Zoom for Public Events

Zoom events that are for the public can present a different set of challenges than a Zoom meeting used for class or a meeting.

If you need to promote the event to the public you will need to take some extra precautions.

If you have more complex requirements, such as a large-audience broadcast webinars, please submit a production request with Electronic Media at least 4 weeks in advance.

Protect Your Zoom Meetings

1. Use a unique Zoom Room ID

   Do not use your Personal Meeting ID (PMI) The PMI is your personal meeting space and you shouldn’t promote the ID to the public via email lists, websites etc

2. Do not enable join before host

   If this is enabled the first person to join the meeting can become the host. See also Zoom Join before host

3. Create a Waiting Room for Attendees

   Before the meeting is opened to the public the host can let in specific users that need to help prepare.

   Waiting Rooms allow you to control when attendees can enter the meeting. See also: Secure your meetings with Zoom waiting rooms or watch this quick video to see how to set one up and use.

4. Make Sure Only the Hosts Can Share Their Screen

   This is a global default but can be changed in your personal meeting preferences. Only turn this on if it is absolutely necessary.

5. Disable Annotation

   If annotation is enabled any participant can start annotating during screen sharing See also Zoom Annotation

6. Chat Settings

   Chat can be turned off or be limited to host only, everyone publicly or everyone publicly and privately

   See also Chat Seeting

7. Have Co-Hosts

   Have some helpers that the host can promote to co-host. They can help monitor chat, mute microphones and remove participants if needed.

8. Remove a Participant or Put on Hold

   As the meeting host, you do have the ability to remove someone from the meeting or put them on hold via the Participants panel. See: Managing participants in a meeting.

Additional Resources

• Zoom's Security page for additional information on Zoom's security features.
• Evergreen's Global Zoom Meeting Defaults

Keywords: web conferencing