Amber Hickman |
Microsoft is launching Town halls, a live event experience for Microsoft Teams that will replace Teams Live Events.
Town halls will be integrated into the Teams meeting experience to create a unified experience for users compared to Teams Live Events, which was built on a separate platform.
The experience will provide a platform for organisations to host and deliver large-scale events both internally and externally with a capacity of 10,000 people (20,000 for Teams Premium users).Also, organisations will also be able to host up to 15 concurrent events (up to 50 for Teams Premium users).
Event presenters and organisers will have access to a virtual green room where they can connect, brief and test run without the presence of attendees. They will also have access to a dedicated chat that is not accessible for attendees.
There will also be the option to manage what attendees see by bringing up to seven presenters on and off screen at will to create a more seamless presentation.
Organisers will be able to manage and moderate the Q&A function to aid the flow of discussion and filter questions for relevance, and on-demand recording means attendees will be able to re-watch the event on-demand.
The service will also be integrated with Viva Engage so that attendees can view events from the platform.
Town halls will be generally available for commercial customers from 5 October 2023, and Teams Live Events will remain available until 30 September 2024.