Should I do a Meeting or a Webinar?
If you would like to hold a Q&A, poll, or other type of interaction with a larger audience outside of your main speaker(s), then set your event up as a webinar.
If you would like to have an event where only a single or small group of people will be speaking, and there is no need for moderation, then set your event up as a meeting.
Fill out this form to initiate your Zoom event set up:
NOTE: We can live stream meetings and webinars. If you want to share your event with a large audience, then consider a live stream, but if you want that large audience to be able to interact, a webinar may be your best option.
Participant Terminology
Role | Meeting | Webinar |
Host/ Co-Host | Can mute participants microphone, but participants can still unmute themselves. | Can allow mute panelists, but panelists can unmute themselves. Can allow and disallow attendees from sharing microphone and webcam. |
Participant | Controls own microphone and webcam. Specific to Zoom Meetings | Divided into panelists and attendees in a Webinar |
Panelist | Doesn’t exist in Meetings | Controls own microphone and webcam. Specific to Zoom Webinars |
Attendee | Doesn’t exist in Meetings | Specific to Zoom Webinars |
Educational Resources
Zoom Resources Guides/PDFs:
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/209743263-Meeting-and-Webinar-Best-Practices-and-Resources
Live Training FREE:
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360029527911-Live-training-webinars
Meetings vs Webinars:
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115005474943-Meeting-and-webinar-comparison
Meetings Roles:
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362603
Webinar Roles:
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360000252726
How to Lead an Effective Virtual Brainstorm (shared by Sue Aiken)
https://blog.zoom.us/how-to-lead-effective-virtual-brainstorm/