We’ve all been there: your viewers have tons of good questions, and you’d much prefer they ask them directly rather than having to type in the chat. There is a simple solution! Just invite them to the stage.

Inviting viewers to the stage requires a Premium plan or higher.

Keep in mind that your webinar’s stage can have up to 100 people at any given time; that includes your webinar team and any viewers you invite to the stage.

Tip! You can also configure the webinar to allow viewers to join the stage at any time, of their own accord. Check out our ‘Webinar settings’ article for more information.

What can viewers on stage do?

Abilities for viewers on stage are limited in order to make it safe for you to invite your viewers to the stage. When you invite a viewer to the stage, they will be able to turn on their camera and microphone, and nothing else they couldn’t already do. There is also the option to invite with audio only, meaning they’ll be audible but not visible. You don’t have to worry about the viewer messing up your presentation or ending the webinar!

Start or end webinar	❌
Manage the stage	❌
Can be audible or visible	☑️
Control interactions	❌
Control the presentation	❌
Can share screen (optional)	☑️
Control video injection	❌
(De)activate chat	❌
Can reply to private chat messages	❌
Use team chat	❌
Manage viewers (ban from chat)	❌
Available with RTMP streaming	❌

Please note! If you want to hide the 'No video' icon for participants without video, you can enable the 'Hide people without video' option in the webinar settings.

Inviting a viewer to the stage

How a viewer can come on stage depends on the stage setting you've configured in 'Webinar' > 'Settings'. There are three options:

Invitation only: Viewers can only come on stage if the host invites them.
Raise hand: Viewers can request to come on stage by raising their hand. Their request appears under 'Participation' > 'Stage'.
Open stage: Viewers can join the stage themselves at any time.

Responding to a hand raise

Go to 'Participation' > 'Stage'.
Find the viewer in the 'Requested' tab.
Click the invite button to invite them on stage, with or without camera access. To decline, click the cross icon.
If multiple viewers are waiting, use the button next to 'Requested' to invite or decline them all at once.

What the host sees:

Please note! Your webinar stage can have up to 100 people at any given time; that includes your webinar team and all of the viewers you invite to the stage.

Open stage

When the stage is set to 'Open stage', viewers can join the stage themselves at any time. They will appear in the 'Ready' tab once they have configured their camera and microphone settings.

Once a viewer appears in the 'Ready' tab, follow the steps below to bring them on stage:

After inviting the viewer to the stage

Go to 'Participation' > 'Stage'.
In the 'Ready' tab, you will see a preview of the viewer's camera feed.
Click the stage button next to their name to bring them on stage and make them visible and/or audible.

The viewer is now on stage! Make sure to check out our ‘Managing the stage during a webinar’ article for instructions on how to control the viewer’s camera and microphone.

Tip! It's a good idea to have everyone muted unless they're actively speaking. Having a large group of people on stage can cause an amount of background noise that distracts from your webinar.

Removing a viewer from the stage

The viewer has asked their questions or said what they wanted to and it’s time for them to step down from the stage, but they don’t know how or want to stay on stage. No worries! You can remove them from the stage following these steps:

Go to ‘Attendance’
Find the viewer you want to remove from the stage under ‘Stage’
Click the spotlight icon next to the viewer’s name to remove them from the stage

The viewer is now off stage, which means they are on standby. They can still be put back on stage with one click. Read on to find out how to return a viewer to the audience and free up their spot on stage.

Returning a viewer to the audience

Simply removing a viewer from the stage will put the viewer on standby, meaning they can be brought back on stage with a single click and still take up one of your 100 spots. To return a viewer to the audience, follow the steps below.

Go to ‘Attendance’
Find the viewer you want to return to the audience under ‘Off stage’
Click the ‘Remove from stage’ button

The viewer has now been removed from (off) stage and no longer has the ability to configure their camera or microphone. You’ll have to re-invite them to the stage to allow them to be visible and audible again.

Frequently asked questions

Who can invite viewers to the stage?

In order to invite viewers to the stage, the webinar team member must have the ‘Manage the stage’ ability. That means presenters and co-presenters can invite viewers to the stage, but moderators cannot.

What’s the difference between the webinar team and viewers on stage?

Your webinar team can have far more abilities than a viewer on stage and should be configured before the webinar takes place. Webinar team members can, for example, manage the presentation, start interactions, invite viewers to the stage and more based on their rights when configuring the webinar team. Viewers on stage can be visible and audible, and may share their screen if that option is enabled. They have no other webinar rights.

What’s the difference between stage and off stage?

The stage is the attendees that are currently visible and audible to the audience. Off stage is where people can prepare to be visible and/or audible, or be on ‘standby’ until their next appearance.

What does a viewer have to do once they’ve been invited to the stage?

They have to accept the invitation, or join the stage themselves (when the webinar stage is configured to 'Open stage'). After accepting an invitation or clicking the ‘Join stage’ button, viewers will be prompted to undertake actions to be both visible and audible and have to select their camera and microphone before appearing on stage in the settings menu.

If you invite them with audio only, they only have to configure their microphone. You can read all about the process here.

Can viewers on the stage take control of my webinar?

Viewers that have been invited to the stage can appear on camera and use their microphone to speak in the webinar. If you invite them with audio only, they can only use their microphone. They can’t control your presentation, manage your interactions or anything of the sort. It is possible to give viewers the option to share their screen. Go to Webinar > Settings and toggle the option "Allow viewers to share their screen".

What if a viewer on the stage does something I don’t want them to do?

No worries, you can remove the viewer from the stage at any time. If it’s an emergency, we recommend turning off their camera and microphone as soon as possible from the ‘Attendance’ tab or from the stage controls at the top of the page. After that, you can remove them from the stage entirely and ban them from the webinar if so desired. Easy!