Conduct a Practice Session in Cisco Webex Events (Classic)

About Practice Sessions

There is nothing better than practicing an event before starting it, so the host, presenter, and other panelists can prepare for it beforehand. As with a dress rehearsal, a virtual event is a way for the event production team to practice all the effects and functions of the event without the audience being able to observe.

In the event that a teleconference is already in progress in the main event, the production team will automatically enter a subconference when the host initiates a practice session, away from the main teleconference. It is a private subconference, where you can have private conversations. Due to this, attendees who are not present during a practice session will not be able to hear what is being said.

• Practice sessions can only be started and ended by the host of the session. During a practice session, a host can designate a panelist or presenter to attend the session. However, when the host designsates the person as an attendee, the person will not be able to attend. Attendees who have joined the event after the host has started a practice session will not be able to view any activities occurring in the practice session as soon as the session is started.

• A production team cannot access the presentations or documents opened by the presenter before the practice session was started until the host has started a practice session and the production team has started the practice session. During the practice session, if the presenter wishes to use the same presentations or documents that he or she used during his or her presentation, he or she must open them again.

• The Webex Meetings mobile app for iOS can be used by the participants of the practice session to join the meeting. The mobile app, on the other hand, does not allow hosts to start a session remotely.

• Hosts who join an event using Call me or Call in will remain muted when they return to a practice session after joining a main session, regardless of whether they were unmuted during the practice session in which they joined the event. It is possible to enable or disable Mute on Entry.

• If hosts who participate in an event using computer audio have been muted when they join the event and return to the main session from a practice session will still be muted when they return to the main session, even if they have been unmuted themselves during the practice session. (Mute on Entry is disabled)

Start a Practice Session

In order to be able to finish your practice session before the event, you should start your practice session early enough so that you will have enough time to complete it.

Before you begin

As a host, you should ensure that these things are taken care of before you start a practice session:

• The event has been attended by all of the panelists.

• We will begin the practice session with the presenter, the host, and the panelists all prepared to share their presentation materials.

• While members of the production team are in a practice session, you can open a copy of the presentation you have prepared for attendees to view. Choose Share > File (Including Video) from the menu bar of the Webex Events program. During the presentation, you can set the presentation so that it advances pages automatically. The Automatically Advance Pages command can be found on the View menu bar in Webex Events. If you wish to continue looping within the practice session, you can select Return to the beginning and continue advancing pages after you have selected the timing required to advance to the next page.
• Select the Start Practice Session option from the Event window which will appear in the Event window.

This is the start of the practice session. This practice session is automatically joined by the host, the presenter, and the panelists. In the Event window, attendees can see a message that informs them that a practice session is taking place between the production team and the audience. A practice session can be viewed by any of the attendees who were watching the presentation that the presenter or host had opened before the practice began.

• The event should be rehearsed. The production team can also use a poll questionnaire during the actual event to gather feedback from the audience or prepare a presentation for the audience.

What to do next

In order to keep your attendees from seeing any shared content, such as documents, presentations, whiteboards, web content, and polls, you must close all shared documents, presentations, whiteboards, web content, and polls before ending a practice session (select Event > End Practice Session). Once you end the practice session, attendees will have the ability to view them if you do not close them.

Frequently Asked Questions