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Adding panelists to a webinar

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Panelists are full participants in the webinar. They have access to most host controls, including sharing content, their video and audio, and viewing the attendee list. You must be assigned panelist permissions by the webinar host, either before the webinar starts or promoted from attendee in the live session. Learn more about roles in a webinar.

The max number of panelists is dependent on the host's meeting capacity, while the max number of attendees is based on the host's webinar capacity. Here are some examples: 

  • Your Pro account has the default meeting capacity of 100 and you have a Webinar 500 license. This would allow you to host a webinar with up to 500 attendees and a maximum of 100 panelists due to the meeting capacity, for a total of 600 (500 attendees + 100 panelists). 
  • Your Business or Enterprise account has the default meeting capacity of 300 and you have a Webinar 1000 license. This would allow you to host a webinar with up to 1000 attendees and a maximum of 300 panelists due to the meeting capacity, for a total of 1300 (1000 attendees + 300 panelists). 
  • You have a Large Meeting 1000 license and a Webinar 1000 license. This would allow you to host a webinar with up to 1000 attendees and 1000 panelists, for a total of 2000 (1000 attendees and 1000 panelists). 
  • The name and email address of a panelist can no longer be edited once they are added. If you misspelled the name or use an incorrect email address, you need to delete them and re-add them with their correct information.

This article covers:

Prerequisites for creating panelists

How to manually add panelists

You can invite a person or Zoom Room to be a webinar panelist. You can invite up to twice the number of allowed panelists based on your meeting capacity. For example, if your default meeting capacity is 100 (meaning you can have 100 panelists in the webinar), you can invite up to 200 panelists. This invite limit does not impact the actual join capacity.

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. Click Webinars. 
  3. Click the topic of the webinar you want to add panelists to.
  4. On the Invitations tab at the bottom of the page, find the Invite panelists section and click Edit.
  5. Enter a name and email address to invite them. If you're inviting a Zoom Room, enter the room name. The room's location will display in the Email/Zoom Rooms column.
  6. (Optional) Select Add Another Panelist to add more panelists.
  7. Click Save to send invites to the added panelists.
    If you checked Send invitation to all newly added panelists immediately, they will be sent an email invitation after you click Save.

Notes:

  • You can add up to 1000 panelists, depending on your maximum meeting capacity.
  • You can delete and add panelists any time prior to the webinar.
  • Panelists must use their unique join link to join the webinar as a panelist, or be signed-in to their Zoom account on the desktop or mobile app with the email matching the panelist assignment. Joining the webinar as a panelist, rather than being promoted from attendee status during the live webinar, allows you to join the practice session before the attendees can join, which is often used for production and presentation preparation before being live in front of attendees. 

How to import panelists using a CSV file

If you want to add panelists in bulk to a webinar, you can specify the panelists in a CSV file and upload it through the web portal.

Create a CSV file of panelists

  1. Open spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel.
  2. Create a new file. You can also download and open the CSV sample file.
  3. Specify the following information:
    • Column A: Email address of each panelist.
    • Column B: Full name of each panelist.
      Note: Don't enter column titles, for example, Email Address and Full Name.
  4. Save the file as a CSV file (comma delimited).

Import the CSV file

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. Click Webinars. 
  3. Click the topic of the webinar you want to add panelists to.
  4. On the Invitations tab at the bottom of the page, find the Invite panelists section and click Import from CSV.
  5. Click Import.
  6. Select the CSV file you created.
    You will see a list of panelists you're importing. You can click these options:
    • Resend: Immediately send the invitation email to the panelist.
    • Copy: Copy the invitation email for the panelist.
    • Delete: Remove the panelist from being imported.
    • Send invitation to all newly added panelists immediately: Send an invitation email to all panelists being imported after you click Save.
      Note: If you don't see a list of panelists you're importing, click Cancel, reload the page, then click Edit in the Invite Panelists section.
  7. Click Save.

Import the CSV file as admin

Account owners or admins can manage webinars on behalf of their users and import a list of panelists directly into their scheduled webinars through User Management.

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal as admin.
  2. In the navigation menu, click User Management then Users.
  3. Click the user’s name from the list.
  4. Click the Webinars tab then Upcoming Webinars.
  5. Click the topic of the webinar you want to import panelists to.
  6. On the Invitations tab at the bottom of the page, find the Invite panelists section and click Import from CSV.
  7. Click Import.
  8. Select the CSV file you created.
    You will see a list of panelists you're importing. You can click these options:
    • Resend: Immediately send the invitation email to the panelist.
    • Copy: Copy the invitation email for the panelist.
    • Delete: Remove the panelist from being imported.
    • Send invitation to all newly added panelists immediately: Send an invitation email to all panelists being imported after you click Save.
      Note: If you don't see a list of panelists you're importing, click Cancel, reload the page, then click Edit in the Invite Panelists section.
  9. Click Save.

How to add panelists during a recurring webinar

If a webinar is recurring, the user will be a panelist for all webinars in that series. If you want them to join as a panelist for one webinar occurrence only, you will need to add them as a panelist before the webinar that you want them to be a panelist for and remove them before the next occurrence. 

How to remove panelists

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. Click Webinars. 
  3. Click the topic of the webinar you need to remove panelists from.
  4. On the Invitations tab at the bottom of the page, find the Invite panelists section and click Edit. 
  5. To the right of the panelist's details, click Delete. 
  6. Click Save.
    This panelist will now be removed from all webinars in the series and will need to join as an attendee.

How to export a list of invited panelists

Licensed Webinar hosts can export a CSV file of invited panelists and interpreters for their scheduled webinar. This export includes each panelist’s email address and join URL. This feature is useful when a user other than the host, such as someone providing technical support during the session, needs to help panelists join the webinar.

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. Click Webinars. 
  3. Click the webinar topic for which you wish to generate a list of panelists.
  4. On the Invitations tab at the bottom of the page, find the Invite panelists section and click Export list.

 

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