Webinar vs Meeting — What Is the Difference?

A standard Teams meeting is best for collaborative discussions where everyone can talk and turn on their camera.

A Teams webinar is for presentations to a larger audience: client onboarding, product demos, allied-health information sessions, trade training, CPD events. It adds three things a normal meeting does not:

A registration page with a unique URL you can send out or post on your website
Automatic confirmation and reminder emails for registrants
A clear separation between presenters (who can talk and share their screen) and attendees (who watch and use chat or Q&A)

You need a Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Business Premium, or Enterprise licence to schedule webinars. Webinars are not available on the free version of Teams.

Step 1: Schedule the Webinar

Open Microsoft Teams on your desktop
Click Calendar on the left
Click the small arrow next to + New meeting in the top right
Choose Webinar

The webinar editor opens.

Step 2: Fill In the Basics

Title: Keep it specific — "Cyber Security Briefing for SMB Owners — May 2026" works better than "Webinar".
Date and time: Webinars work best at 30 to 60 minutes including Q&A. Schedule on a weekday during business hours for B2B audiences.
Time zone: Confirm AEST/AEDT.
Location: Leave blank — this is online.

Step 3: Add Presenters

In the Presenters field, add the email addresses of every person who will speak or share their screen. Presenters get a different join link to attendees.

You can also add Co-organisers — people who can edit the webinar setup, manage registration, and download the attendee report.

Step 4: Configure Registration

Click Configuration at the top of the webinar editor.

Registration:

Required for: Choose Everyone (public webinar) or People in your org and guests (more controlled).
Capacity: Set a sensible cap — 200 to 1,000 is normal for SMB events.
Manual approval: Turn on if you want to vet registrants before they get the join link.
Waitlist: Turn on if you expect to fill the capacity.

Registration form:

Add the fields you need: Name, Email and Company are usually enough.
Add a custom question if you want to ask "What is your biggest challenge with X?" — useful for tailoring the content.

Theming:

Upload a banner image (1584 × 396 pixels)
Add a short event description (this appears on the registration page)
Add presenter bios with photos — this dramatically lifts registrations

Step 5: Configure Email Communications

Still in Configuration, click Communications.

You can customise:

Confirmation email (sent immediately after registration)
Reminder emails (typically one a day before, one an hour before)
Cancellation email
Webinar updates email

Edit the subject lines to include your business name and the event title — generic Microsoft-branded emails get ignored.

Step 6: Set Meeting Options

Click Meeting options at the top of the editor.

For a controlled webinar, the typical settings are:

Who can bypass the lobby? People in my organisation
Who can present? Specific people (then list your presenters)
Allow mic for attendees? No
Allow camera for attendees? No
Allow reactions? Yes
Allow Q&A? Yes — this is the main way attendees engage in a webinar

The "no mic, no camera" defaults stop attendees accidentally interrupting. They can still ask questions through Q&A.

Step 7: Save and Share the Registration Link

Click Save
Open the saved webinar from your Calendar
Copy the Registration page URL at the top
Share that URL on your website, in email campaigns, on LinkedIn, in your email signature

Do not share the regular meeting join link publicly — share the registration URL so you collect attendee details and trigger reminder emails.

Step 8: Run the Webinar

About 15 minutes before the start time:

Open the webinar from your Calendar and click Join
Check your microphone and camera using Device settings
Open the Q&A panel and the Chat panel
If you have a co-presenter, agree who is moderating Q&A while the other presents
Start the recording — click More → Record and transcribe → Start recording

Tell attendees up front that the session is being recorded and Q&A will be answered at the end.

Step 9: After the Webinar

Click Leave for everyone, then back in the Calendar entry:

Attendance report: Open the meeting → Attendance tab → download the CSV. You get who registered, who attended, when they joined and left.
Recording: Available in the chat for the meeting and in the organiser's OneDrive. Share or trim it as needed.
Q&A: Export the Q&A transcript and use it for follow-up emails or a FAQ blog post.

Common Pitfalls

"Webinar" option missing from the New Meeting menu. Your Microsoft 365 licence does not include webinars, or your IT admin has not enabled the webinar policy. Ask your IT team or Netluma IT to check.
No reminder emails sent. Communications were not enabled in the Configuration step. Edit the webinar and turn each email on.
Attendees can talk over the presenter. Meeting options were not set — re-open the webinar and set "Allow mic for attendees" to No.
Registration page does not match your branding. Add a banner image and presenter photos; the page will look noticeably more professional.
Recording missing. It was not started during the live session. There is no way to recover audio after the event — always start the recording before the first attendee joins.

Need Help?

If you want Netluma IT to set up your Microsoft 365 tenant for webinars, design a registration page, or run a test event with you before your real one, get in touch.

Phone: 1300 521 162 Email: helpdesk@netlumait.com.au

How to Schedule and Run a Microsoft Teams Webinar