Webinars

A webinar is a presentation for a large audience. A small team (the stage) talks and shows the screen; everyone else watches, chats, asks questions, votes in polls and reacts. Webinars are rolling out: if you do not see Webinars in your workspace menu, they are not turned on for your workspace yet.

Joining as an attendee

1. Open the link from your invitation or email, or pick the webinar under Webinars in the workspace menu.
2. If the page asks you to register, enter your name, email and country, answer any questions, and choose Register. Some hosts approve each registration: you get an email with your personal link once it is approved.
3. Open your personal link at the start time. Keep the link to yourself: it is how you join.
4. Before the start you see Starting soon. If the host uses a waiting room you see You are in the waiting room until they let you in.

While you watch:

• Chat: type a message. The host chooses who can read it: everyone, or only the hosts and speakers. A slow mode may limit how often you can write.
• Questions: ask the team a question. It goes to the people who answer questions, not to the whole audience. Tick Ask anonymously if the host allows it. You can upvote questions the team has shown to everyone. An answer to your question may be private (only you see it) or public.
• Polls: when the host launches a poll, it appears in the Polls tab. Choose and press Vote. You can vote once.
• Reactions: tap an emoji. Many reactions are combined into one animation.
• Raise hand: asks a moderator to let you speak.

Why am I muted?

Attendees watch and listen. You are muted, and you cannot unmute yourself. This is enforced by CM Chat, not only by your screen. Use Raise hand: a moderator can allow you to speak (and separately to use your camera) and can take it back. If a meeting grew into a webinar, everyone without a role is muted in the same way.

Scheduling a webinar

1. Open Webinars, then Schedule a webinar.
2. Give it a title, a start time (your local time) and a length.
3. Choose Who can attend: Everyone in this workspace, Only people I invite, or Anyone with the link (a registration page for people outside CM Chat).
4. Set the Maximum attendees, whether you approve each registration, a Waiting room, how chat works and whether anonymous questions are allowed. Add up to five registration questions.
5. Choose Schedule. Registrants get a confirmation email, a calendar file, and reminders 24 hours and 1 hour before.

Your plan decides how large a webinar can be. If your plan does not include webinars you see a message that says what to upgrade to.

Running a webinar

Open the webinar. You see the console:

• Start practice session lets the team go live with each other while the audience still sees "Starting soon". Go live opens the show. End webinar ends it for everyone.
• Join the stage connects your microphone and camera. Produce the program mixes the stage into the picture the audience watches; one host or moderator produces at a time.
• Chat, Questions, Polls, People and Settings are tabs on the right.

Roles

In People you can make an attendee a speaker or answerer and back again, Allow to speak or take it back, allow or stop a camera, admit people from the waiting room, Remove someone, or Ban them (they cannot rejoin). Raised hands appear in a queue at the top. In Settings: chat mode, slow mode, bad-word filter, who sees questions, lock the webinar, mute all speakers, mute every attendee, program layout and spotlight, and who can share a screen.

Questions

Questions arrive in the Questions tab for the host, moderators, speakers and answerers. For each question you can Answer (privately to the asker, or for everyone), mark Answered live, Show to everyone, Assign it to a speaker, or Dismiss it. Turn on Show new questions to everyone in Settings if you want a public board. Attendees never see other people's unanswered questions unless you show them.

Polls

In Polls, write a question and options, then Launch now or Save for later. Watch the votes arrive, End poll, and choose Share results when you want the audience to see them.

When a meeting becomes a webinar

A meeting holds up to 200 people. When more join, nobody is refused: the meeting becomes a webinar and everyone is told "This meeting is now a webinar because more than 200 people joined." The meeting owner sees Assign roles. Choose moderators, speakers and Q&A answerers. Until you apply, everyone keeps their seat. When you apply, everyone else becomes an attendee: muted, watching, with Raise hand to ask for the floor. If the owner is not in the meeting, the earliest moderator, or the person who started the meeting, can assign roles instead.

Reports

Webinars, then Reports lists your webinars with registered, attended, peak and question counts (five rows show at a time; scroll for more). Pick one to see registrants, attendance, questions, polls, chat and the moderator log, and Download CSV.

Privacy

Registrant names, emails, answers, chat and questions are stored protected. The host sees what you gave when registering. Anonymous questions show no name to anyone in the webinar. Every moderator action is recorded with who did it.