Zoom Meeting vs. Zoom Webinar: How Do I Choose?

Zoom Meetings have become such a part of our work culture lexicon, that we assume Meetings are the best form of the software. For the longest time, even I discounted Zoom’s ability to produce a seamless event experience. Let me tell you, I’ve learned—and taught my teams, clients and speakers—countless virtual event options, from Bizzabo and Introvoke to Socio and ON24. I even sat through 3 interactions with multi-hyphenate software Cvent (and they still wouldn’t give me the price for a license—but that is another story).

The point is, Zoom Webinar can be a way to ‘up-level’ your existing virtual events, without worrying about learning a new software, changing your processes or losing the quality you’d expect from a paid webinar.

Many of my clients ask, “How do I know whether to use Zoom Webinar or Zoom Meeting?” From my experience, here are a few ways to evaluate:

• Format of the event: When you’re deciding which to use, think about the format of your event, specifically any speakers or entertainers. Below are my suggestions for formatting:

  • Keynote Speaker: A keynote speech or lecture lends itself best to Webinar, providing that you do not have a workshop-style Q&A planned.

  • Fireside Chat: Two people on screen speaking the majority of the time, interview-style. Webinar is typically the smoothest format for this.

  • Panel Discussions:

    • If you have a panel of 3-4 people plus a moderator, I find that webinar is best, since you can do a practice session within the same exact webinar and each speaker is automatically signed in and assigned their invite name.

    • If you have a panel of 3-4 people and you want there to be room for audience participation, choose Zoom Meeting and make sure you have someone assigned to spotlight or pin the speakers at the opportune times.

  • Workshop:

    • Workshop-style events are largely about collaboration, and in that respect, Meeting is a better experience. This is a more laid-back experience not only for your attendees, but speakers as well. They’ll likely want to see and interact with the attendees and make it a more community-led experience.

• Attendee experience:

  • Do you want your attendees to feel that they are invited to be a part of the discussion, live and on camera? I recommend a meeting.

  • If you would only like to spotlight certain attendees, and review questions before they are answered, I recommend a webinar.

While format is the driving force behind many of the decisions I make with my clients about their events, I also always consider the amount of support we have for the day of the event; the amount of sessions and speakers, and the amount of attendees. I’ll dive deeper into these concepts in future posts.

Tell me: What do you want to learn most about virtual events?