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The Zoom Waiting Room

Ideally speakers Join 15 Minutes Before the Session Start

  • Once the meeting has started you will see two options
    • Join Meeting as co-host
    • Join Meeting as attendee
  • If you are a speaker join as co-host
  • If you join as attendee you will need to be made co-host later

Participant Settings

The participant settings can be managed via the Participant Icon

  • Click on Participants and then “...” and confirm Allow Participants to Unmute Themselves matches the settings that suit your conference

Mute / Unmute Participants

If you do not allow them to unmute themselves you can hover over a participants name and choose Ask to Unmute. This will allow them to speak freely.

Attendee view, raise hand


Screen Sharing

  • Click Share Screen in the Zoom Control panel to select what you wish to share
  • If you plan to share a video clip or pre-recording of your session choose Share Computer Sound
  • Do not click Optimize full screen video clip.  This will compress your video and make it too choppy and make most text in a video illegible.

Screen Sharing Best Practices

  • Before starting your broadcast close any other windows / tabs
  • Close anything that might create a pop-up notification (Outlook, Teams, Slack, Skype)
  • Practice sharing your screen with a partner or if you are practicing by yourself choose the Record option to watch how your presentation looks.
  • Get a free Zoom account at https://zoom.us/signup

Set Your Virtual Background

  • Click on the arrow next to Start Video and Choose Virtual Background
  • The virtual background will work even if you don’t have a green screen. If you have a bookshelf or a lot of angles, the virtual background won’t work well.
  • Please check our conference website for the official virtual backgrounds for download.

Camera Views

Active Speaker

Gallery Grid


  • By default the active speaker is shown
  • Right click a speaker and choose Spotlight Video to keep focus on them. Right click again and choose Cancel Spotlight when done

Polls

  • Polls can be setup in advance or during a meeting by the Primary Host
  • Co-Hosts can launch polls.
  • Click Polls, choose from available polls, then click Launch Polling

Chat

  • The chat feature can be used to communicate with attendees throughout the meeting.
  • Hosts can select who to chat with, either everyone or a specific attendee privately, and can also upload files if it is enabled.
  • Clicking the ellipses icon in the chat allows you to chose who people can chat with during the meeting.

Special Feature: Breakout Rooms

  • You can move people around by hovering over them and choosing Move to.
  • Click Open All Rooms to move people into the breakout rooms.
  • Note: Automatic recording does not work in breakout rooms


  • You as the host can join any breakout room
  • You can send a Broadcast Message to All Rooms
  • You can also Close All Rooms to bring people back into the main room
  • Participants in a breakout room can message the host as well by clicking the question mark.