Webinar panelist unable to join using link - only as an attendee | Community
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Explorer
June 3, 2024
Question

Webinar panelist unable to join using link - only as an attendee

  • June 3, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 67 views

I had an event on 30th May which i had two external attendees hosting the session as our experts.  I have checked everything and all appears to be correct.

As they couldn't join and the audience was in excess of 1000, the event was cancelled, can you tell me why they were unable to join as a panellist and were held waiting as an attendee only.

I need to reschedule and can't have the repeat issue! 

Thanks 

2 replies

Ray_Harwood
Community Super Champion | Customer
Community Super Champion | Customer
June 3, 2024

Welcome to the Zoom Community, @1TL.

 

If they used the Panelist Join link sent to them by Zoom, there’s no reason for them not to be able to come directly into the Webinar session. Was a Webinar Host present – the Webinar owner or an Alt Host?  If your intent was for the two external experts to Host the Webinar without a member of your account present as Host – that could be the issue. Panelists are not given Host privileges, unless a Host is present when they join the Panelist session and are granted Co-Host or made the Host. 

1TLAuthor
Explorer
June 3, 2024

I was the host and i was there in the practice session waiting for them to join.  They sent a Teams message to advise they were held waiting for the webinar to start. They confirmed they used the email that i registered them for too as panellists.  

It happened to both of them (external to me) and i have no idea why. 

Why can't we see who is waiting before going live so in events such as this we can search for them and have them join.

I am aware you can when live but with over 1000 joining there just isn't the time, and it's so stressful! 

Ray_Harwood
Community Super Champion | Customer
Community Super Champion | Customer
June 3, 2024

Hi, @1TL.  I’m unsure what caused the issue, but there’s no technical reason why someone with the proper panelist Join link won’t come directly into the practice session started by the Host.

 

I’m assuming when you say “used the email that I registered for them”, you do mean that you used the Panelist invite, and sent the link from the Panelist section or copied the link from there and sent that to them. If that was done, it should have worked. 

I’ve sent you a private message on the Community here. 

Ray

Newcomer
April 28, 2026

Just jumping in 12 months later to say I encountered this same issue today while running a Practice Session for a webinar. I emailed the panelist invite/join link to both of my panelists (using their registered email addresses) and they both ended up in the waiting room after clicking on it.

I resent the panelist invitation emails to them, and they were both able to join as panelists using the link in those emails.

Is there any reason why the copy/pasted link wouldn’t work as expected? Does each panelist receive a unique variant of the panelist invite link via the Invite email?