Practice sessions are crucial for your webinar’s success. You have done the hard work of promoting your webinar and now it’s your time to shine.

If you are using the Zoom Webinar addon, you should definitely take advantage of the Zoom’s practice session option to rehearse your webinar.

In this post I will cover the advantages of using the Zoom Webinar practice session, how to start a practice session and how to invite your panelists to join the practice session.

Why use the Zoom webinar practice session option?

Zoom Webinar practice session provides a fantastic opportunity for you and your panelists to try out the features that are only available with the Zoom Webinar addon.

If you are hosting a Zoom Webinar for the first time, chances are you may not be familiar with Zoom Webinar features like the Q&A option. Experiencing them for the first time during the webinar itself can be daunting, so it is important that you and your panelists get comfortable with them before the webinar.

If you decide not to use the Zoom Webinar, you can use a standard Zoom meeting to rehearse your webinar. Don’t skip it.

If you are still thinking whether to purchase the Zoom Webinar addon, you can take a look at our guide on choosing between Zoom Webinar or Zoom Meeting.

How to start a zoom webinar practice session?

  1. On your Zoom account, click Webinars in the left navigation menu.
  2. On the Zoom Webinar page, click on the name of your webinar, and Edit.
  3. Inside the Webinar Options section, click the Enable Practice Session check box.
  4. (Optional) If you want to record your practice session, check Automatically record webinar in the cloud.

Now you can join the webinar through the regular webinar Zoom link. You and your panelists will see a banner at the top of the Zoom window letting you know that you are in a practice session.

Don’t worry, no one except you and your panelists can access the webinar until you click Start Webinar, even if they have the webinar link.

How do panelists join a zoom webinar practice session?

Panelists join the practice session with the webinar link. Don’t forget to add your panelists to the Zoom Webinar settings, otherwise they won’t be able to join the practice session.

You can do that from the Invitations tab at the bottom of the webinar settings page, find the Invite panelists section and click Edit to add your panelists.