You can now enable a Lobby (Waiting Room) for meeting events and roundtables, where all attendees will wait in a lobby before being let into the call. If enabled, all attendees and panelists will need approval from the host(s) before joining the call.
There is an unlimited capacity limit in the lobby waiting room, but a 125 attendee capacity limit in the meeting or roundtable. You can utilize this feature to allow those attendees over the 125 cap to wait in the lobby for a spot to become available in the meeting room.
Controls and Settings
Creating a Waiting Room
The waiting room feature is currently available in meeting events and roundtables. It can be turned on in the event dashboard, on a per-event, per-roundtable basis. The default setting is 'off' for all meetings and roundtables, and dashboard admins or collaborators must manually enable the setting when configuring their event or roundtable in the dashboard.
Meeting Events
Sign in to the event dashboard and to the meeting event where you'd like to enable the Waiting Room
Navigate to the Meeting Info tab and to the Lobby (Waiting Room)setting. Toggle the feature 'on'
Roundtables
You can enable a lobby or waiting room for roundtables at the community level, or within a livestream or hybrid event. You will also enable it on a per-time-slot basis.
Sign in to the dashboard
Navigate to the Roundtables tab if you are enabling a lobby in a community level Roundtable, and select the Roundtable
Navigate to the event dashboard and to the live stream or hybrid event where you'd like to enable the lobby
Navigate to the time slot of the roundtable you'd like to enable the lobby, and select 'Edit'
Toggle the feature 'on
Closing a Waiting Room
Dashboard admins or collaborators can close waiting rooms from the event dashboard and live in the event environment and assigned hosts can close them from live event environment.
From the event dashboard
Dashboard admins and collaborators can change the settings from the event dashboard.
Sign in to the dashboard and to the meeting event or roundtable time slot where you'd like to disable the Waiting Room
Navigate to the Meeting Info tab (Meetings) or Time Slot (Roundtables) Info tab and to the Lobby (Waiting Room)setting.
Toggle the feature 'off'
Note: You cannot turn off the lobby of an ongoing meeting from the dashboard. You must sign into the meeting room and turn it off live in the event environment.
Live in the meeting room or roundtable
Assigned meeting & roundtable hosts can change the settings from the live event or roundtable environment.
You must be an assigned Host:
Log into the meeting event or roundtable where you'd like to disable the Waiting Room
From the top controls: Toggle the Lobby 'off' or
From the side controls: Select 'Close Lobby'
Note: Closing the lobby from the live event environment will admit all attendees to the meeting or roundtable.
Admitting participants
As the host in the live event, you can admit attendees one by one, or hold all attendees in the Waiting Room and admit them all at once.
There is an unlimited capacity limit in the lobby waiting room, but a 125 attendee capacity limit in the meeting and roundtable time slots. You can utilize this feature to allow those attendees over the 125 cap to wait in the lobby for a spot to become available in the meeting room, and admit attendees when spots become available.
Admit attendees one by one
All participants in the waiting room will appear on the right-hand side, and you will hover over their avatar to accept or deny them entry
Hover over their avatar and select the green 'Accept' button
If there are over 125 users in the lobby, you can select users to join the call up until you've reached the limit of 125 attendees in the meeting. This 125 capacity includes any attendees already in the room like hosts, panelists, speakers, etc.
Admin attendees all at once
All participants in the waiting room will appear on the right-hand side. Select the green 'Admit All' button
All participants in the lobby will enter the room at once
If there are over 125 users in the lobby, and you select 'Admin All' the system will randomly select users to join the meeting room, to the limit of 125 attendees in the meeting. This 125 capacity includes any attendees already in the room like hosts, panelists, speakers, etc.
Note: You cannot revoke an attendee's entry or deny them once they have been accepted. If you need to take action on a disruptive attendee, check out this resource on Attendee management.
Once an attendee is admitted, they will be able to join the call from there on out (should they refresh or leave the meeting and come back).
Denying participants
As the host in the live event, you can deny attendees one by one.
All participants in the waiting room will appear on the right-hand side, and you will hover over their avatar to accept or deny them entry
Hover over their avatar and select the red 'Deny' button
Note: Attendees can attempt to join three times before they are blocked from joining.
Attendee Experience
The waiting room access applies to attendees and panelists (hosts will not follow the experience below).
Joining
If the waiting room is enabled, all attendees will program their video and audio settings ahead of joining, and the pop-up below will appear until they are accepted or denied entry.
Accepted Entry
Once attendees are accepted and granted access, they will join the meeting room or roundtable.
Denied Entry
Attendees will receive a notification that they have been denied entry to join the meeting room or rounndtable. They can select 'Ok' or they can 'Try Again'.
Attendees can attempt to join from the waiting room three times, and if they are denied by the host on the third attempt, they will be blocked from entering.
This is the screen they will see if they are blocked from entering:
Live In Event
Attendees and panelists do not see the attendees in the lobby or waiting room, and cannot take any action on those in the waiting room - to accept or deny them entry.