Host a town hall in Microsoft Teams

Prepare in the green room

Get ready with other co-organizers and presenters in the green room before starting a town hall. Practice sharing content, check your audio and video settings, and more. While you prepare in the green room, attendees will wait in the lobby until you start the event.

Screenshot showing town hall green room before starting the event

To join the green room:

Select Calendar in Teams.
Select the town hall you want to start.
Select Join > Join now.

You'll automatically join the green room, where you can set up your town hall before starting the event for attendees. You can bring presenters on screen, set up shared content, and more.

Start a town hall

To start a town hall:

Select Calendar in Teams.
Select the town hall you want to start.
Select Join > Join now.
Prepare with other presenters in the green room.
Select Start meeting to bring attendees into the event.

The event recording will start automatically. After you start the event, you can start presenting and bringing other presenters on screen.

Notes:

There's a 15– to 60–second delay from the time a media stream is broadcast to when attendees see it.
Once the stream is live, the highest supported resolution is 720p.

Add presenters and attendees

After a town hall starts, add missing presenters or attendees to the event so they can participate in the green room and event, and share content.

To add a presenter or attendee who isn’t watching the event:

Select People in your meeting controls.
In the Participants pane, search for the person you want to invite.
Next to the person’s name, select Request as presenter and select presenter or attendee from the dropdown menu.
The presenter or attendee will receive a call on their Teams device and will join directly if they accept the request to join.

When you add a presenter or attendee to the event, they’ll join with the role previously assigned to them. If they don’t have a predefined role, they’ll join as attendees.

To promote an attendee to presenter:

Select People  in the meeting controls.
Hover over an attendee’s name and select More options  > Make a presenter.

Present in a town hall

Bring designated presenters on screen during a town hall or present your own content. Showcase up to nine presenters at a time, or up to seven in Manage what attendees see.

Make someone a presenter

When you organize a town hall, you can designate presenters to bring on screen to share content during the event. To make someone a presenter, change their role when you create a town hall.

Bring presenters on and off screen

Before and during a town hall you can choose which presenters to bring on and off screen. When a presenter is on screen, attendees will be able to hear them speak and see their videos and shared content.

To bring a presenter on screen:

Select People in your meeting controls.
In the Participants pane, hover over the name of the presenter you want to bring on screen.
Select More options > Bring on screen .

To take a presenter off screen:

Select People in your meeting controls.
In the Participants pane, hover over the name of the presenter you want to take off screen.
Select More options > Take off screen .

Tip: Mute presenters when they're not actively speaking to prevent attendees from hearing their audio.

Present with CVI

Join and present in Teams town halls using your own Video Teleconferencing (VTC) devices, even if they’re not Teams Rooms devices. Organizers can share CVI join codes directly from the town hall’s share event dialog with presenters.

To learn more, see Manage and set up Cloud Video Interop for Microsoft Teams.

Share content using RTMP-in

During a town hall, organizers and presenters can use an external encoder and enable RTMP-in to integrate different types of media into the event. Experience higher-quality screen sharing, video production, and more.

Screenshot showing RTMP-in content during a town hall

Learn more about using RTMP-in during your event here.

Turn on Q&A

For more engagement between attendees and presenters before and during the town hall, turn on Q&A. Attendees can post and reply to questions while they wait for the event to start and while they’re in it. To learn more, see Q&A in Microsoft Teams.

Screenshot showing organizer view with q&a open

Manage Q&A

People managing Q&A can moderate questions and change Q&A settings. By default, organizers and co-organizers can manage Q&A. In town halls, they can allow presenters to manage Q&A as well.

To learn more, see Q&A in Microsoft Teams.

Note: Only presenters from your org or external presenters with a Microsoft 365 login can manage Q&A. To learn more, see Work with external guests.

Change Q&A settings

To change your event's Q&A settings:

Select Q&A in your event window.
Select Q&A settings .

Change the event's Q&A settings:

Screenshot showing QandA settings during a town hall

To prevent attendees from posting questions, turn off the Questions toggle.
To prevent attendees from replying to posted questions, turn off the Replies toggle.
To allow attendees to post questions anonymously, turn on the Anonymous posts toggle.

Note: Attendee replies and reactions won't be anonymous.
To review questions before they post, turn on the Moderate questions toggle.

Note: Once you turn this on, you can't turn it off. Replies won't be moderated.

Select Save.

To learn more, see Q&A in Microsoft Teams meetings.

Preview a town hall as an attendee

Organizers, co-organizers, and presenters can also preview a town hall as an attendee to monitor the event experience from the audience's point of view.

To preview as an attendee, join the event from a different entry point than you joined as organizer, co-organizer, or presenter. For example, if you originally joined from Teams for desktop, preview as an attendee from the web or your mobile device.

Notes:

At least one organizer, co-organizer, or presenter must join a town hall before previewing as an attendee is available.
The attendance report won't reflect organizers, co-organizers, or presenters previewing as attendees.
Some event experiences, such as Q&A, aren't currently supported when previewing as an attendee.

Join a town hall as organizer, co-organizer, or presenter on Teams for mobile, or make sure another organizer, co-organizer, or presenter joins the town hall.
Open Teams for desktop.
Select Calendar .
Select the town hall you joined on Teams for mobile or web.
Select the dropdown arrow next to Join now.
Select Preview as attendee from the dropdown menu. This option appears after the meeting is started by an organizer, co-organizer, or presenter.

Note: Previewing as an attendee isn't available on desktop or web for external presenters joining from Android devices.

Join a town hall as organizer, co-organizer, or presenter from Teams for desktop, or make sure another organizer, co-organizer, or presenter joins the town hall.
Open Teams in your web browser.
Select Calendar .
Select the town hall you joined in Teams for desktop.
Select the dropdown arrow next to Join now.
Select Preview as attendee from the dropdown menu. This option appears after the meeting is started by an organizer, co-organizer, or presenter.

Note: Previewing as an attendee isn't available on desktop or web for external presenters joining from Android devices.

Join a town hall as organizer, co-organizer, or presenter on Teams for desktop, or make sure another organizer, co-organizer, or presenter joins the town hall.
Open Teams on your mobile device.
Tap Calendar .
Tap the town hall you joined in Teams for desktop.
Tap Join > Preview as attendee on the screen that prompts you to Add this device or Transfer to this device. This option appears after the meeting is started by an organizer, co-organizer, or presenter.

Note: If the event has already started and you haven't joined from desktop yet, select More join options > Preview as attendee from the pre-join screen.

Leave or end a town hall

To leave a town hall, select Leave in the corner of your Teams window. This won't end the event for everyone.

To end a town hall:

Select the dropdown arrow next to Leave in the corner of your Teams window.
Select End meeting.

Screenshot showing UI how to leave or end a town hall This will end the event for everyone and stop the recording.

What's next?

Town hall insights in Microsoft Teams

Manage town hall recordings in Microsoft Teams

Host a town hall in Microsoft Teams

In this article

Prepare in the green room

Start a town hall

Add presenters and attendees