Speaker 1: Are you getting ready to use Zoom webinar and you're curious about what a practice session is and how it can benefit you as the event organizer or the speaker? Well, I'm going to dive into the exact functionality of why I encourage folks to use a practice session when it's the right fit for you and what it actually is. Before we jump into it, I'm Logan Clements. I'm a freelance event producer based in Seattle, Washington, but I execute events here and all over the world. I do want to remind you to like, subscribe, turn on that little notification bell so you get notified every single Monday when I drop new videos. I'm also the co-host of the Better Events Podcast with fellow event pro, Mary Davidson. We have new episodes every Wednesday wherever you listen to podcasts, and we dive even more into some of these topics, including why Zoom's probably going to be around forever and other different event topics, so I highly encourage you to give it a listen. If you also want more free content, if that's not enough, those two channels, I'm hosting the Better Events Conference with Mary on Wednesday, December 20th. We're holding it virtually, so you can join us from anywhere in the world. We're going to be doing some amazing interactive sessions, talking all about what certain vendors wish event pros would know. We're going to do an event pro book club with three different books you can choose from. We're also going to talk about rates, how we don't like being underpaid and overworked, and we're going to have an amazing keynote. I mean, I could go on and on. Get your tickets. I'll link it below in this video. Okay, so you're in Zoom webinar, which again, I have a whole video about what is Zoom webinar versus Zoom meeting. I feel like people use the word webinar interchangeably, but what I'm talking about is explicitly the Zoom webinar software. So with Zoom webinar, you have a little more controls than you do with Zoom meeting, and so one of those controls is called a practice session. Now what you have to do if you are the host of the webinar, you're the one who created the webinar, the link on the back end, you're going to need to check a box that says enable practice session. So what is a practice session? A practice session enables you and your speakers, you as the host and your speakers and any co-hosts or alternative hosts that you've set on the back end to join the Zoom webinar link early, and in that webinar, it's going to be the equivalent of if we were in person, you're letting them sneak into the room early and closing the doors quickly behind them. So attendees are not allowed to enter your session, but speakers and hosts can. Now the big thing that I've seen here is a lot of people get into that and that the minute you enter a practice session in Zoom webinar, I'm going to put a screenshot here so you can see this big button appears above my head that says start, you are in a practice session, start webinar. And what I found is sometimes if the speaker joins before the host, the speakers they're all by themselves, they might get confused of the difference between a practice session and so they just click start webinar. Now what happens if you click that button start webinar? Once you've started the webinar, your attendees now can see and hear everything that you are doing. So it kind of negates the purpose of the practice session. The practice session is a great feature because it allows you all to log in early, you can tech check your speakers, double check your slides, make sure that everybody is all set just like you would in person, you'd keep those doors closed until all your rehearsals were done, until you are ready to say, okay, let's put up a title slide or let's play some music and let's let attendees in. And that is what start webinar does. Another part that's nice about that is if you have it automatically recording, the practice session doesn't get recorded, but right as you start webinar, it would automatically start that recording. So practice session is a great feature. I never do a Zoom webinar without having this enabled, even if it's just to give me, the producer, the behind the scenes event person, a moment just to be like, I'm here, everything looks good, I can check all of my Zoom settings, my attendee settings, I can make sure everything I want is enabled or disabled, and then I hit start webinar. Now while you're in your practice session, you might be like, Logan, what did the attendee see? Well, the attendees on your attendee link are going to just see a little like Zoom icon that and a little, you know, a little wheel here just saying the host hasn't started the webinar yet, or the webinar will start shortly. It just, it doesn't let them in yet. They are unaware that you are already in the webinar link. Now one challenge I do have that comes up with this is if you have a speaker who gets confused between their speaker link and the attendee link, they might be on the attendee link and say, I'm here, but it's not letting me in. They have to use their speaker link to be able to access your practice session. So that's something that I just really emphasize, my hack is I would send, Zoom will send a calendar invite for attendees with the attendee link. It should also send it with the speakers with the speaker link, but sometimes I'll send another invite to that speaker with their speaker link just to make it as foolproof as I can. If you're not someone who uses calendars a lot, just having it bolded in an email to your speaker of this is the link to use. You could even send it, you know, 10 minutes before you start just to make sure it's the top of their inbox. But that's a practice session. I highly encourage you to use it. If you haven't been using it with Zoom webinars, again, it's not the end of the world, but I just think it gives you time to get set, figure out what your settings are, what you want the attendees to see, maybe practice sharing your screen. It's a great safe place to do that. Well, I'm Logan Clements. I'm a freelance event producer based in Seattle, Washington, but I execute events all over the world. This brings me to the end of this video. I will see you in my next one. Bye.