As the webinar host, you can manage both panelists and attendees.

You can manage your webinar panelists and attendees by clicking Participants in your host control panel. Panelists can be promoted to co-hosts, attendees can be demoted, videos can be stopped, unmuted, and more can be done.

In addition, you can access reporting after your webinar concludes to see how many attendees, how many polls were taken, etc.

This article covers:

• How to access the participants panel
• How to manage panelists
  • Changing a panelist to attendee
• How to manage attendees
  • Promoting an attendee to panelist
• Additional controls
• Attendee view controls

Prerequisites managing attendees and panelists in a webinar

• Zoom Webinar add-on
• Host privilege for this webinar

How to access the participants panel

• Log in to the Zoom desktop client.
• Begin the webinar as the host.
• From the webinar controls, click on Participants.
  You will see the Participants panel on your right. In the Panelist tab, you will find information about the host, co-hosts, and panelists, and in the Attendees tab, you will find information about the attendees.

Note:

Participants are listed in chronological order.

1. Participants are allowed to speak.
2. Hands raised by participants. The first person to raise their hand is displayed at the top.
3. Participants without a hand are displayed below.

How to manage panelists

Click the More button when you hover over a panelist’s name. The following options will appear:

• Mute / Ask to Unmute:
•  The panelist will be muted or unmuted. Before they can be unmuted, they must accept an unmute prompt.
• Chat:
• To communicate directly with a panelist, open the chat window.
• Make Host:
• Select the panelist to be the host. A single host is allowed.
• Make Co-Host / Withdraw Co-host permission:
• Choose the panelist to be a co-host. The number of co-hosts is unlimited.
• Change Role to Attendee:
•  By clicking this, the panelist will become an attendee.
• Rename:
•  The name of the panelist will be changed.
  Note:
• You can change your own name in the participant list by hovering over your name and clicking Rename. You can only do this for the current webinar. See My Profile for permanent changes.
• Assign to Type Closed Captions:
• During the webinar, assign the panelist to type closed captions.
• Allow to Record Local Files / Remove Permission to Record Local Files:
•  Provide the option for the panelist to start or stop a local recording of the webinar, or remove the permission given by the panelist. It is not possible for panelists to record a webinar through the cloud.
• Allow to Multi-pin:
•  Provides the panelist with the ability to pin up to 9 videos into their view of the webinar
• Put on hold:
• The panelist will be placed on hold. They will then be temporarily removed from the webinar so that they cannot hear you, see your screen share, or your video. They will also not be able to hear, see, or share your content. On their webinar screen, they will see the message: “Please wait, the meeting host will let you in soon”, followed by the name and date of the webinar.
• Remove:
•  The panelist should be removed from the webinar. As long as you do not allow participants and panelists to rejoin, they will not be able to do so.

Changing a panelist to attendee

• Log in to the Zoom desktop client.
• Launch a webinar as the host.
• Scroll down and click Participants.
• Choose Panelists from the drop-down list.
• You can make a panelist an attendee by hovering over their name and clicking “More.”.
• Then click “Change Role to Attendee.”.

How to manage attendees

Under the Attendees tab, you will see a list of all present attendees with any non-verbal feedback they selected next to their names. A search bar will appear at the top of the list when there are 7 or more attendees, enabling you to quickly find a specific attendee.

Hover over the attendee’s name and click More to manage attendees. The following options will appear:

• Allow to Talk:
• Allow the webinar attendee to unmute and speak during the webinar. If the participant chooses to remain muted or unmute, they will receive a prompt requesting their confirmation. To prompt a participant to unmute their microphone if they have already been allowed to speak, click Ask to Unmute once they have been allowed to speak. The other participants will be able to hear them.
  Note:
• As soon as you are unmuted, the host and panelists are able to view the attendee’s picture and name. To other attendees, only the attendee’s name is displayed.You will see the following options if you have allowed the attendee to speak:
  • Mute / Ask to Unmute:
  • The attendee can be muted or unmuted. The unmute prompt must be accepted before the user can be unmuted.
  • Disable talking:
  •  The attendee will no longer be able to speak. The participant will be mute and will not be able to unmute themselves if they do this.
• Lower Hand:
• Place the participant’s hand on the ground. As a result, their position in the participants will move to the bottom after the participants with raised hands.
• Chat:
• Using the chat window, you can send messages directly to the attendees.
• Promote to panelist:
• You can make the attendee a panelist.
• Rename:
• Changing what the other attendees will see as the attendee’s name.
• Remove:
• The attendee has been removed from the webinar. The panelist has been removed from the webinar.
•  Unless you allow the attendee to rejoin, they won’t be able to do so.You will find the Lower All Hands option at the bottom of the list of attendees, which will lower all raised hands. Participants who raised their hands and were unmuted are not muted by this.

Promoting an attendee to panelist

• Log in to the Zoom desktop client.
• Begin the webinar as the host.
• Select Participants.
• Select Attendees.

• To promote an attendee, hover over his or her name and click More.
• Select Promote to panelist.

Additional controls

In the Panelists tab, there are a few additional controls below the Participants panel:

• Invite:
•  Users can be invited to join your meeting.
• Mute All:
•  Please mute all panelists, as well as any attendees to whom you have given permission to speak.
• More:
  • Ask All to Unmute:
  • Ensure that all panelists and any attendees whom you have permitted to speak have been unmuted. Any attendees who have not been given permission to speak will remain muted.
  • Lower All Hands:
  •  Immediately lowers the hands of all panelists. The raised hands of the attendees are not affected.
  • Mute Panelists On Entry:
  •  All new panelists will be muted upon entering the room, but if they wish, they may unmute themselves. Participants will be muted upon arrival (and will not be able to unmute themselves unless you promote them to panelists or allow them to speak).
  • When a new panelist or attendee joins or leaves the webinar, play a chime to indicate that something has happened.
  • Lock Webinar:
  •  A new panelist or attendee will not be able to join the webinar until it has been unlocked.
  • Allow Panelist to
    • Unmute Themselves:
    • Allow panelists to unmute themselves at their convenience.
    • Rename:
    •  Panelists may change their names during the webinar.
    • Start Video:
    •  Panelists may begin their video at any time. Leaving this option unchecked will not stop the video feed of any panelists who already have video on.
  • Allow attendees to:
    • Raise Hand:
    • In the webinar, attendees can raise their hands. You can use this feature to find out who would like to ask a question aloud.
    • View Participant Count:
    • The number of panelists and attendees should be displayed to attendees. The host should be included in the number of panelists. The panelists’ names will appear above the meeting ID.

Attendees can edit this information.

They can also control how attendees present their videos during the webinar. The layout for each panelist can be different from that of the attendees.

The controls for the Attendee view can be accessed from two places: they are always available from the Participants panel, under More, or in the top-right corner of the video section, by clicking  View. The following options are available:

• My View:
•  In this option, you can choose the layout of the video that you will see in the webinar.
  • Speaker:
  •  When the active speaker is not speaking, other video panelists will appear above the active speaker when the active speaker is not speaking.
  • Gallery: 
  • If enabled in client settings, the gallery view will display either 25 or 49 participants equally sized on the screen. In the event that the number of panelists is more than can fit in the gallery view, multiple pages of the gallery view will be created.
  • Release video order:
  •  It is important to keep in mind that, if a custom gallery view order has been set, the order is locked into place and cannot be modified unless it is manually changed. As soon as you enable this option, Zoom will be able to adjust the order of gallery view based on who is speaking.
  • Fullscreen
• Attendee View:
• You can set the layout of the video that will be shown to the attendees during the webinar. It is by default that they will see the same view as the host (the host’s default view is the gallery view).
  • Follow Host’s View:
  •  There is no difference in the view that participants see, regardless of whether the host is displaying a speaker view or a gallery view. In the event that the host shares their screen, the attendees will be able to view both the host’s screen share as well as the active speaker’s video. Both the share size and the video can be adjusted by the attendees.
  • Speaker:
  • In the webinar, the speaker view switches between active and inactive speakers, with other video panelists appearing above the active speaker when they are not speaking.
  • Gallery:
  •  It is possible to display either 25 or 49 participants (if enabled in the client settings) in equal size on the gallery view. In the event that there are more panelists than can fit on one page, multiple pages of the gallery view will appear.

The options will change and appear as follows when the host or a panelist shares their screen:

• My View:
•  Choose the video layout you will see during the webinar.
  • Standard:
  •  The main focus of the interface is on shared content, while video thumbnails are either displayed above the content when in windowed mode (similar to speaker view) or over the content in the top-right corner of the screen when in fullscreen mode. During fullscreen mode, these thumbnails are able to be moved by clicking and dragging.
  • Side-by-side:
  •  Speaker:
  •  View the shared screen alongside the Speaker view. You can change the size of the separator between the shared screen and video by adjusting the location of the separator.
  • Side-by-side: 
  • Gallery: 
  • The feature allows you to view the shared screen alongside the Gallery view, with the ability to adjust the location of the separator between the shared screen and video, depending on how big you want each side to be.
  • Release video order:
  • It is important to note that if you have set a custom gallery view order, it is locked in place and will remain the same unless manually changed. If this option is selected, the order will be released and Zoom will be able to adjust the order of the gallery view based on who is speaking during this time.
  • Swap Video and Shared Screen:
  • The switch between the video and shared content is available when using standard view and will bring the focus back on the panelists video and minimize the shared content without stopping the session.
  • Fullscreen
• Attendee View:
•  Select the layout of the video that attendees will see during the webinar. They see the same view as the host by default (the host’s default view is the gallery view).
  • Follow Host’s View:
  • Participants will be able to see the same views a host is using, such as speaker view, gallery view, side-by-side mode, etc. It should be noted that if the host is sharing their screen, the attendees will be able to see the content in side-by-side and speaker view. Each of the attendees will be able to adjust the share and video size.
  • Standard:
  •  In the top right corner of the screen, video thumbnails are displayed over the content, above which is a list of the latest shared content. It is possible to drag and drop the thumbnails for easy movement.
  • Side-by-side: 
  • Speaker:
  •  Participants will be able to view the shared screen alongside the Speaker view, and the separator between the shared screen and the video can be moved to allow for adjustments to the relative size of each side.
  • Side-by-side: 
  • Gallery:
  • Participants will be able to view the shared screen along with the gallery view, while being able to adjust the location of the separator between the shared screen and video in order to adjust the relative size of each side.