Introducing Microsoft Teams Town Hall: A One-Stop Solution for Virtual Events

29 Sep Introducing Microsoft Teams Town Hall: A One-Stop Solution for Virtual Events

Introducing Microsoft Teams Town Hall: A One-Stop Solution for Virtual Events

Simplifying Virtual Events

In today’s remote work environment, virtual events have become the go-to strategy for companies looking to connect with their employees and stakeholders no matter where they are. Microsoft has always been at the forefront of this space, with their Teams Live Events offering an excellent solution for these needs. But times change, and so do the tools we use.

Microsoft has to announce a significant update to its virtual event capabilities. They have announced the integration of all the bells and whistles of the Live Events into their well-loved Microsoft Teams meetings, introducing a feature called “Town Hall.” This update will unify the user experience, so whether you’re holding a small team meeting, a customer webinar, or a large town hall meeting, you can do it all from the same interface.

Key Features and Roll-Out Plans

Microsoft aims to offer this seamless Town Hall experience starting on October 5, 2023. It will replace the existing Teams Live Events platform. For those of you on Microsoft 365 and Office 365, you will have access to basic Town Hall features, while Teams Premium users will get some advanced capabilities. The goal is to bring all the features from Live Events into Town Hall by September 2024.

Capabilities in a Nutshell

• Attendee Capacity: Up to 10,000 attendees for regular customers and 20,000 for Teams Premium.
• Concurrent Events: You can host up to 15 events at the same time.
• Co-Organizer Support: Enables team collaboration in organizing events.
• Automated Communication: Automated emails for event invitations and recordings.
• Green Room: A pre-event space for presenters to prepare.
• Live Features: Real-time translation, transcriptions, and more. 

Setting Up Your Town Hall Event

To set up a Town Hall, go to the Teams client and navigate to Calendar > New meeting dropdown > Town Hall. A template form will pop up. Here, you can:

• Write the title and description for the event
• Set the date and time
• Invite presenters, co-organizers, and attendees
• Customize the visibility settings
• Confirm your settings with “Save and Send”

Once the event is saved and published, you will have tabs to further manage the event, like Theming for email customization and Reports for post-session analytics.

Customizable Meeting Options

You can also access Meeting Options to make further customizations for features like the Green Room, Q&A, and others, offering a more structured and interactive event experience.

Examples of Usage

Imagine you’re hosting a “State of the Company” event. With Town Halls, you can have breakout rooms for different departments, keep everyone engaged with Q&A sessions, and even do live polls to get instant feedback. All of this while having a real-time dashboard to monitor attendee participation and more!

Teams Live Events: The Sunset Phase

Teams Live Events will be phased out over the next year, officially retiring on September 30, 2024. You have until then to get used to Town Halls, but all existing recordings on Teams Live Events must be downloaded before December 31, 2024.

Get Ready to Make the Switch

Microsoft is providing a range of resources to ensure a smooth transition to Town Halls. Starting October 5, technical guidance and resources will be available. There’s also a LEAP support program, free training, and FastTrack assistance for specific subscriptions.

Town Halls will be enabled by default upon its release. However, admin policies can disable it if necessary. If you’re an admin looking to disable this feature, you’ll need to update your PowerShell module to the latest version and run some specific scripts.

This feature will be enabled by default upon release. However, if required by Admin Policy, it can be disabled.

If you want to disable this feature, then update the PowerShell module to the latest version before making Large Scale Meeting Event policy changes.

To disable Town Hall, use the following script:

Set-CsTeamsEventsPolicy -Identity <policy name> -AllowTownhalls Disabled

To disable Public Town hall, you can utilize the following parameter (this also affects Webinars)

-EventAccessType : EveryoneInCompanyExcludingGuests

Everyone: Enables creating events to allow in-tenant, guests, federated, and anonymous (external to the tenant) users to join the event.

For complete guidance, keep an eye out for Microsoft documentation, which will be available on October 5 on Microsoft’s official website (learn.microsoft.com).

The Road Ahead

As Town Halls continue to evolve, Microsoft will keep you posted on all the new features and capabilities being added. It is excited time to see how these changes will enrich your virtual event experiences, facilitating deeper and more meaningful connections within your organization.

So, mark your calendars for October 5, 2023, and get ready to take your virtual gatherings to the next level with Town Halls in Microsoft Teams!