The impacts of COVID-19 and the introduction of new technology have changed the landscape of the events world. The highly used platform, Zoom could give unforeseen stress to some. These tips and tricks can make using it a breeze!
Waiting Rooms
As an added security feature, you have the option to enable waiting rooms to individually admit participants into a meeting. This can prevent so-called “Zoom Bombings” and ensure your event stays on task! As an added option you even have the option to send messages to those in the waiting room to ensure they can “re-name” themselves to match the name on the roster. To enable this option:
- Click on the “Security” icon once you have opened/started a Zoom Meeting and you can enable a waiting room for guests.
- You can also do this while setting up a Zoom Meeting on the Zoom website.
- This allows you to “admit” guests into your meeting to avoid Zoom Bombings.
Breakout Rooms
Zoom has the added feature to place participants into “breakout rooms” to further encourage dialogue. To create these rooms:
- You can click on the Breakout Rooms icon and set up rooms manually or randomly.
- Once open, you can broadcast messages and pop in and out of these virtual rooms.
- If you choose to have attendees register ahead of time, you can pre-set up these breakout rooms using their names. Just make sure when they log onto to Zoom, they use their registered email account.
- Watch out! If you are co-hosting a meeting, and someone reclaims host while you are in the process of creating a breakout room, all your work will be lost.
- Trick: You can switch hosting when breakout rooms are open, and work will be saved.
Setting Up Registration Links
To help you gauge the number of participants you may have in your meeting, Zoom has the option for guests to register ahead of time. This will also allow you to create breakout rooms ahead of time on the zoom website as mentioned above. To create a link:
- Go to zoom.us and schedule a new meeting on your licensed account.
- You will see an option to enable attendee registration link.
- You have the option to set up a recurring meeting (see below), and if so, can allow registrants to register for one meeting only, multiple meetings, or one at a time.
Customizing Registration Links
You can actually also add some touched to your registration link to make it fit in more with your company or event! This can include adding images such as a company logo, or a custom message with more event information.
- Once you have set up a registration process, on the Zoom page (browser), you will see an option for “branding.” You can set up logos and images and even add a description of your meeting for a personalized touch!
Locking a Meeting & Removing Participants
To assist you ensure your meeting has added security, you have the option to permanently remove participants (such as Zoom Bombers) from joining and even disabling the join meeting option!
- By clicking on the security icon in Zoom, you can enable a waiting room, and even “lock” the meeting to prevent new users from joining after beginning a meeting.
- To remove a participant, click on participants, and hover over the participant’s name. You can then remove them.
- Note: Once removed, they will not be able to join the Zoom session on the unique ID again.
Recording Sessions (Local & CLOUD)
As participants may not always be able to attend your event, you can record your event and have the option to share your recording with attendees. To do so:
- Once in a Zoom meeting, you can hit “record” and it will save to the Zoom server or to your desktop. It will email you when it is ready for viewing. This could take up to 24hrs.
- Note: The recording will only record the face of the person who is speaking, and not the screen sharing.
Polling Question
Zoom has an added feature to help ask questions or simply gauge the mood of a room with polling questions. These can be given out during a Zoom session, and then have shared results with all attendees.
- In a Zoom meeting, you can click on polling to send questions out and share results. Questions can be set up in advance or during the meeting on the Zoom web-browser for your meeting.
Participant Interactive Buttons
To better see how your Zoom room is, or to get reactions, Zoom has added a set of reaction buttons for attendees.
- While on Zoom, participants can hit the “Reaction” icon for a thumbs up or clapping icon. If they click on “participants” they can see more interactive buttons such as “away” “go faster” “need a break” etc.…
Recurring Meetings
To help save time when setting up meetings, you can select “recurring meetings” so that guests can join a Zoom session using the same link, even if they are occurring days apart.
- While setting up Zoom meetings online, you can hit recurring meetings from the browser Zoom. This will allow attendees to use the same Zoom meeting ID every time, and you will have to start each re-occurrence before they can join.
Written by: Paul Lee
