Hosting a Live Event

Joining

Now that it’s time for your live event, head on over to your event’s Overview page, and click “Join Event Room as Host.”

If you’re a Panelist or Audience Member, click the link you’ve received to join. Panelists can also join the event by clicking “Join Event as Panelist” from the “Invite Panelist” page.

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 join with your microphone muted or your camera off.

Hosting

Once you’ve entered the live event page, you’ll see a number of options here. 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 to make them the presenter, which will spotlight them in certain layouts.

When you’re ready to get started, click “Go Live” and you’ll see a three-second countdown. Your livestream has a 7–10 second delay.

On the right, you can see your Audience’s chat under “Audience,” and participate in the conversation. You can also chat with your Panelists under “Backstage” (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:

• Audio: Mute and unmute your microphone.
• Video: Turn your webcam on or off.
• Share: Share your screen.
  • If you click to share your screen, you’ll be prompted to select your Entire Screen, Window, or a Tab. If you need to share audio as well, be sure to select a specific tab under “Chrome Tab,” and check “Share tab audio.”
• Layouts: Choose how you’d like your live event to appear for your Audience. The Presenter or Screenshare will be the main display and you can choose to have your panelists shown in different positions.
• Invite: Find event Links for your Audience or Panelists
• Settings: Change your Display Name, Audio, and Video settings.
  • Reduce Background Noise and Automatic Level Control are on by default - you can disable these if you’d like. You can also enable Echo Cancellation.
  • Disable or enable the chat panel for your audience from the Profile tab.

When the event is over, click “End Stream.” You’ll receive a confirmation message that the stream has ended.

To head back into your Wistia account, click “Back to Overview.” You’ll be taken directly to your recording’s media page Overview. From here, your recording will function just like a regular media in Wistia, but with a couple of additional options. Head on over here (link to page about live recordings) to learn more.

Panelist View

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

• Audio: Mute and unmute your microphone.
• Video: Turn your webcam on or off.
• Share: Share your screen.
  • If you click to share your screen, you’ll be prompted to select your Entire Screen, Window, or a Tab.
• Invite: Find the event link for your Audience.
• Settings: Change your Display Name, Audio, or Video settings.
  • Echo Cancellation, Reduce Background Noise, and Automatic Level Control are on by default - you can disable these if you’d like.

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 View

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.”

Chat

There are a number of interactive options within a live event’s chat.

• Participants can add emojis to their messages and react to other messages with them as well.
• They can directly respond to a specific message.
• They can can fix any typos by editing their message.
• Hosts and Panelists can upload files directly to the chat, such as PDFs and MP4s.

Moderated Q&A

Hosts can activate or deactivate Q&A via the settings in the event room. Click the “Settings” option, and then the profile 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 archived, will not viewable by the audience at all.

Questions that have not yet been approved will be in the “Submitted” tab. Click the checkmark icon below the question box to approve the question and make it public. It will then appear in the “Public” tab.

The host and/or panelists can then create a thread to answer the question. To create a thread, click the arrow icon and reply.

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

The archive a question, click the trash bin icon. Archived questions can also be moved back over to the public tab by clicking the checkmark icon.

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