Here are some guidelines and recommendations for hosting a virtual meetup on Zoom. These guidelines are primarily for presentation-style meetups. If you’re hosting a help-style meetup, you’ll probably want to change some settings, such as not muting participants on entry.
If you’re creating the event in Meetup:
- Choose to only show link for people who RSVP (to prevent Zoombombing)
Zoom Settings:
- Zoom Preferences (in-app):
- Recording tab:
- Check “Optimize for 3rd party video editor”
- Check “Record video during screen sharing”
- Recording tab:
- Zoom Advanced Settings (on website):
- Security:
- Select “Require a passcode when scheduling new meetings”
- Select “Embed passcode in invite link for one-click join”
- Select “Require passcode for participants joining by phone”
- In Meeting (Basic):
- Select “Auto saving chats”
- De-select “Sound notification when someone joins or leaves”
- De-select “Feedback to Zoom”
- Select “Co-host”
- Select “Screen sharing” and select “Host Only” for both options
- De-select “Annotation”
- De-select “Whiteboard”
- De-select “Remote control”
- In Meeting (Advanced):
- Select “Show a ‘Join from your browser’ link”
- Security:
Creating the Zoom meeting:
- Under Security, set a passcode and uncheck “Waiting Room”
- Under Video, set participants’ video to off
- Under Audio, set audio to telephone and computer audio
- Under Advanced Options, uncheck “Enable join before host”
- Under Advanced Options, check “Mute participants upon entry”
Before the meeting:
- Arrive at least 10 minutes early
- Pause or turn off your desktop notifications
- Change your display resolution if it’s too large
During the meeting:
- Assign a co-host to moderate questions and other participants (in Participants panel)
- Start recording, ask co-host to record as a backup (local recording recommended)
- Things to tell attendees:
- On the bottom of the screen, there are mute, video, participants, and chat buttons
- Screen sharing, audio, and video are off by default (if you changed these settings)
- If you have a question for the speaker, please raise your hand in the Participants panel
- The moderator will call on whoever has their hand raised at the next break
- Use the chat to introduce yourself or for questions for people other than the speaker
- The speaker will not see or hear the questions in the chat
- Please mute yourself when you’re not talking
- We’ll be recording this, and the recording will be in the Meetup event comments after
- If there’s time after, we’ll open up for general questions and discussion
- Check out the Portland WordPress Slack and Meetup group
- We have a monthly presentation meetup usually on the first Monday of the month
- We have a twice monthly help meetup hosted by David Schargel
- Contact us if you’re interested in speaking