Webinars & Town Halls | Guided by A Guide to Cloud

Events in Teams — beyond regular meetings

Simple explanation

Webinars are like a university lecture — speakers present, the audience can ask questions, and you register in advance (so the organiser knows who’s coming).

Town halls are like a stadium keynote — the CEO speaks to thousands, the audience can react (applause, thumbs up) and submit written Q&A, but nobody in the audience can unmute or share their camera. A production team controls the broadcast behind the scenes.

Webinars vs. town halls

Webinars vs. town halls
Feature	Webinar	Town Hall
Max attendees	1,000	10,000 view-only (up to 100,000 with Attendee Capacity Pack)
Registration	Yes — customisable forms with approval options	No
Attendee interaction	Q&A, polls, reactions; can unmute if allowed	Q&A and reactions only — no unmuting, no camera
Presenter roles	Organisers and presenters speak; attendees controlled	Producers (backstage), presenters (on-screen), attendees (view only)
Recording	Available to organisers	Auto-available to attendees
eCDN support	No	Yes — optimises bandwidth for large audiences on corporate networks
Breakout rooms	Yes	No
Co-organisers	Yes	Yes (as producers)
Post-event analytics	Registration and attendance reports	Attendance, engagement, Q&A analytics

Configuring webinars

Event policies for webinars

Teams admin center → Meetings → Events policies

Setting	Options	Impact
Allow webinars	On / Off	Whether users can create webinars
Webinar type	Public / Private / Both	Whether webinars can be public-facing (external attendees) or internal only
Registration	Required / Optional / None	Whether attendees must register
Registration capacity	1-1,000	Maximum registrants

Webinar configuration

When creating a webinar, organisers configure:

Registration form — custom fields, required information, approval workflow
Presenters — who presents and their permissions
Communication — confirmation emails, reminder emails
Engagement — Q&A, polls, reactions

Scenario: Kofi's open day webinar

Harbour University runs an online Open Day for 500 prospective students:

Type: Webinar (registration required, public)
Registration form: Name, email, intended course, country
Presenters: Vice-Chancellor (welcome), Department heads (course overviews)
Engagement: Q&A enabled, polls for course interest, reactions on
Post-event: Attendance report sent to admissions team for follow-up

Kofi’s policy: Allow public webinars for the “Events Team” security group only. General staff can create internal webinars but not public-facing ones.

Configuring town halls

Event policies for town halls

Setting	Options	Impact
Allow town halls	On / Off	Whether users can create town halls
Town hall type	Public / Internal	Whether external attendees can join

Town hall roles

Role	What They Do	During the Event
Organiser	Creates and configures the event	Full control over settings
Producer	Manages the live broadcast — controls who’s on screen, manages Q&A	Behind the scenes (backstage) — not visible to attendees
Presenter	Delivers content — visible to all attendees	On screen, shares content, speaks
Attendee	Watches the broadcast	Can react (applause, heart), submit Q&A, watch recording

eCDN (Enterprise Content Delivery Network)

For large town halls on corporate networks, eCDN optimises bandwidth by distributing the video stream across local peers rather than each attendee downloading the stream independently from Microsoft.

Configuration:

Teams admin center → Meetings → Meeting settings → Network → configure eCDN provider
Microsoft eCDN or third-party providers (Hive Streaming, Kollective, Ramp)
Critical for organisations with 1,000+ attendees on the same corporate network

Scenario: Tara's all-hands town hall

Pinnacle Corp’s quarterly all-hands reaches 2,000 employees across APAC:

Type: Town hall (internal only)
Organiser: Tara (configures everything)
Producers: IT team (2 people manage the broadcast backstage — control who’s on screen, moderate Q&A)
Presenters: CIO Lisa (earnings review), Head of IT Marcus (technology update), HR Director (benefits update)
Attendees: All 2,000 employees
eCDN: Enabled — Melbourne HQ has 800 employees on one network; eCDN prevents bandwidth congestion
Q&A: Moderated by producers — questions are reviewed before being surfaced to presenters
Recording: Auto-available to all employees after the event

🎬 Video walkthrough

🎬 Video coming soon

Webinars & Town Halls — MS-700 Module 20

~9 min

Flashcards

Question

What are the three roles in a Teams town hall?

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Answer

1. Producer (backstage — manages broadcast, Q&A, controls who's on screen), 2. Presenter (visible to attendees, speaks and shares content), 3. Attendee (watches, reacts, submits Q&A — cannot unmute or share camera).

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Question

What is eCDN and when do you need it?

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Answer

Enterprise Content Delivery Network. It optimises bandwidth for large town halls by distributing video streams locally across peers instead of each attendee downloading independently. Critical when 1,000+ attendees are on the same corporate network.

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Question

What's the key difference between webinars and town halls for attendee interaction?

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Answer

Webinar attendees can potentially unmute, use breakout rooms, participate in polls, and interact more freely. Town hall attendees can ONLY react (applause, hearts) and submit written Q&A — no unmuting, no camera, no breakout rooms.

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Knowledge Check

Pinnacle Corp's marketing team wants to host a product launch for 800 external customers with registration, polls, and a Q&A session. Presenters will demonstrate the product live. Which event type should Tara recommend?

Knowledge Check

Tara is planning a town hall for 2,000 employees. 800 are in the Melbourne HQ on the same network. She's concerned about bandwidth. What should she configure?

Next up: Phone Numbers & Conferencing — provisioning phone numbers for users, services, and conferencing bridges.