharing during your Live Event

When your producers and presenters share their screen during a Live Event, by default the sounds from their computers will not come through to the Live Event. 

If you want to share a video / other audio during your Live Event, the producer / presenter who is sharing must "include computer sound". This is currently available for Windows and Mac devices.

To do this:

• Click "Share content" button 
• Before selecting what to share, click the "Include computer sound" toggle 
• Note - if the user is using a Mac, they will have to follow the prompts to install a driver to allow them to share sound
• Then, select what to share

It would be best to practice these steps well in advance of your Live Event to ensure the sound is working as expected.

Advertising your Live event

How you want to go about adveritising your Live Event is your own choice as theorganiser of the event, however we have some recommendations that you may want to consider if you are unsure.

Attendees will be a specific group of known users

If you know the group of users who will be the attendees for your event, you can send out an email advertising the event along with the joining link. For example, if you have a mailing list that goes out to a certain group of users and they will be your potential attendees. 

Attendees can be any internal user

If you don't have a specific group of attendees in mind, but they are internal users, you can use the Event Booking system to allow users register for your Live Event. To advertise the event you could post on the University website or send out other comms. However, do not send out the join link in these comms, send out a link to the event booking page. For help creating an event through the event booking system, see the Event Booking webpages.

Attendees can be external, as well as internal

For external Live Events, you can advertise your event on the University website, or through other comms. However, when running such an event please consider the way you are advertising your event, and avoid posting join links on social media. 

Moderating the Q&A

During your Live Event, your attendees will be able to ask questions. Either your producer(s) or the person you have asked to be your moderator for the Q&A, will moderate the Q&A.

There will be sections of the Q&A visible only to the producer(s) and presenter(s), one called "New" and one called "Published".

From the "New" section the Q&A moderator(s) can publish questions for all attendees to see. You should decide before your Live Event how you want to moderate the Q&A session. For example, how and when the questions will be answered, and who will answer what.

Further information and guidance on Moderating the Q&A is available in the following YouTube video:

How to moderate the Q&A

Informing your attendees 

It is a good idea to inform your attendees of the format of the Live Event before hand, as although it is very similiar to Teams meetings in the way that attendees join the meeting, the format is slightly different.

You should let them know that they can ask questions during the Live Event.

Further information on attending Live Events is available in the following YouTube video:

How to attend a Live Event

For some Teams Live Events, you may need to restart the event after it has ended. For example, if you accidentally end an event before it is scheduled to end.

Microsoft have now added this option to Teams Live Events.

Important Note - If a producer chooses to restart a live event, you will lose the recording, transcript, and captions data of the event in progress and attendees will not be able to view the current event on demand. You should only restart live events when it is necessary, such as when a live event is accidentally ended before it was due to. 

How to restart the Live Event

• Only producers may restart an event
• Once the producer restarts the event, all presenters and producers must re-join the call and can start the event once they re-join

To restart the event:

1. Click "More options" (ellipsis icon)
2. Click "Restart event"
3. A warning message will appear, click "restart"

Privacy Statement – Microsoft Teams Live Events and recording

Information about you: how we use it and with whom we share it

The University provides the Microsoft Teams Live Events service to allow you to host large “town hall” style events on the Microsoft Teams platform. Your Microsoft Teams Live Events will be recorded and will be available to download after your event, either by all event attendees or only by producers and presenters, depending on your settings (your Live Event organiser should discuss these setting with you beforehand).                                                

The University uses an external company (Microsoft) to provide Teams Live Events on the University’s behalf. The University remains responsible for your Microsoft Teams Live Events recordings and will ensure they are held securely. Please read Microsoft’s privacy statement for further information on the usage of the data.

Privacy Statement (Microsoft site)

We provide you with the use of Microsoft Teams Live Events with the function to record your Live Event because it is necessary in the performance of your contract with us, for us to provide necessary platforms for you to complete your work, study and/or research. If you are an external collaborator producing or presenting in a Teams Live Event with the University of Edinburgh, your Live Event will only be recorded with your consent (this should be given to your meeting organiser).

Sharing Information

Your Microsoft Teams Live Events recordings will be shared with those specified to you by your Live Event organiser before the event. Your Live Event organiser should discuss with you before the event if the recording will be available to all attendees or if it will only be available to producers and presenters. The University will not share your Microsoft Teams Live Event recordings without your knowledge and consent. Only those people that you consented for your Microsoft Teams Live Event recording to be shared with and the Microsoft Teams administrator will have access to them.

When your Microsoft Teams Live Event recording is kept in Microsoft Teams and not downloaded, the recording will be retained and available to download for 180 days before deletion. When your Microsoft Teams Live Event recording is downloaded, your Live Event organiser should provide you with a retention period for this download.

For guidelines on disclosing who you will be sharing your Microsoft Teams meeting recordings with and how long you will retain the recording, please read our “Guiding Principles – Recording of online and digital events”.