Advice and Guidance

Guiding Principles

Supported platforms

We have entered a new era of work related activity where our events and meetings have been moved online. With University-provided collaboration tools, we now have the opportunity to meet and collaborate irrespective of location. These tools also make it easy to record sessions and it is with this aspect that these guidelines are most concerned.

The University provides platforms to make meeting up online easier both to run and to experience. There are three centrally supported platforms: Microsoft Teams, Collaborate, and Teams Town Halls.

• Microsoft Teams and Teams Town Halls are the preferred options for all internal online and hybrid meetings. Please note that Zoom is not recommended for internal meetings. Both Teams and Town Halls can also be used with external partners. 

Recording online and digital events

Recording events or meetings is possible through the supported platforms. We don’t normally record physical meetings or events unless it is for a specific purpose and the same should apply to online or hybrid versions. Just because you can record something doesn’t mean you should. However, if there is a good reason to record a meeting,  the "Record" function is helpful. For example, to assist with note or minute taking, or on occasions when not everyone can attend and you want others to have access to what was said.

Before recording your meeting, you should consider the following:

• Does everyone know in advance that the organiser intends to record the meeting?
• Has everyone been told the reason the recording is necessary?
• The organiser must tell everyone that they are going to be recorded before the meeting starts. At the start of the meeting the convenor must remind everyone before starting the recording.
• The normal retention period for any event or meeting recording is 20 days. You must follow data protection legislation, linked below:
• Read our data protection handbook
• There are some circumstances where recordings may be needed to be retained for a longer period. In these cases, this should be articulated clearly to all participants before the meeting takes place.

Responsibilities when recording online events

Organisers of meetings and events

1. If you are the organiser of an event or meeting, you must ensure that participants are made aware of the intention to record the event or meeting. To meet legal requirements, you must also inform participants whether they can opt out, or if they have to opt in.
2. You must communicate to participants the purpose of the recording, the retention period, and what the recording may, or may not, be used for.
3. You should also direct participants to our recording privacy notices below, before recording the meeting or event
4. At the start of the event or meeting, you must advise participants of the intention to record, prior to the commencement of the recording. You must also advise any ‘late joining’ participants that the event or meeting is being recorded.
5. You must also ensure the recording is deleted in line with the retention period communicated to your participants.
6. Where it has been agreed that an event or meeting will be recorded and that the recording will be available publicly, you must make sure all participants are aware of the terms under which the recording is made available and for what it may or may not be used. 

Participants in meetings and events

1. You must not make your own recording of a meeting or event, whether that be video and/or audio, using the recording option on any of the collaborative tools, or using a personal recording device, mobile phone, computer or tablet.
2. You must not download the event or meeting recording from the collaboration tool or make a copy to store elsewhere.

Recording Privacy Notices

You may also want to read through our Recording Online and Digital Events Privacy Notices:

Recording privacy statement (external collaborators)

Recording privacy statement (internal – staff and students)

• If your event isn't free, plan your budget and set your fees carefully in advance - ensuring you account for all costs.
• Consider types of sessions - for example, non-teaching lectures, keynote talks, breakout sessions, poster sessions, demonstrations, social events, or sponsor presentations.
• Consider if your audience consists of internal, external, or a mix of colleagues.
• Pick the technology that facilitates your sessions - when hosting community events or small project meetings, try to use platforms that are robust enough to handle videos being on all the time. This makes the meeting more engaging.
  • We recommend the use of Microsoft Teams for your sessions.
  • If you can't find what you are looking for, don't worry. There are more tools available that might suite your needs, such as those outlined by the Digital Curation Centre's guide below
  • How to host effective online events
  • Please note that some tools referenced in the resources above are not supported by ISG; the IS Helpline will not be able to provide assistance with these tools should you opt to use them.
• Allow sufficient time for comfort and screen breaks - especially if your conference spans over several hours, days, or weeks.
• Make your conference schedule and registration details available as far in advance as possible, with regular reminders in the lead up to the event.
  • You may want to create a webpage with all relevant information and links to your registration pages. For examples, see below:
  • Event Booking at UoE
  • When scheduling online events that will have participants from many countries, be sure to make clear to participants the time and in which time zone the event will be held. The following time zone converter can be useful in these cases:
  • Time zone convertor
  • Make sure to send clear and concise instructions to participants and encourage them to test software prior to joining the session to identify any problems. Make sure they receive both:
    • A link to the platform meeting room
    • Link to the agenda/notes for the meeting
• Prepare instructions for your speakers and ensure they are familiar with the technology you are using - an example on such instructions can be found below:
• Research Data Alliance website
• Test out the platform in advance with everyone who plays a key role in the meeting - ensure everyone’s audio and video is properly configured, practice using the chat or Q&A, decide together how you will run the session, and so on.
• Define clear roles - it is too much for one person to chair, manage Q&A, monitor chat, and so on. Make sure you know who is checking the chat for issues and helping to troubleshoot these in real time.
• Amplify your event using social media, helping it to reach people who may not be able to attend on the day.
  • You may find it useful to appoint a social media manager for the event.
  • If you are live tweeting keynotes, be sure to notify the speaker in advance and confirm they are happy to be quoted or tagged.
  • After the event, if participants are writing blog posts or conference reports, encourage them to tag your event.

General Tips

• Prepare and pre-load any presentation slides - or ensure the speakers know how to pass controls between them if presenting from local devices.
• Be proactive - prepare a couple of slides showing where to mute/unmute or troubleshoot audio settings as people often struggle to find these.
• Webinar participants tend to arrive early - about 5 minutes before the official start! Until you hit broadcast or start the webinar, they will usually be seeing a blank screen and can’t hear you. Be sure to regularly post welcome messages in the chat stating when the session will start along with links to any shared docs. Otherwise, share your screen with an introductory slide stating the key information.
• Show face - the session chair or facilitator and presenters should enable video, at least at the start so that people feel more at ease.
• Make a strong start - explain how the session will run and where you want people to ask questions. Flag up if they need to select an option such as ‘to everyone’, ‘privately’ when adding a comment. The chat in Microsoft Teams, for instance, is always visible to all attendees.
• Mute when not speaking - most platforms allow the main host to mute participants, so keep an ear out for distracting noise that you might need to cut.
• Remember - a meeting scheduled for an hour doesn’t need to keep going for the full hour! If you get things done earlier than planned, most people are very happy. Conversely, if the meeting looks likely to run over the time allocated, it is important to check with participants if they are OK to continue for a period of extra time. Make this period of extra time clear and have a cut off point.

Icebreaker Ideas:

• For smaller meetings - where people do not know each other, an icebreaker or set of introductions at the outset can help. The moderator should move through the list of attendees as participants will not know what order to proceed in. Alternatively just try and generate some ad hoc discussion amongst a few people while you’re waiting for the call to start to set everyone at ease. This helps to generate higher levels of participation later on.
• For larger groups - you could ask participants pre-session to collect very short bios e.g. name, photo, fun fact, why they're excited for the project. Breakout rooms are also helpful to allow small-group networking.

Running a Q&A Session:

• Have one or two people on standby to moderate questions - Microsoft Town Halls gives you the option to moderate questions before making them public. At the end of the meeting, you can also download the questions raised during your event. If you have a shared agenda and minutes, attendees can also ask questions there. This allows them to ask questions anonymously and “vote” for questions by just adding +1 to questions. You will need multiple people to work on this. It is almost impossible to chair, watch the chat, and collate questions alone.
• For Q&A sessions following a presentation, prepare 2-3 questions yourself to avoid an awkward silence. You could even collect questions in advance so you have some to start with.
• Encourage people to ask questions orally, not just in chat - however, bear the group size in mind. Ask people to raise their hand if they’d like to ask a question orally. Again, someone monitoring the chat box is vital for this.
• Use online polling platforms like Mentimeter to allow audience participation - these can be quite fun (quiz competition works particularly well!). They also collate results automatically and can be used for analysis afterwards.
  • Please note that Mentimeter is not supported by ISG so IS Helpline will not be able to provide assistance with it.

For additional technical support and guidance on large scale and bespoke events please explore the dedicated service below:

University of Edinburgh Hospitality and Events Collection 

This includes video conferencing, live streaming, and technical assistance with your event. We are also able to provide conference and events advice and other aspects of Event Management including delegate registration, abstract and financial management.

Contact us via events@ed.ac.uk or 0131 652 2189. 

For advice and guidance for each of the Online and Digital Events Platforms, please see the relevant webpage:

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Town Halls

Blackboard Collaborate

Microsoft Stream