For virtual events, IT can provide a license for a Zoom Webinar to reach wider audiences in a more formal presentation setting. Availability is limited, so please reach out to us at helpdesk@emerson.edu as early as possible to reserve a webinar license for your event.
Please read the comparison between Zoom Meetings and Webinars below to see which is more appropriate for your event.
Want more information?
Please visit our guide on Hosting a Special Event in Zoom.
Meetings vs. Webinars
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Meeting |
Webinar |
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Description |
Zoom meetings are ideal for hosting more interactive sessions where you’ll want to have lots of audience participation or break your session into smaller groups. |
Think of webinars like a virtual lecture hall or auditorium. Webinars are ideal for large audiences or events that are open to the public. Typically, webinar attendees do not interact with one another. Though Zoom provides options for you to get more social with your attendees, your average webinar has one or a few people speaking to an audience. |
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Use Case |
Small to large groups (2+ participants) for:
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Large events and public broadcasts (50+ attendees) such as:
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Users |
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Side-by-side feature comparison
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Feature |
Meeting |
Webinar |
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Participant Roles |
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Audio Sharing |
|
|
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Video Sharing |
All Participants |
Hosts and Panelists |
|
✔ |
✔ |
|
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Capacity |
Up to 300 |
Up to 500 or 1000 participants |
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Participants List |
Visible to all participants |
Visible to Host and Panelist |
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Email Reminders |
-- |
If registration is enabled |
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Chat |
||
|
-- |
✔ |
|
✔ |
-- |
|
|
✔ |
✔ |
|
|
✔ |
✔ |
|
|
Polling |
||
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Livestream |
Facebook, YouTube, Workplace by Facebook, Custom Streaming Service |
Facebook, YouTube, Workplace by Facebook, Custom Streaming Service |
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Registration |
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✔ |
✔ |
|
|
✔ |
✔ |
|
|
✔ |
-- |
|
|
✔ |
✔ |
Request a webinar license
To host a Webinar, you’ll first need to contact the IT Help Desk at helpdesk@emerson.edu to request a license. We’ll need the following information to process your request:
- Date of the webinar event, as well as 1-2 separate days in advance of your event so you can set up and test the webinar (recommended at least two weeks in advance).
- The number of attendees you expect. We offer 500 or 1000 capacity licenses.
- Who is creating/hosting the Webinar, so we know who to assign the webinar license to (one person only).
- Whether or not this is a recurring Webinar.
Registration for Webinars
Scheduling a webinar with registration requires your registrants to complete a brief form before receiving the link to join your webinar. This allows you to collect the names, email addresses, and other information from the registrants. You can choose to automatically approve anyone who registers or manually approve attendees.
Attendees can only register for your webinar while you have the webinar license. Due to limited availability, we may not be able to let you hold onto a webinar license between the day you create the webinar and the day your webinar happens. In this case, your attendees wouldn't be able to register for your event until the day of the webinar, so we recommend booking a webinar license in advance as soon as possible.
If you're unable to use Zoom Registration due to this, we recommend using another platform for your attendees to register through, such as EventBrite, Ticket Tailor, or other event registration platform software.
Still need help?
For questions or requests, such as booking a webinar license, please contact helpdesk@emerson.edu, or call us at 617-824-8080.