Meeting vs. Webinar: Which do I need?
In choosing what type of virtual event to hold, decide what experience you’d like your audience to have. Meeting attendees will feel like they are part of a group event. Webinar attendees will feel like they are watching a presentation on their own. We encourage you to provide as unrestrictive a setup as you are comfortable with. The more your event parallels its in-person analogue, the more intuitive and natural it will be for your attendees.
Meetings are ideal to mimic an in-person, “around the table” meeting or any in-person event where people mingle and/or interact.
Meetings allow for:
- Attendees to feel like they are part of an event, even if they remain silent
- Having presenters but maintaining a group atmosphere
- People to see other attendees
- Max possible interaction with visuals and chat
- Breakout rooms, where you can split a large meeting into smaller groups, or even offer the ability to move between rooms at will (moving in Zoom only currently)
These are possible in Google Meet or Zoom.
Webinars are formal events that mimic an event such as a speech or presentation at a podium. These events limit an attendee’s interaction with the rest of the audience, but provides a spotlight for the speakers.
Webinars allow for:
- Attendees to watch an event without being seen or heard
- Spotlighting/separating the presenter/panelists
- Limit attendee interaction to panelists only
- Provide Q&A function
Meet allows you to broadcast to an audience, but doesn’t offer Q&A or chat for your audience built-in. You may be able to find other ways to do this in parallel (like hashtags on Twitter, or other alternative channels). Meet’s broadcast audience is also restricted to Allegheny emails only.
Zoom has Q&A and chat features for the audience. You will also be able to see who is there and how many people are there.
So You Want To Host a Zoom Webinar:
College Relations facilitates the hosting of Zoom webinars, which offer the ability for a panel of up to 100 people to broadcast to an audience of up to 1000. The College has used this feature for events like the All-Employee Meetings, where the audience can submit questions during the event to be answered.
The webinar host is responsible for beginning and ending the meeting, and can control the meeting.
Click here for more information on how to request a Zoom webinar.