Webinars are Gradual's newest event type, which combines the experience of a livestream and a meeting event. They allow you to present and stream natively in Gradual and bring attendees to the stage to provide an interactive video call for a larger audience of attendees.
Learn more about how to build webinars and the dashboard settings below.
The webinar event type must be enabled in your dashboard. Reach out to the Gradual Team if this would be a solution for your community.
Creating a Webinar event
From the Gradual dashboard, select Events on the left hand side menu. Select +Create an event in the upper right hand side of that page.
Select Webinar and give your event a title, select the proper timezone, enter the scheduled start date and time, and the scheduled end date and time. Select ‘Submit’ at the base.
You will be directed to the Webinar Room page where you must assign the important roles in the event. Learn more about each role below. THe most important is a webinar host (or multiple hosts):
To add a host, select + Select Host. Hosts must be attendees or registrants of the event, so you can search for and select already registered attendees in this pop-up, or at the base of the page select + New Attendee As Host to register and add someone from your community as the host.
To save your work, click ‘Save’. If you want to add more or change hosts at a later date, you can access this feature within the event, in Webinar Room on the left-hand side menu.
Panelists are important in webinars as they can be on camera and audio and screen share. To add panelists select + Select Panelist. Panelists must be attendees or registrants of the event, so you can search for and select already registered attendees in this pop-up, or at the base of the page select + New Attendee As Panelist to register and add someone from your community. To save your work, click ‘Save’.
Note: Assigned Hosts and Staff can promote attendees to panelists live in the event as well.
Complete your event setup by selecting Event SetUp on the left hand side, and making sure all relevant details are listed in the General Info tab. You can upload an image, provide a description and also assign tags to the event.
Once that’s complete, you’re set to publish this event and start promoting it!
Click the ‘Publish’ button at the base of the left hand side menu when ready, and find the event link to share and promote the event in ‘Overview’.
Webinar Roles
These roles can be configured by admin in the event dashboard in the Webinar Room tab.
Hosts
Hosts can be on video and audio in the event, and have the most elevated controls during the live event:
Hosts can 'Go Live' and start the webinar and end the webinar for attendees
Hosts can promote attendees to 'panelist' to bring them on screen, live in the event
Hosts can control audio, moderate chat/Q&A, record the event, and assign breakout rooms
Hosts can screen share during the event
Panelists
Panelists can be on video and audio in the event, but have limited controls during the live event:
Panelists can screen share during the event
Staff
Staff members are NOT on video and audio in the event, but have elevated controls during the live event:
Staff can promote attendees to 'panelist' to bring them on screen, live in the event
Staff can control audio, moderate chat/Q&A, record the event, and assign breakout rooms
Staff can end the webinar for attendees
Attendees
All other registrants are assigned attendees. Attendees are NOT on video and audio in the event but can be promoted to panelists to come on video and audio.
Webinar Features
These settings can be configured by admin in the event dashboard in the Webinar Room tab.
Display attendee name
This controls if attendees can see the profile cards of other attendees during the event. If you'd like to keep the list of attendees private, toggle this off.
Chat and Q&A
Similar to other virtual events in Gradual, you can enable chat and Q&A tabs for attendees to engage with each other and the panelists.
Learn more about Q&A here.
Recording
You can set the webinar to auto-record from the 'Webinar Room' tab in the dashboard, or any host(s) can record the event from the live environment.
Hand Raising & Breakout rooms
Both hand-raising and breakout rooms can be enabled or disabled from the admin dashboard to fit your webinar and attendees' needs.
Dashboard admins can disable either of these features from the Events tab in the dashboard. Select Settings and check or de-check the feature you'd like to enable or disable.
Note: Hand-raising is a great tool to promote attendees to panelists so they can come on live (audio and video), but is not necessary to that feature.
Lobby/Waiting room
There is currently no waiting room or lobby feature in webinars. If a lobby or waiting room is critical to your event, you can host a meeting event for fewer attendees.
Ticket Types & Invitations
You can customize the type of tickets offered, the number of tickets or seats to the event, and the cost of tickets in the Ticket Types menu.
If you need to restrict access to certain ticket types or events, you can utilize Invitations and parameters during registration.
Learn more about invite-only events and ticketing here.
Registration Form
Build custom registration forms by asking attendees to answer a series of questions before they confirm their attendance. Forms can be unique to different ticket types as well!
Agenda & Speakers
Promote the schedule of your event event by creating a detailed agenda and adding speaker profiles to the event.
Emails
Gradual can send out event confirmation and reminder emails automatically to your registrants. See examples of these emails and how to enable or disable them here.
Admit Attendees Early
By default, the 'doors' will open to the event at the time set in General Info. If you'd like to admit attendees earlier than that start time, you can set the specified time on the General Info page in Advanced Settings.
Note: Attendees will be able to enter the webinar environment, but will not see and hear the hosts and panelists until the host goes 'live'.
💡 Pro Tip: Invite your panelists and fellow hosts to the event ahead of show time to run through the agenda, ensure their camera and mic are working, and wait to 'Go Live' until everyone is ready. Attendees will not see or hear hosts and panelists until the 'Go Live' button is pressed.
Hosting a Webinar
Learn more about the actions and tips for hosting a successful webinar here.