Now that it’s time for your live event, you can join the event room from the Overview page, the Registrants page, or the Event Analytics page. Click “Join event room,” then "Join as host." Wistia Live supports multiple hosts, so you can collaborate with your co-hosts to moderate chat, bring people on and off stage, and change layouts for a seamless experience.

If you’re a panelist or audience member, click the link you’ve received to join. You can also join the event by clicking the "Join event room" dropdown. From here, you can "Join as panelist" or "View as audience" as well.

If you’re the Host or a Panelist, when you click to join, enter your Display Name, and be sure to select your preferred Video, Microphone, and Speakers. Once done, click “All Set.” You can also choose whether or not you’d like to blur your camera background, or join with your microphone muted or your camera off.

Once you’ve entered the live event page, you’ll see a number of options here.

When you’re ready to get started, click “Go Live” and then confirm your selection in the pop-up. Your livestream has a 7–10 second delay.

When a panelist joins, they’ll automatically be off-stage. However, you can click on them when you’re ready to bring them on-stage. You can also choose when to mute a presenter, pin them to the presenter position, or take them off-stage.

On the right, you can see your audience’s chat under “Audience,” and participate in the conversation. You can also chat with your panelists in the “Backstage” tab of the chat window (audience members can’t see the backstage chat).

There are a number of options on the page for you to adjust your presentation as needed:

When the event is over, click “End event" and then confirm your selection.

From here, you can go directly to your event's analytics by clicking "View Analytics" or view the recording by selecting "View Media."

Your recording functions just like a regular media in Wistia, but with a couple of additional options. Head on over here to learn more.

As a panelist, your view will look similar to the host’s. You can make the following adjustments as needed:

You can see the Audience chat, as well as the Backstage chat, which includes the Host and all Panelists.

If you need to leave the event before it has ended, you can choose to “Leave” in the bottom left. Otherwise, the event will automatically stop when the Host has ended it.

Audience members will either be prompted to register for the event (if enabled) or they’ll land directly on the event page. Once there, you can see if the event has begun, or if you need to wait for the host to begin. You can also share the event with others!

On the event page, you can join the chat with other audience members, the host, and panelists, enable closed captions, or go fullscreen.

If needed, you can pause the event and return to continue watching later as well.

Once the host has ended the event, you’ll see a message that says “The stream has ended.”

There are a number of interactive options within a live event’s chat. All participants (including the host and panelists) can:

Hosts and panelists have a number of additional interactive options as well, including:

Hosts can also delete a comment or silence an attendee. Learn more about silencing attendees here.

Hosts can activate or deactivate Q&A via the settings in the event room. Click the “Settings” option, and then the filter icon to turn Q&A on or off.

Audience members can type their questions in the Q&A tab; however, they won’t be visible to the entire audience until the host approves them. Or, if they are deleted, will not viewable by the audience at all.

Questions that have not yet been approved will be in the “Submitted” tab. Click "Make public" to approve the question. It will then appear in the "Public" tab. Click the trash icon to delete it.

The host and/or panelists can then create a thread to answer the question. To create a thread, click "Reply."

Any dismissed questions will appear in the “Deleted” tab, and are not visible to the audience.

To delete a question, click the trash bin icon. Deleted questions can also be moved back over to the "Public" tab by clicking "Make public."

Questions that have already been answered can also be moved over to the “Deleted” section at any time.

Hosts and Panelists can create and edit Polls from the event room any time before or during the event.

While in the Event room, navigate to the "Polls" tab. Clicking “Create a poll” will allow you to start drafting your question and answers. Once saved, the draft can then be edited, deleted, or launched.

Once launched, polls will appear to the audience after 10 seconds. As the audience votes, the host and panelists will see the percentage of votes for each response.

Once closed, polls will take 30 seconds to disappear from audience view.

Hosts can “silence” an attendee, which will render the attendee’s messages hidden/invisible to all other people in the Event Room, including the host, panelist, and other attendees. However, the said attendee will continue to see their own messages, without knowing they have been silenced.

To begin, click the three dots next to the attendee’s message and select the “Silence attendee” option.

Once an attendee is “silenced”, the Host will see placeholders for messages previously sent by the attendee indicating that these messages are now hidden from view of the Host, Panelist, and other Attendees.

The Host can undo the silence of (or, un-silence) the attendee at any point by clicking “Attendee silenced” and then confirming this will make the attendee’s past and future messages visible to everyone.

The Host has the option to delete any messages as needed, and to re-silence any attendee as needed.