Step 5: Showtime — Rehearsal & Execution

You've built the event. You've distributed the link. Registrations are flowing in. Now comes the part that separates a solid event from one your audience actually remembers: the preparation, coordination, and execution that turn a well-configured session into a polished live experience.

This article covers everything from locking your content to the moment your last attendee leaves. If Step 4 was about building the machine, Step 5 is about running it.

Why This Matters

The live moment is where all your planning either pays off or falls flat. A well-rehearsed team tends to deliver smoother, more confident experiences. An unprepared team can make even great content feel disjointed. The investment is modest, a few hours of rehearsal and review, and the payoff is significant: professional delivery, higher engagement, and fewer surprises.

Finalize Your Content

Before you rehearse, lock down what your audience will see and hear so you can note minor changes as you practice timing & transitions instead of trying to build while in flight.

Pre-Record High-Stakes Segments

Even if your event is primarily live, consider pre-recording segments where risk is highest:

• Executive messages — Leaders have unpredictable schedules. A pre-recorded segment eliminates last-minute cancellation risk.
• Product demos — Live demos are inherently risky. A pre-recorded demo with live narration balances quality and spontaneity.
• Connectivity Concerns — speakers may have connectivity concerns. Record in advance (even as a backup/redundancy) and play during the event.
• Pre-recording best practices:
  • Record in the same Zoom environment your audience will see. Consistency matters.
  • Double-check your recording settings to avoid having issues with a timestamp or display names being "burned in" to the recording or a layout you can't use or can't match in the live event.
  • Use the same branding elements (backgrounds, name tags, and layouts) you'll use in the live event.
  • If your goal is to pass it off as live and the speaker will be part of live segments later in the show, consider having them wear the same clothes and recording around the same time of day as the live event, with the same microphone, camera, lighting, framing, and background.
  • Download, trim, review, and test the recording playback in Zoom.
  • Send a teammate (a fellow co-host or panelist) a copy as a backup option.

Lock Your Assets

Set a content freeze deadline — 24 hours before the event is a good target, though your organization's culture may push that closer. After the freeze:

• Slides are locked - only make additional updates in the event of true emergencies.
• Pre-recorded videos are labeled, tested, and uploaded (in Production Studio or Simulive, if applicable).
• Demo environments to be shown during the live session are staged and stable.
• Any "handouts" or resources are uploaded to the session.
• The goal is to eliminate last-minute content scrambles so your rehearsal reflects what your audience will actually experience.

Verify Branding and Layouts

You configured branding in Step 4. Now confirm everything renders correctly in the live environment — this is a verification step, not a configuration step.

• Wallpaper — Does it display correctly behind one speaker? Three speakers? With a screen share active?
• Virtual backgrounds — Have all speakers tested their branded virtual backgrounds on the devices they will actually use for the live session?
• Name tags — Are titles, names, and formatting consistent across all panelists?
• Landing/registration page (Webinar Plus / Zoom Events) — Check on both desktop and mobile. We're getting close to the time when the traffic to your pages tends to sharply increase — take another pass and make any necessary updates.
• Production Studio scenes (Webinar Plus / Zoom Events) — Are lower thirds accurate? Do transitions between scenes look clean? Have we built in backup scenes or layouts for scenes we can't anticipate? Are layouts optimized for your content type (slides vs. panel vs. demo)?

This takes about 15 minutes and often improves perceived quality. Don't skip it.

Confirm Engagement Tools

You built your engagement tools in Step 4. Now make sure they're tested, assigned, and ready to deploy at the right moments.

Verify and Assign

• Confirm all polls, Q&A settings, chat permissions, and surveys are configured as intended and show up in the session when launched in backstage or practice mode.
• Assign a specific team member to each tool if possible — who launches polls, who moderates Q&A, who manages chat. Depending on the size of your audience, how much screen real estate you have, and your run of show, you may be able to manage it all yourself.

Moderator Workflows

This is where Step 5 adds value beyond the initial setup:

• Q&A moderator — Assign someone to triage incoming questions, flag high-priority ones for the speaker, and dismiss duplicates. Prepare a few seed questions in case the audience is slow to engage.
• Chat moderator — Have a team member welcome attendees as they join, share relevant links at key moments or point to resources, and manage any off-topic or disruptive messages. Prepare key messages in a document your moderator can copy-paste from.
• Poll timing — Map each poll to a specific moment in the agenda. Launching a poll right after a key point lands is far more effective than launching one during a transition. Whoever is launching polls should be clear on the timing to launch, when to end polls, whether to share the results of a poll with the audience, and for how long.

The Data Opportunity

Every poll response, Q&A submission, and survey answer is data that informs your next event, your content strategy, and your understanding of what your audience cares about. Plan engagement tools with data collection in mind — not just audience interaction.

Run a Practice Session

If you do nothing else on this list, do this.

Availability note: In standard Webinar, the practice session feature must be enabled in your web portal settings (see Step 3). In Webinar Plus / Zoom Events, you'll have either Practice Session or Backstage as your pre-show environment. If you're truly running an event, Practice Session or Backstage should be enabled for every event. Get in, get your bearings, check your settings, and set up your content before the audience is upon you. If you don't have a practice session or backstage, as soon as the host or an alternative host joins, the webinar is live to your audience, and any early joiners will watch you get set up. In meeting format sessions, utilization of the waiting room is highly recommended for the same reason — generally speaking, as an events host, you want to have total control over when you're live.

What to Rehearse

• Technology — Audio, video, screen sharing, and connectivity for every speaker.
  • Audio: this support article has helpful tips — find a quiet area, check for echo or doubling when multiple panelists' microphones are open at once, activate background noise suppression as needed for those in bullpen office environments or at home with loud pets & kids, construction outside their office, etc. Activate "Original sound for musicians" if you're mixing audio professionally and sending the mix into Zoom as a microphone.
  • Network: notice any stability or delay issues? Get on wired, off VPN, or get closer to the router.
  • Video: professional appearance (if desired), eye contact with camera, overall quality (resolution sent/received), lighting (light pointed at speaker's face from overhead or behind the camera rather than behind the speaker and into the camera), framing (center yourself, put a fist on your head, and your top 2 knuckles should be cut off at the top of the frame), check for anything inappropriate or unintentional in background like a big mess or sticky notes, whiteboards, and screens with trade secrets.
  • Shared content: are you consistently sharing what you intend to? Full screen slides without attendees seeing "edit mode"? Do you need to hide your browser's bookmark bar? Are there any tabs or apps open that would cause trouble if you accidentally shared?
  • Reminder to close unnecessary apps and browser tabs to avoid CPU overload during the show.
  • Reminder to silence any notifications that could leak into your microphone or screen share with audio (chat pings, email or calendar notifications, phones ringing, etc.)
• Show flow — Walk through the entire agenda in sequence. Who speaks when? Who shares what? Where are the transitions?
• Engagement tools — Launch every poll, test Q&A, verify chat settings. Don't just confirm they work — confirm the timing works.
• Key moments — Pay special attention and commit extra effort to key moments in your show. Starting well is always critically important. Is there a key video or demo, or a VIP guest speaker? Better make sure those segments land!
• Transitions — Practice handoffs between speakers and between live and pre-recorded content. These are where most awkward moments happen. Do you have (or need) an MC who knows the show flow and can intervene and keep the show moving? Who's prepared to deliver the "you're on mute!" to a panelist who forgets?
• Communication channels— verify your team's preferred back-channel communications method. Are you using the in-session chat, a separate chat app, a shared doc, a group text thread? Make it part of the rehearsal workflow so it's burned in for the live show.
• Backstage coordination (Webinar Plus / Zoom Events) — Verify your team can communicate effectively behind the scenes.
• Accessibility — Verify captioning and interpreter workflows are functioning correctly. Test language interpretation channels if applicable.

What a Run-of-Show Should Contain

Your run-of-show is the single document your entire team references during the live event. It should include:

• Time blocks with projected start and end times for each segment
• Speaker name and role for each segment
• Technical cues — who shares screen, who launches polls, who advances slides
• Transition notes — what happens between segments (music? interstitial slide? speaker intro? video bumper?)
• Contingency notes — what to do if a segment runs long or a speaker is unavailable
• Communication plan — where the production team talks behind the scenes (private Zoom chat, a separate channel, etc.)
• Keep it simple & readable. Your team will need to be able to scan it in seconds during a live event.

Practice Session Logistics

• Schedule your rehearsal with enough lead time to fix anything that surfaces. Give yourself at least a day or two.
• Have every speaker join from their actual event-day setup — same device, same location, same network.
• Don't just rehearse content. Rehearse the production — the behind-the-scenes coordination that makes content delivery smooth.

The Rehearsal Trap

Don't spend the entire practice session perfecting slides while ignoring the production flow. Your audience will forgive an imperfect slide faster than they'll forgive a 90-second awkward silence while someone figures out how to share their screen.

Contingency Planning

Live events are live. Things will go wrong. The question isn't whether — it's when, and whether your team has a plan.

Scenarios to Plan For

• Speaker drops off — Who fills the gap? Do you move to the next agenda item or hold?
• Audio/video failure — Can the speaker dial in via their phone? Do they have the number to dial & their access codes at the ready? Do you have a "technical difficulties" graphic ready?
• Wrong content shared — Who has the authority to take over screen sharing, or who's prepared to speak up and tell the active sharer?

You don't need a 50-page disaster recovery plan. You need a shared understanding of the most likely problems, a designated decision-maker for each, a communication channel for real-time coordination, and a "buy time" asset — a branded "bailout" graphic, some hold music, or pre-written chat message that gives your team a minute to regroup.

T-Minus: Your Pre-Show Countdown

Every event is different, so adjust these windows to fit your format and complexity. This is a starting framework, not a rigid schedule.

T-60 minutes — Host opens, co-hosts and interpreters join and verify configuration

• Host opens the backstage/practice session or meeting room with waiting room on.
• Verify all settings: recording, closed captions, waiting room, breakout rooms, interpretation, etc.
• Co-hosts and interpreters check in - permissions & access verified, interpreters audio/video tested
• Confirm engagement tools are configured correctly: chat and Q&A visibility set as intended, polls loaded and ready. In webinar, do you want attendees to be able to raise hands?

T-30 minutes — Speakers assemble

• All panelists and co-hosts join.
• Run a quick audio/video check for every speaker and pre-recorded video.
• Walk through at least the first two transitions to shake off any rust.
• Test slide control.
• Confirm preferred communication channel is active and everyone is in it & monitoring.
• Review the plan for engagement tools (chat/Q&A/polls)
• Review the run-of-show one final time as a team.

T-10 minutes — Final confirmation

• All speakers in position with cameras and mics ready.
• Screen share queued to the correct starting point.
• First poll ready to launch.
• Recording started (if not set to auto-record at launch).
• Host confirms: "We're going live in 10."
• Have a "pre-show" state running - could be a hold slide or looping slide deck with some music, a sizzle video, a countdown video, or something else. Show a visual and have some audio running that conveys to attendees they are in the right place and their tech is working, the program will start soon. Avoid saying "in 2 minutes" - either give a specific time or countdown (and stick to it), or be vague enough to give yourself flexibility: "starting soon!"

T-0 — Go live

• Open the session to attendees (or start the broadcast).
• Confirm the recording started automatically or launch it manually.
• Don't make the audience sit too long on a hold slide. Welcome attendees. Acknowledge the audience. Set the tone. Make short housekeeping remarks about the engagement tools.

T+2 — Program start

• Attendees are often a couple of minutes late to join as they pivot from back-to-back calls, find their join links in their calendar or reminder emails, load the app, etc. Of course, it's a valid approach to start program immediately on schedule, but the exact scheduled start time is rarely when attendance peaks or plateaus.
• Welcome everyone and dive in to the agenda.

During the Live Event

This is showtime. Your preparation is done — now it's about execution, coordination, and keeping the energy up for your audience.

Host and Panelist Coordination

The host (and co-hosts) are the production crew. During the live session:

• Spotlighting — Control which speakers are visible to attendees. Spotlight the active speaker (or up to 9 speakers for panels) and add/remove or replace spotlights during transitions. Pinning only affects the view for the user who pins a tile — Spotlighting affects everyone's view.
• Muting & prompting to unmute — In single speaker situations, consider muting panelists who aren't speaking to eliminate the risk of background noise. In multi-speaker situations, it's usually best to remind the panelists that they control their own mute/unmute, and anything they transmit into an open mic will be heard by the audience. Coordinate unmuting before handoffs so there's no dead air.
• Screen-share handoffs — Coordinate screen share takeovers (one user can share at a time, replacing the active screen share as needed is typically the cleanest configuration for events) and ensure transitions are clean, not clunky.
• Slide control — Continuously monitor and update slide control (if applicable). The sharer should know at any given time who has slide control and who needs it next. Be prepared to go to audible cues or follow a script/talk track if slide control is not working for any reason. If a user has slide control and drops out of the webinar (either fully off or to backstage) and returns, they need to be manually reassigned slide control.
• Speaker queue — Follow your run-of-show. If a segment runs long, the host or a designated timekeeper should signal the speaker privately (via chat or a pre-agreed cue) to wrap up.

Managing Real-Time Engagement

Your moderators should be active from the moment attendees start joining:

• Chat — Welcome attendees as they arrive. Share a quick orientation ("We'll get started in a few minutes — drop your name and where you're joining from in the chat!"). Post relevant links and resources at the moments they're referenced by speakers.
• Q&A — Monitor incoming questions throughout. Group similar questions. Flag the best ones for the speaker to address during designated Q&A segments. If you prepared seed questions, deploy them early to get momentum going.
• Polls — Launch at the planned moments. Give attendees enough time to respond (30–45 seconds minimum). Share results live if it adds to the conversation.
• Disruptive behavior — If someone is spamming chat or posting inappropriate content, remove or mute them promptly. Attendees in a webinar have fewer opportunities to be disruptive as they are not able to be on camera or activate their microphone without the host or co-hosts manually granting permission. The host and co-hosts can delete inappropriate chat messages (provided the corresponding setting is enabled in the host account's web portal settings), and remove them from the event. Report abusive behavior to Zoom's Trust & Safety team.

Behind the Scenes Communication

Your audience sees the polished front. Behind the scenes, your team needs a reliable way to coordinate:

• In-session Zoom Chat — Use the host/panelist chat (not visible to attendees) for quick cues: "Launch poll 2 now," "Spotlight Sarah," "We're running 3 minutes long."
• External channel — For larger productions, some teams use a separate communication tool alongside for coordination. Zoom Team Chat can be a convenient option, but so is whatever app your company typically uses for internal chatter. This keeps production chatter out of the Zoom in-session chat and reduces the risk of sending a "behind-the-scenes" message to everyone by accident.
• Backstage (Webinar Plus & Zoom Events) — communicate verbally or over chat in Backstage while monitoring the attendee view. Just make sure that speakers get moved into the webinar when it's time to go "on stage" and practice the movement timing.
• Pre-agreed signals — Simple cues go a long way. For example, make it known that the MC will turn on their camera when there's roughly 1 minute left in the segment. If you go over by 30 seconds or more, we're adding the MC to the spotlight to imminently move you along. Maybe we start playing Oscars-type music and increase the volume steadily to give you the hook. Agree on these during rehearsal.

The Attendee Experience

Your audience's experience starts before the first speaker says a word:

• Welcome slide or countdown — Don't let attendees join to a blank screen or an awkward "we'll start in a few minutes" from a hot mic. Put up a branded holding slide or countdown timer. Play music if your format supports it.
• Opening moment — Start strong. Welcome the audience and set expectations for the session: what they'll learn, how long it will run, and how to engage (chat, Q&A, polls).
• Pacing — Vary the format. A 60-minute session of uninterrupted slides will lose people. Break it up with polls, Q&A pauses, speaker transitions, or short video clips. Bring in an MC periodically to synthesize. Aim to create an interaction point every 10–15 minutes.
• Closing — End intentionally. Summarize key takeaways, point attendees to next steps or resources, and thank them for their time. If a post-event survey is set to auto-launch, let them know it's coming.

Common Pitfalls

• No practice session. One of the most common causes of event-day issues. Even a 30-minute run-through is better than none.
• Rehearsing content but not production. Knowing what to say matters less than knowing how to say it smoothly on the platform.
• No contingency discussion. The first time you think about "what if" shouldn't be when it's happening live.
• Ignoring the attendee experience. A blank screen at join time, no welcome message, and no interaction will likely cost you engagement — and repeat attendance.

Quick Checklist

✅ Content finalized and locked (slides, videos, demos, resources)

✅ Pre-recorded segments labeled & tested

✅ Branding & layouts verified in the live environment

✅ Engagement tools confirmed, tested, and assigned to team members

✅ Practice session completed with all speakers on their event-day setups

✅ Run-of-show document created and shared with the full team

✅ Contingency scenarios discussed and decision-makers assigned

✅ T-minus countdown completed (settings, team, final checks)

✅ Backstage communication channel active and tested

✅ Welcome slide or countdown timer ready for attendees

💡 Quick win: Schedule your practice session with enough lead time to fix anything that surfaces. A rehearsal the day before is good — a rehearsal two days before is better, because it gives you time to act on what you learn.

The Bottom Line

The difference between a good event and a great one often comes down to what happens behind the scenes. Teams that rehearse, plan for contingencies, coordinate backstage, and actively manage the attendee experience tend to deliver smoother live events — and that's exactly what your audience should feel.

More to come on post-event follow-up, analytics, content repurposing, and professional production tools.

👉 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.