You can arrange online meetings and dial-in conferences
Skype for business is great for ad hoc communications with your colleagues, but did you know you can arrange online meeting spaces and invite up to 250 participants?
Step 1: Once you have downloaded Skype for Business and you open Outlook you should notice a Skype meeting button has appeared. Click this to begin to arrange your online meeting.
Step 2: Select the day, time and attendees of the meeting as usual, however, you will notice there is additional information already in the calendar invite.
Within the email is a link to join this meeting online via Skype and almost anyone will be able to join the meeting even if they do not have the Skype for Business client as they will be able to join via the web. If an attendee does not have web access you can also join the meeting via telephone, with a conference telephone number and ID included. If you wished to join only via telephone, simply dial the number and when prompted enter the conference ID from the email.
As the meeting organiser you may wish to alter some of the meeting parameters
Step 3: Click on Meeting options to alter some of the meeting options.
Step 4: Select the options that suit your conference best:
Where do you want to meet on-line?
A new meeting space is best if you will be organising meetings with multiple different people, ensuring that content from one meeting cannot be viewed in another meeting.
My Dedicated meeting space is best of you will only ever be meeting with the same people and you like the convenience of having the same meeting details.
If you select a new meeting space, this highlights other options, including a lobby facility, please see below for the options available:
|
Who gets in directly? |
What happens |
Recommended when… |
|
Only me, the meeting organiser |
You are the only one who gets into the meeting directly. Everyone else has to wait until admitted. |
You have a high security meeting and confidential information. |
|
People I invite from my company |
Only people who were invited can join the meeting directly. Everyone else has to wait until admitted. |
You’re discussing confidential information, and want to only allow specific people to join. |
|
Anyone from my organisation |
Anyone from your company can get in to the meeting directly, even if not invited. |
You don’t have external participants and you are not discussing confidential information. |
|
Anyone (no restrictions) |
Anyone who has access to the meeting link gets in to the meeting directly. |
You’re inviting outside participants and you’re not discussing confidential information. |
You can then select who is able to present in the meeting, the options are below:
|
Only me, the meeting organiser |
|
People I choose |
|
Anyone from my organisation (same @sunderland.ac.uk address) |
|
Anyone (no restrictions) |
You can then choose other options to make the meeting run smoothly:
| Disable IM (restrict the use of instant messaging during the meeting) |
| Mute all attendees (this is useful if you are presenting information and you do not want to be distracted by background noise) |
| Block attendees video (you do not want to allow any attendees to share their video) |
You are able to change these settings for each meeting or set them to be remembered for all future meetings.
When it is time to start your on-line meeting, all attendees should open the calendar invite and click Join Skype Meeting, this will open either a native Skype for Business client or alternatively if the client is not installed, a web browser will be open and take the attendee to an online version of the meeting.