Event Participant Guide for Guest Speakers


If you've been invited to be a guest speaker in an event on strmz.io, this page will show you what to expect, how to use the platform's features in the event, and how to ensure that everything runs seamlessly.


To prepare your technology, lighting, and connectivity for the optimal streaming experience, please refer to our Preparing for Events page.


Step 1: Register for the event

You received an email invitation to be a Guest Speaker on strmz.io. In that email, a link is provided for you to register and join the event.

This is very important: when registering for the event with your email address, make sure that you use the same email address that you received the invitation email on. If you try to register with a different email address, strmz.io will not recognize you as a nominated Guest Speaker and will not give you Guest Speaker permissions.  Instead, you will added to the event as an audience member.

Step 2: Rehearse for the Event

The creator of the event has invited you to be a Guest Speaker in a Live Event.


As a Guest Speaker, you can use the link that was emailed to you to access the event's green room  before the event begins. This allows you to test your camera and microphone settings, familiarize yourself with the features and rehearse with your colleagues before the event begins.



We recommend you jump in half an hour before the event starts, so that you can familiarize yourself with all of our features, especially if you're a first-time user of the platform!


Step 3: Live Stream!

The Host or Moderator will start live streaming.


As a visual cue to you when the event starts streaming, the background will turn from green to black.


Note: If recording is included in your host organization's subscription, the event will be recorded automatically when streaming starts and you'll see a red Recording icon in the top right of your display.

Step 4: Interact with your audience!

There are a number of ways that you, as a Guest Speaker, can interact with the audience during the live stream:


  • Interact with the broader audience via Instant Message with Chat


  • Share screen or play a video


Each of these features is described in more detail below.


Chat & Sentiment

Clicking on the Chat button will allow you to view questions, comments and conversations that all event participants are having via Chat. You may also add your own comments, answer questions etc etc.


Next to the 'Enter your message' box is an emoji pop-up submenu that allows you to add dynamic emojis to the chat. Viewers can also express their current sentiments to all event attendees by selecting a relevant dynamic emoji. When they do this, all event participants will see that emoji float up their screens, which makes it a really good way for you to understand how the audience is responding to the live stream and, if necessary, adapt accordingly!


To close down the Chat window, just click on the Chat button again.


Hosts

Clicking on the Hosts button will allow you to view an up-to-date roster of all stream participants.


To close down the Hosts window, just click on the Hosts button again.


Share screen or play a video

If streaming from a computer on a web browser, you'll have the option to share your screen in one of three ways:

  • Share Entire Screen, where everything visible to you on your screen will be visible to your guests and viewers. You can alternatively choose to only have a specific window or Chrome browser tab visible to your audience.
  • Share a File will allow you to browse your computer for a specific video or PDF file. If your PDF file has multiple pages, you can scroll through them like a slideshow to present to your audience.
  • Share a video will allow you to paste a video link to share live with your viewers. This could, for example, be a Youtube link or a link to a corporate video your team prepared for the event.


To stop sharing your screen, just click on the Share Screen button again.

Note: Ensuring the Right Window is Shared

When sharing either your entire screen, or a specific window, make sure to first click the screen that you want to share, then you can hit the share button, and your screen share will begin.


Step 5: Leave the Event

To leave the event, simply click on the Leave button and then confirm by clicking Exit Stream. 

Note: The Host(s) control when the event itself ends. If you have not chosen to Leave before the event ends, you will be exited automatically when the Host ends the event.

Dealing with network issues during an event

Ideally, when participating as a guest speaker in an event, you will be using a reliable, high bandwidth internet connection.


However, sometimes life just doesn't go smoothly, so you may find yourself using a poor quality network connection.


  • If everyone can see and hear you just fine, but you're having problems seeing or hearing others, then the upload speeds on your internet connection are probably fine, but your download speeds are poor. In this case, as a guest speaker, it's more important that your host(s) and audience can see and hear you clearly than that you can see them. So, to improve the situation, you should enable Low Bandwidth Mode in your event settings. In Low Bandwidth Mode, the video of your colleagues in the event will be suppressed in the cloud, so only their audio and screensharing will reach you - this significantly lowers the download bandwidth burden on your network connection. You can continue to send good quality video, audio and screensharing upload to the hosts, guests and audience. No-one will even notice that you're in Low Bandwidth Mode!


  • If you're on a really low bandwidth network connection, such that you can't clearly see or hear your colleagues and they can't clearly see or hear you, then turn on Low Bandwidth mode to reduce your download bandwidth and turn off your video, to reduce your upload bandwidth. Your colleagues and the audience will see that your video is off, but it's more important that they can hear the smart things you're saying, so it's a reasonable compromise!


  • If you're on a flaky network connection, don't worry - the strmz.io platform is architected for full resiliency, so will minimize any impacts of a flaky network on you, your guests and your audience.


  • If you experience a full network outage during an event and you drop out of the event, just stay calm and rejoin. :) The event will continue seamlessly and will connect you back in when you rejoin.