Enhancing Engagement with Simulive in Zoom Events

[iambobsat]

In the ever-evolving world of virtual events, creating a seamless and engaging experience for attendees is key. One feature that’s helping event organizers strike the perfect balance between preparation and live interaction 

is Simulive in Zoom Events. This tool has become a game-changer for many professionals, including myself, who aim to deliver polished presentations while staying accessible to their audience.

Recently, I had the opportunity to host a Zoom Event where I leveraged the Simulive feature. For the main session content, I pre-recorded my presentation, allowing me to deliver my message with precision and consistency. During the event itself, I stayed behind the scenes in the Backstage area, monitoring the session and responding to attendees’ questions in real time. This approach not only helped me engage with my audience more effectively but also reduced the pressure of speaking live.

What makes Simulive so unique is the ability to transition seamlessly from a pre-recorded session to live interaction. Once the pre-recorded content ended, I stepped into the spotlight for a live Q&A session. This combination of polished delivery and real-time interaction added a personal touch that attendees 

truly appreciated. Simulive also provides flexibility for event hosts. While you must be present during the session's transition from pre-recorded to live, you’re not required to stay for the entire duration of the playback. This means you can multitask or handle other event logistics, knowing you’ll step in when it’s time to engage directly with attendees.

Whether you're managing a large-scale virtual conference or running a focused educational webinar, Simulive offers a perfect blend of structure and spontaneity. By preparing your content in advance and staying available for live interaction, you can create an event experience that’s both professional and highly engaging.

Have you tried Simulive yet? If not, I highly recommend exploring it for your next Zoom Event. It’s a tool that truly empowers you to deliver the best of both worlds.

Things to consider: 

Limitations of Zoom Events simulive webinars

• During the simulive phase, hosts and panelists cannot speak or appear on live video in front of webinar attendees and can only use the chat and Q&A features. However, once the simulive playback ends and the webinar transitions to live (if the option was enabled), all previously restricted features—such as video, audio, and full interaction—are enabled.
• Only the speaker view is selected in recordings, even if you recorded with multiple views.
• Hosts can’t add multiple cloud recordings to a single simulive webinar.
• Since simulive webinars start automatically, they do not support practice sessions. If backstage is used, access to backstage will begin at the scheduled time.

  

[Ray_Harwood]

@iambobsat, good info. It's interesting -- in some testing I've done, I hadn't realize that the setting of:

... which is visible when Live is selected:

... is now replaced with:

... when Simulive is checked, whether or not the "Transfer to Live" is checked:

The question I have (and will test in the next few days) is, What happens when the "Once the simulive webinar starts, hosts and panelists can access Backstage" box is not checked?  Especially when the Transfer to Live is enabled!?

[iambobsat]

Hello Ray, 

I hope you are well. It's been a while. 

While Backstage allows hosts and panelists to prepare privately, coordinate, and communicate off-screen for smoother transitions, without Backstage enabled, panelists and hosts transition directly to the live session with no private preparation area. This can make the transition feel abrupt, as there’s no private space to inform or prepare panelists before going live. Once the transfer happens, hosts and panelists are immediately visible to attendees and live in the main webinar environment.

[DeniseLahat]

from what I saw they need to unmute and turn on their videos.  I did not yet test what view is seen by participants by default once you transition to live.  I assume speaker view?

[DeniseLahat]

Nice article, thanks @iambobsat !  So it makes sense that practice session is not available during simulive as the sessions starts automatically with the recordings.  Once the simulive session starts hosts/panelists can join in the webinar but their video/audio are disabled until the recording has finished playing out and "transition to live" is enabled.  This is actually not new functionality, this is how simulive has worked up to now.