Step 1: Make Sure the License is Assigned to the Right User

You've got the license. You've seen the demos. Now it's time to build your program. It starts with a decision that sounds trivial but has outsized consequences: who holds the license?

Why This Matters

The license holder becomes the operational foundation for your entire event program. Their settings, their recordings, their analytics, their hub — everything flows through that account. If the license is assigned to an admin who never hosts anything, your actual event producers may not have easy access to the features they need. And if you're using Webinar Plus or Zoom Events, the stakes are even higher: the license holder becomes the hub owner, and their account settings govern every session hosted on that hub — even sessions scheduled and run by other team members.

Getting this right from the start saves you from a disruptive migration later.

The License as "Home Base"

Think of the license holder's account as the command center for your event program:

• Sessions are created and managed here.
• Recordings and transcripts are stored here.
• Analytics and registration data live here.
• Hub membership and templates (Webinar Plus / Zoom Events) are anchored here.
• Account-level settings that govern all sessions on the hub are configured here.

That last point is critical. If you're on Webinar Plus or Zoom Events, the hub owner's settings cascade to every session on the hub — regardless of who schedules or runs it. This means the license assignment decision isn't just about access. It's about settings governance for your entire event program.

Best Practices for License Assignment

Match the license to your needs. Zoom offers several license types for events:

• Webinar — Single-session events or recurring series smaller-scale broadcasts. More portable and less tied to a specific user's ecosystem.
• Webinar Plus — Adds premium features including enhanced analytics, custom branding in emails and pages, Simulive webinars, and production tools like Backstage and Production Studio. The hub is optional, but a key value driver given the enhanced analytics that become available.
• Zoom Events — Enables multi-session, multi-track conferences with concurrent sessions. Wraps your sessions together in a centralized lobby page experience with additional features including event-level chat & virtual Expo. The hub is central to your workflow.

Assign intentionally. The admin or account owner should generally assign a license to the person (or service account) who will actually host and manage events — not whoever happened to be on the purchase order.

Use groups and events admin roles. Put your webinar & events hosts in a special group on your account to manage feature & settings activations, meeting their needs without impacting day-to-day company-wide Zoom use.

Stabilize ownership. To build long-running live event programs on Zoom, avoid temporary or shared personal accounts. If multiple people produce events in your org, consider anchoring the license on a dedicated account that serves as the hub owner. This gives you a stable, predictable settings environment that won't shift when someone changes roles.

Enable collaboration. Once the license is established on the appropriate user account, add the team as appropriate for your use case to facilitate the teamwork required to pull off a successful event.

• Web Portal: check out scheduling privilege if you have sufficient licensing—this enables hosts to share management of sessions scheduled in the web portal.
• Events Portal (Webinar Plus and Events Licenses): add users to your team on the hub—hub hosts can use the hub owner's license to collaborate with event hosting & management.

The more advanced your license, the more value you get from anchoring it on a stable, well-configured account.

What Happens If You Need to Move the License Later

It's possible—your admin can reassign a license, and they'll be prompted to handle the associated assets during the transfer. The standard Webinar license is more portable by nature. But for Webinar Plus and Zoom Events, much of the value comes from the hub being anchored to one user over time. Treat the license assignment as a long-term decision, especially for Webinar Plus and Events with a hub.

Common Pitfalls

• Quick activation without consideration of ideal ownership. This can lead to programs starting with misaligned foundations, requiring costly corrections as they scale, and creating confusion around which settings and features are actually enabled.
• License on the wrong user or host account not definitively known. Your event hosts & producers can't access the features they need, and you hopefully discover it before it impacts a live event.
• License moved around by admins as needed. This works for standard Webinar licenses hosted in the web portal, but creates problems for Webinar Plus and Events hubs. When a license holder leaves or changes roles, the hub—along with all content, recordings, and analytics—ends up deactivated, deleted, or transferred. Each option is potentially disruptive.

Quick Checklist

✅ License assigned to the correct host, producer, or service account

✅ License type matches your event program's needs

✅ Hub owner's account settings reviewed and stable (Webinar Plus / Events)

✅ Ownership documented for future reference

💡 Quick win: If you're unsure who holds the license in your org, ask your Zoom admin to check under ADMIN > User Management > Users. Look for the Webinar, Webinar Plus, or Events license types.

For Webinar Plus and Events licenses, if you're a hub owner or hub host, go to events.zoom.us, navigate to the hub you use via the pull-down menu in the upper left corner of the page, and click "Team" in the left side menu. The hub owner has a tag reflecting their status as the individual whose license is used for all events on the hub.

With the license in the right place, you've set the foundation. Now it's time to bring your team into the fold.

👉 Visit the Webinar & Events Resource Center

For additional technical insights tailored to IT admins and decision makers, visit the Zoom Technical Library.

Written by Mike Elliot, Product Adoption Expert, Zoom Events & Webinars. For questions about this article or other Zoom Products, reach out via the Zoom Community or your Customer Success team.