Hosting Your Virtual Event: Zoom Webinars vs Zoom Meetings

This document will help you determine whether a Zoom webinar or a Zoom meeting would be a better choice to host your virtual event. If you have further questions, please email itseventsupport@stthomas.edu.  

How do I get access to a Zoom webinar license?

If you decide that a webinar is the right choice for your event, Event Support can assist you by scheduling a webinar on your behalf with one of our 500- or 1000-seat licenses. There are some limitations to the webinar features and number of webinars that we can support with the Event Support licenses: 

Take note that if you need to host webinar events more than once every two weeks, or if your webinars require any of the features listed below, your department will need to purchase their own webinar license: 

• Advance registration in Zoom
• Custom branding or custom Zoom email invitations 
• Built-in Zoom polls

The cost for a 500-seat webinar license is approximately $1,400/year. If you are a faculty or staff member and department is interested in purchasing a license, please send an email to techdesk@stthomas.edu to start the process. 

What are the key differences between a meeting and a webinar?

What are the advantages of choosing a meeting?

Zoom meetings are best for hosting interactive sessions or medium-sized presentations. The meeting host can adjust meeting settings to allow all users to interact, send files, and share presentations. Alternatively, settings can be adjusted to keep the focus on the presentation and prevent attendees from interrupting. Think of a Zoom meeting like a large group meeting where you can engage all participants in the discussion, if desired. 

A Zoom meeting is likely a better choice for your event if... 

• you need the capability to allow attendees to be able to speak freely
• you would like any attendee to be able to able to share their screen for presentation 
• you require breakout groups for your event 
• you need to transfer files among the participants 

What are the advantages of choosing a webinar?

Zoom webinars are best for hosting events that are more like a traditional lecture, large presentation, or panel discussion. Only a select group of users, called panelists, can present to the group. The rest are attendees and can only view the presentation and submit questions. 

A Zoom webinar is likely a better choice for your event if... 

• you expect 300+ attendees
• you only need a select number of users to be able to speak and share presentations during the event
• you are hosting a high-profile event requiring a more secure presentation platform