Schedule a town hall in Microsoft Teams

Whether you’re hosting a company-wide product demo or covering a live event, town hall features are optimal for producing large-scale events.

Schedule a town hall

To schedule a town hall:

Open your Teams Calendar.
Select the arrow next to New meeting +.
Select Town hall from the dropdown menu.
In Details, enter basic info, designate presenters, and more:
1. Enter the event title, start and end date, and description.
  
  Note: The maximum duration of a town hall is 30 hours.
2. By default, the Organizer is the person who created the town hall.
3. In Event group > Co-organizers or Presenters from your org, search and select other people who will help manage the town hall. You can also add external presenters.
  
  Note: Co-organizers will have most organizer capabilities but can't change Details (date, time, etc.). Presenters will be able to speak and share content during the event.
4. Select Save and send invites to apply changes and invite co-organizers and presenters to the event.

In Event access, choose whether your event will be available to Your organization (members and guests of your org), Public (anyone invited or with a link to the event), or People and groups (only invited people and groups from your org)

Permission type	Description
Your organization	Anyone in your org can attend the town hall, including guests.
Public	Anyone can join – both people in your org and outside of it.
People and groups	Up to 500 people can attend the town hall. This includes people added individually and through distribution lists, Microsoft 365 security groups, and Microsoft 365 Unified Groups. You can add up to 20 such groups or lists. Dynamic groups aren't supported.

In Invite attendees, search and select people you want to send event invites to. You can add distribution lists, Microsoft 365 security groups, Microsoft 365 Unified Groups, and up to 500 individual email addresses. You can add up to 20 such groups or lists.
Select Save to apply changes and continue customizing your event.
Select Meeting options to edit more settings.
Notes:
- Some meeting options may be locked depending on policies set by your IT admin.
- Microsoft 365 security groups that don't have mail enabled won't receive email invites.
- Dynamic groups aren't supported.
Select Publish to schedule your town hall event and invite attendees.

Add external presenters

Easily add up to 20 presenters from outside your org to your town hall. External presenters are presenters who are anonymous, outside your org, or don’t use Teams.

When you add an external presenter, they'll receive a unique join link that will allow them to enter the event without waiting in the lobby. Anonymous presenters won't need to sign in with a Microsoft account; they can join using the link and type in their name before entering.

To add an external presenter:

Go to your Teams Calendar.
Select an upcoming town hall and select Details.
Select Add external presenters.
In External presenters, enter the email addresses of the external presenters you want to add.
Select Save and send invites .

Notes:

External presenters should not forward their links. They are able to join using the same link on up to 3 devices.
If a guest hasn’t successfully authenticated when joining the event, they'll be placed in the lobby. From there, an event organizer or presenter can approve or deny their request to join the event.

Regenerate or copy the external join link

To regenerate or copy the link that external presenters join with:

Open a town hall in your Teams Calendar.
In the town hall details, select External Presenter.
Select Unique join link.
Select Copy to copy the link to your clipboard or Reload to regenerate a new one.

Duplicate a town hall

Duplicate an existing town hall to apply all its details and settings to a new town hall. You can duplicate past and upcoming town halls that are in your Teams calendar.

When you duplicate an existing town hall, the new town hall will have the same:

Title
Description
Presenters, co-organizers, and attendees
Event theme
Registration settings
Customized emails
Meeting options

To duplicate a town hall:

In your Teams calendar, right-click the past or upcoming town hall you want to duplicate.
Select Duplicate event .
Set the date and time of the new event and edit any event details you want to change.
Select Save.

You can also duplicate a town hall by double-clicking it in your Teams calendar and selecting Duplicate event Icon for the copy button for Copilot in Word on mobile devices on the details page.

Note: If you're duplicating an event that hasn't been modified or joined in the last 60 days, its meeting options won't be carried over. The duplicate event will have default meeting options.

Invite attendees to a town hall

After you invite attendees, they’ll see the town hall invite on their calendar. If you turned on the Only allow invited people to join toggle, you must publish the event for attendees to be able to join.

To invite attendees to a webinar:

Go to your Teams calendar.
Open an existing town hall or create a new one.
Go to Details > Attendees.
In Invite attendees, search and select the people you want to invite.
Select Save.

When your event is published, attendees will receive invites by email automatically. Invitees without a Microsoft account can join your meeting anonymously.

Town hall live reactions

Boost engagement and receive real-time feedback from your town hall audience with live reactions. After a town hall starts, attendees can choose from several live reactions in their meeting controls. When they choose one, it’ll pop up momentarily in the bottom corner of the meeting window.

A town hall event shows live attendee reactions.

(Attendee view)

Live reactions are available in town halls organized in Teams Premium. They’re enabled automatically but can be turned on or off.

To turn town hall live reactions on or off before an event:

Go to your Teams calendar.
Select a town hall you organized.
Select Manage event .
In Details, select Meeting options .
Select Engagement .
Turn the Allow reactions toggle on or off.
Select Apply > Save .

To turn live reactions on or off during an event:

In your meeting controls, select More actions > Settings > Meeting options .
In Engagement , turn the Allow reactions toggle on or off.

Changes to this setting will be effective immediately.

Notes:

If you’re recording the town hall, live reactions won’t appear in the recording.
In town halls, attendees will be watching at a delay of about 20-30 seconds. Their reactions may seem delayed to the presenters and organizers as a result.

To learn more about live reactions in Teams, see Express yourself in Microsoft Teams meetings with live reactions.

Town hall email invites

When you publish a town hall, attendees will automatically receive email invites. The invites will contain important details, including the event name, date and time, and description. They’ll also reflect your event’s customized theming.

To add details, edit the invites before publishing your town hall. To edit town hall email invites:

Go to your Teams calendar.
Open an existing town hall or create a new one.
Select Emails.
In the Event invitation row, select Edit.
Make changes in the email template.
Fill out the details in the provided template.
Select Preview email to see how the email will appear to invitees.

Note: The email might look different to some recipients depending on their email service and device.
Select Edit email to keep editing, Cancel to discard edits, or Save to apply your changes.

After you publish the town hall, Teams will automatically send this email invitation to attendees.

Publish a town hall

After you’ve finalized your town hall’s details and email invite template, publish the town hall to automatically invite attendees.

To publish a town hall:

Go to your Teams calendar.
Open an existing town hall or create a new one.
Finalize important details and customize theming.
Select Save to apply any changes.
Select Publish and confirm.

After your town hall is published, attendees will automatically receive the email invite and updates about any changes to the event.

Troubleshooting

What do I do if I'm having issues joining a meeting? Make sure you're joining the meeting signed in from the account with which you received the meeting invite or join link.

I was invited as an external presenter but my join link doesn't work. Your unique link to join as presenter will only work if you are signed into Teams with the same email with which you received the join link. You can't sign in with a different account and use the link, and you can't join anonymously using the link.

What's next?

Customize a town hall

Host a town hall in Microsoft Teams

Schedule a town hall in Microsoft Teams

In this article