{"id":5273,"date":"2024-04-05T07:19:43","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T14:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=5273"},"modified":"2024-04-05T07:23:41","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T14:23:41","slug":"how-microsoft-moved-its-large-meetings-online-with-live-events-in-microsoft-365","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/how-microsoft-moved-its-large-meetings-online-with-live-events-in-microsoft-365\/","title":{"rendered":"How Microsoft moved its large meetings online with live events in Microsoft 365"},"content":{"rendered":"
[Editor\u2019s note: This content was written to highlight a particular event or moment in time. Although that moment has passed, we\u2019re republishing it here so you can see what our thinking and experience was like at the time.]<\/em><\/p>\n When it became clear that Microsoft was going to ask its employees to work remotely, Kimberly Nafziger knew she would need to move quickly.<\/p>\n She was organizing an in-person, all-hands meeting for the 5,500 employees in Microsoft Digital. A large room was secured, a film crew was ready to broadcast to those who would attend remotely, and breakfast was ordered for those who would be there in person. The \u201cAsk Me Anything\u201d meeting with Kurt DelBene, executive vice president of Corporate Strategy and Microsoft Digital, was set to occur the next day.<\/p>\n Then DelBene decided to convert the meeting to online, out of an abundance of caution over the worsening COVID-19 situation.<\/p>\n \u201cAt 1:00 PM on Monday, March 2, we made the decision to make the meeting virtual,\u201d Nafziger says. The changeover was completed in just hours, she says, explaining that it wasn\u2019t that difficult because the meeting was already scheduled to be broadcast on Microsoft\u2019s large meeting platform, live events in Microsoft 365. \u201cWe were ready to go by Tuesday, at 9:00 AM, when the meeting was scheduled to start.\u201d<\/p>\n Leaders at Microsoft use live events in Microsoft 365 to run large internal and external meetings with connected video streaming, conversations, and content sharing. Depending on their needs, the meeting host can choose between simple do-it-yourself events using Microsoft Teams or Yammer, to large-scale professional events using Yammer or Microsoft Stream. The live events capabilities are available to all customers\u2014go here to learn more<\/a> about how to select the right live event experience for your event.<\/p>\n Like many Microsoft products and services, live events in Microsoft 365 enable company employees to stay connected as they work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not working from home in isolation,\u201d says Andrew Wilson, Microsoft\u2019s chief digital officer and corporate vice president of Microsoft Digital. \u201cThis is about our digital platforms empowering us to make human connections at a time when coming together and supporting each other is super important\u2014it\u2019s allowing us to be a fluid workforce that is staying productive in tough circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n Wilson says Microsoft leaders are using live events and other company technology to support their teams.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is an absolute need for leaders to be accessible, social, interactive, and communicative during times like these,\u201d he says. \u201cEven if there wasn\u2019t a crisis, using technology to stay connected with your employees is a table-stakes requirement for any leader to be effective today.\u201d<\/p>\n As for DelBene\u2019s \u201cAsk Me Anything\u201d meeting?<\/p>\n \u201cAt first, it felt like a scary decision to go all virtual because there were a lot of logistics that needed to come together, but it went very well,\u201d Nafziger says. \u201cHaving the meeting already set up to leverage the live events capabilities was pivotal.\u201d<\/p>\n She says DelBene and his leadership team gathered in the conference room because the video crew was already set up to shoot there.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had all of our speakers attend in person,\u201d she says, explaining that Microsoft had not yet made the decision to have all non-essential employees work remotely. \u201cThey did great even though there wasn\u2019t an audience in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n Nafziger says it ended up being the largest online audience they ever had for DelBene\u2019s \u201cAsk Me Anything\u201d meeting. Additionally, the virtual attendees weren\u2019t shy\u2014they used Yammer\u2019s conversation feature to ask DelBene, Wilson, and the rest of the leadership team questions about how the company was responding to COVID-19.<\/p>\n \u201cUsing Yammer allowed us to draw our employees into the meeting,\u201d Nafziger says. \u201cThey could see each other\u2019s questions and comments pop up while watching the presentation. It was fun to see them answering questions and engaging with each other even though we were all in separate locations.\u201d<\/p>\n To include the audience even more, the team appointed a moderator to read questions coming through on Yammer to DelBene and his leadership team. The moderator sparked the conversation with pre-submitted questions and then switched to live questions as they appeared on the Yammer feed.<\/p>\n After the event, the video was automatically published in Stream as an on-demand recording. \u201cWe posted the recording to our organization\u2019s SharePoint site for employees to watch at their convenience,\u201d Nafziger says.<\/p>\n Usage of live events has spiked across Microsoft as the entire company has moved exclusively to remote working. No matter the scale of the meeting, leaders are using it to replicate the human connection that happens when they meet with their teams in person.<\/p>\n That was certainly true for the Field Engagement and Delivery (FED) and Global Support teams, which count on its in-person global meeting held every two years to bring together its 258 employees across 46 countries and 80 cities.<\/p>\n