Running the Session
Five steps, three of which happen by themselves.
The console's own guide has five steps. You perform the first; the next three happen on their own, with a button each in case they need help; and the last produces the follow-up.
Before You Begin
- Go Live must already have been pressed, so the meeting exists. The Setup column on My Webinars should read Meet Ready.
- Registrants should have come through the registration page, so there is something to match participants against.
Steps
Open Google Meet and start the conference
The console has a button for it. This is the only step that needs you — everything else follows from the conference existing.
Let the console notice
It detects the conference by itself and moves into its live view. The webinar's status becomes Live Now at the same time. Nothing to press.
Check the participant matching while you present
Participants are matched to your registered attendees automatically. Anyone unmatched is worth a glance — see the article on matching participants for why that happens.
Finalise attendance when the conference ends
This pulls each person's precise watch time from the meeting. It runs on its own when the conference ends; the button is there if you want to be sure.
Execute processing
This generates the per-attendee follow-up emails, the engagement reports and the activity records. Also automatic, also safe to press.
Result
The webinar is Ended, every attendee has a watch time rather than just a tick, and the follow-up has been produced for each of them.
From here the work moves to the registrant list and the analytics, where partial attendees and no-shows are the two groups worth acting on.
Troubleshooting
It is waiting for the conference to actually start. Opening Google Meet is not the same as the conference beginning — someone has to be in it.
No harm done. It checks what has already been handled and does not duplicate the follow-up.
Both closing steps run on their own when the conference ends. Check the attendance figures look right; if they do, nothing was missed.
