Use Bevy webinar mode for large listen-only audiences: only presenters appear on camera, the audience stays hidden, and hosts manage the room from Presenters and Participants controls.
Beta: We’re actively building out this feature, so some functionality may not be available yet. We’re adding capabilities regularly—check back for the latest. Notice something missing or not working as expected? Contact your Bevy Customer Success Manager—your input helps us prioritize what to build next.
Webinar mode is a Bevy Virtual room setting for talks and panels with a large listen-only audience and a small set of speakers. The audience stays hidden from other attendees. Only people with presenter rights publish camera, microphone, or screen share. Hosts and moderators still manage the room, promote speakers, and moderate chat and Q&A.
- Webinar mode — room configuration that hides the audience and limits live media to presenters.
- Presenter — someone with live microphone, camera, or screen share in that room (not only a Speaker listing on the event page).
- Presenters control — tray button hosts and moderators use in a webinar room to work with people who have presenter rights.
Note: Webinar mode is available when your community has enabled it. If you do not see BETA: Use webinar features on a Meetup or Webinar as a conference session format, contact Bevy Support or your Customer Success Manager. Webinar mode is not the same as pointing a virtual event at an external webinar URL.
Meetup vs Conference
How you turn webinar mode on depends on the product:
| Product | Where you turn webinar on | What it controls |
|---|---|---|
| Bevy Virtual Meetup | Event dashboard → General information → virtual platform options → BETA: Use webinar features | The whole Meetup room runs in webinar mode |
| Bevy Virtual Conference | Agenda Builder → session → Select session format → Webinar | Only that session room; other agenda rooms keep their own formats |
On a Meetup, turning webinar mode on hides the interactive (many-to-many) option for that event — the room is optimized for few speakers and many viewers. On a Conference, pick Webinar only for sessions that need a hidden audience; keep Standard or Many-to-Many for workshops and discussion rooms. Networking tables, booths, and breakout rooms are not webinar rooms.
Tip: Webinar mode works best with a large listen-only audience and fewer than about 25 speakers on camera or microphone at once. Keep the number of live presenters modest so quality stays high for viewers.
Turn on webinar mode for a Meetup
- Open the event in the event dashboard and go to General information (or the Details tab where virtual platform options appear).
- Confirm the venue is Virtual or Hybrid and the virtual platform is Bevy Virtual (Meetup — not a conference agenda event).
- Select BETA: Use webinar features.
- Save the event.
After save, the live Meetup room uses webinar rules for that event. Clear the checkbox and save again if you need a standard interactive Meetup instead.
Choose Webinar as a conference session format
- Open the conference event and go to Agenda Builder.
- Add or edit a session.
- Under Select session format, choose Webinar.
- Save the agenda changes for that session.
Only that session’s room runs in webinar mode. Other sessions on the same agenda keep the format you set for each of them. See Create a conference event and Configure a session in Bevy Virtual Conference.
What attendees experience
- Attendees join on the usual Bevy join path for the Meetup or conference session.
- They watch and listen; they do not appear in an open people list to other attendees.
- They typically cannot turn on camera or microphone until a host or moderator promotes them to presenter.
- Chat and Q&A still work when those tools are enabled for the event or session.
Note: Some communities also use a webinar waiting room so attendees wait in a lobby until a host admits them. When that experience is enabled for your community, hosts admit people from the waiting list; late arrivals wait too. Day-of admit steps will live in a dedicated waiting-room article when it publishes.
What hosts and moderators can do
In a webinar room, hosts and moderators keep moderation tools and gain webinar-specific people controls:
- Open Presenters to work with people who have presenter rights.
- Open Participants to see the hidden audience, promote someone to presenter, or remove someone from the room.
- Promote an attendee to presenter from the Participants list when you need them on camera — they do not have to raise a hand first (when your community has the latest host controls).
- Removing someone from a webinar takes them out of the call right away.
| Role in the room | On camera / mic | Sees the audience list |
|---|---|---|
| Listen-only attendee | No (until promoted) | No |
| Presenter (promoted or host) | Yes | No (presenters see other presenters) |
| Host or moderator | Yes when in presenter mode | Yes — Participants and Presenters controls |
A Speaker listing on the People tab or agenda does not by itself grant live media. Live rights come from host or moderator permission in the room. See Roles and permissions in Bevy Virtual Conference and Moderation tools in Bevy Virtual Meetup.
Important: Companion devices and interactive many-to-many behavior do not apply the same way in a webinar room. Plan speaker devices and promotions before go-live. Breakout rooms opened from a session use breakout rules, not webinar hidden-audience rules.
Capacity and planning
- Webinar rooms are the right format when you expect a very large listen-only audience.
- On Conference, production webinar rooms on Bevy’s video provider are provisioned for large audiences (planning guidance up to 10,000 participants per room — confirm large-room plans with Bevy Support).
- Meetup webinars follow Meetup room capacity for your community; they are still listen-only with a hidden audience when webinar mode is on.
For the full Conference capacity matrix (stages, session formats, networking, Q&A), see Capacity and limits in Bevy Virtual Conference.