Switch from Microsoft Teams live events to town halls
Host virtual events on Microsoft Teams with town hall, a new type of meeting in Teams that will replace Teams live events on September 30, 2024.
Whether you’re organizing a company-wide review, or meeting with clients, town halls are optimized for delivering high-quality, produced events to large and small audiences.
Town hall vs. live events
Town halls have many of the same capabilities as live events, as well as new advanced features, that can help you organize high-quality, large-scale events.
|
Live events |
Town halls |
Town halls (Teams Premium) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Capacity |
10k |
10k |
20k |
|
Concurrent events |
15 |
15 |
50 |
|
Duration |
4 hours |
30 hours |
30 hours |
|
Attendee reporting |
 |
|
|
|
RTMP-in |
|
|
|
|
Q&A |
|
|
|
|
On-demand recording |
|
|
|
|
Green room |
|
|
|
Attendee experience
Just like in live events, town hall attendees can watch presenters and participate in Q&A. To minimize distractions and keep focus on the event, attendees won’t be able to turn on their mics or cameras, or chat with other attendees.
Email communications
Town hall attendees automatically receive email invites when an organizer creates the event and emails with a link to the event recording if it’s published. In Teams Premium, organizers can edit town hall emails with customized details. To learn more, see Schedule a town hall in Microsoft Teams.
Live translated captions
Live translated captions allow users to see captions translated into the language they’re most comfortable with.
In live events, attendees can choose to see live translated captions in one of six different languages that are pre-selected by the event organizer.
In town halls, attendees can choose to see live translated captions in one of the languages preselected by the organizer. Attendees will be able to choose from six different languages, or ten if the organizer has Teams Premium.
Event roles
In live events, there are organizer, producer, presenter, and attendee roles. In town halls, there are organizer, co-organizer, presenter, and attendee roles.
The producer role in live events will be replaced by the organizer, co-organizer, and presenter roles in town hall because these roles will have similar functionality to the producer role. They’ll be able to start and stop the event, share their own video and content, share external video, and choose which presenters and content are featured on screen with Manage what attendees see in Teams Premium.
Q&A
When will live events be retired?
Teams live events will be retired on September 30, 2024. Until then, you can still use live events with no changes to the existing experience. After September 30, 2024, live events will no longer be supported.
Will I still be able to watch live event recordings?
After Teams live events are retired on September 30, 2024, live event recordings will be available until December 31, 2024. To access recordings after December 31, 2024, make sure to download the recordings and upload them to another location.
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