GoToWebinar or Teams / Teams live event?

It's not an "or" question; it's the classic, what's the most appopriate tool for me to use to support delivery of my content?

So why does CPS use GoToWebinar to deliver its webinars? The first clue is in the name of the product. It's been honed over the years to deliver a complete solution for managing and hosting webinars.  I have used GoToWebinar since 2012 and it's my go-to (pun intended) solution that delivers exactly what's required in a simple and easy to use package.

The heart of this "or" is that GoToWebinar is a great tool for managing the complete lifecycle of the event - from invitation to follow-up. Teams is a great tool for meetings, and Teams live events are great for 1-to-many events.

Teams live events is an extension of Teams meetings, enabling users to broadcast video and meeting content to a large online audience. These are meant for one-to-many communications where the host of the event is leading the interactions and audience participation is primarily to view the content shared by host. The attendees can watch the live or recorded event in Yammer, Teams, and/or Stream, and can interact with the presenters using moderated Q & A or a Yammer conversation.

CPS can setup webinars and make the sign up link available in minutes. As the date of the event comes closer there are various dashboards that can be reviewed to understand sign-up volumes. Once the event has completed CPS can understand who did and didn't attend, and automate email feedback. CPS can also post a recording of the event and make that link available.

Some of the items in the paragraph above can be achieved with Teams - the major difference at this time is the book ends - setting up an event and tracking sign-up - followed by post event statistics including how much time people spent with GoToWebianr as the primary application they were viewing.

This is where Teams / Team live events (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-live-events/what-are-teams-live-events) and GoToWebinar have a blurred use case. Sure, I can setup a Teams meeting and add individuals; what I don't get is the ability for people to sign-up for a Teams meeting. I have to do more work. Team live events are different and provide some additional post meeting data - just not in the comprehensive way GoToWebinar provides.

One super useful item is that GoToWebinar Pro and Plus enables you to stream video to your attendees. This is a great way to run webinars and with additional engaging content, not just the usual "PowerPoint / live demo" approach.

In summary

• GoToWebinar does exactly what it says and delivers an end to end solution suited to marketing and sales teams delivering one to many webinars.
• Teams is a great tools for bringing teams together and working collaboratively. I could use it for running webinars; it's just not as complete a solution.
• Teams live events is closer to the webinar part of GoToWebinar; again it's just not as complete a solution.

Facts and opinions correct as of 06 April 2020