Meetings

Scheduling an online Skype for Business meeting is very similar to scheduling a regular meeting. You must use the Outlook desktop software and be signed in to Skype for Business when you schedule the meeting.

To create an online meeting or conference call request:

1. Open Microsoft Outlook and select Calendar.
2. Click New Skype Meeting. [view screenshot]
3. An automatically generated footer will appear with a hyperlink to the online meeting and a phone number and conference ID to join by phone. NOTE: Do not modify any of the existing text in the meeting request. Doing so may prevent people from joining the meeting.
4. In the meeting request, in the To box, type the email addresses of the people you want to invite to the meeting, separated by semicolons. By default, Skype for Business will include assume all attendees are presenters. To change this, see Change meeting access and presenter options⁷.
5. In the meeting request, in the Subject box, type a subject for the meeting.
6. By default, the location will appear as Skype for Business Meeting. If you are also holding an in-person meeting at the same time, add the room and reserve it as you normally would.
7. Include instructions for others to join: Those using the Skype for Business Web App for the first time will need to download a small plug-in file to be able to share video and audio. Your attendees can join the meeting ahead of time and install the plug-in file.

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Recurring meetings - what to keep in mind

If you are using the default meeting options, you will reuse the same meeting space. Which means you could see some materials from meetings held in the past 15 days.

It is best practice to put an end date on a recurring meeting that is less than one year away.

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Schedule a meeting on behalf of someone else

At this time, delegates cannot schedule Skype for Business meetings on behalf of someone else without using a workaround.

1. Have the person create a Skype for Business meeting in Outlook and invite you.
2. Copy the meeting join information in the footer.
3. Create future Skype for Business meetings by creating a new meeting request and pasting the meeting join information from the previous meeting into the invitation.
4. Complete and send the meeting request as you normally do. 

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Change meeting access and presenter options

By default, Skype for Business will reuse the same meeting space for all of your meetings and make all invitees presenters. Presenters can display content and take over the presentation. They can also join the meeting directly and will not have to wait in a virtual lobby. For a small and casual meeting with people inside your company, use the meeting default options and skip changing the settings.

For larger audiences (more than 10-15 people), meetings when you’re presenting confidential information, or external customers, you will want to change the settings in Meeting Options to create a new meeting space and control permissions. This creates a more private meeting space and lets you control participation.

How to change meeting access and presenter options

1. In the Skype for Business online meeting request, in the Online Meeting group, click Meeting Options. [view screenshot]
2. To change the meeting options, select A new meeting space (I control permissions). [view screenshot]
3. Accept or change the default options as required. Then, select OK or Remember Settings if you’d like to save as your default settings.

Virtual Lobby

By default, anyone joining as an attendee will automatically wait in a virtual lobby until admitted to the meeting by a presenter. Presenters and attendees who call in by phone will bypass the virtual lobby and join the meeting. You can specify people who don’t have to wait in the virtual lobby by using the drop-down menu.

WHO GETS IN DIRECTLY?	WHAT HAPPENS	RECOMMENDED WHEN…
Only me, the meeting organizer	You are the only one who gets into the meeting directly. Everyone else has to wait until admitted.	You have a high security meeting and confidential information.
People I invite from my company	Only people who were invited join the meeting directly. Everyone else has to wait until admitted.	You’re discussing confidential information, and want to only allow specific people to join.
Anyone from my organization	Anyone from your company can get in to the meeting directly, even if not invited.	You don’t have external participants and you are not discussing confidential information.
Anyone (no restrictions)	Anyone who has access to the meeting link gets in to the meeting directly.	You’re inviting outside participants and you’re not discussing confidential information.

Announce when people enter or leave

This option makes it so that everyone can hear the names of people joining or exiting. We highly recommend to leave this option unchecked. In medium to large meetings, it can be incredibly distracting to get the automatic entry and exit announcement.

Who’s a presenter?

Here you can choose who gets to be a presenter in your meeting. Remember that all presenters have full control over the meeting, and can share content, record the meeting (except when using Skype for Business Basic, which doesn’t support recording), change the meeting options, mute people, and other meeting tasks.

1. Using the drop-down menu under Who’s a presenter, select People I choose.
2. Click the Choose presenters button.
3. You will see a list of everyone on the invite under attendees. Select those individuals that you would like to be presenters and move them to the Presenters column by clicking on Add.

WHO’S A PRESENTER?	WHAT HAPPENS	RECOMMENDED WHEN...
Only me, the meeting organizer	Only you as the meeting organizer will have presenter permissions.	Use when the participants don’t have to interact with the meeting content. You can designate additional presenters during the meeting if you change your mind.
Anyone from my organization	Anyone from your company will be a presenter.	Suitable for causal meetings with your teammates, where all participants can share and modify content.
Anyone (no restrictions)	Everyone you invite will be a presenter.	Use when you have external participants and want them to present.
People I choose	You and the people you choose.	Pick this option when you want specific people to be presenters.

Options for limiting participation

If you are setting up a large event or want to eliminate interruption, you can mute all attendees, disable meeting IM or prevent them from using their webcam

• Disable IM – You may want to disable Instant Messaging and instead use a Question & Answer session in the meeting, which allows for a more guided dialogue.
• Mute all attendees
• Block attendees’ video

These settings apply only to attendees. Presenters can always share audio and video in the meeting.

Set up or upload presentation content

You can log in well in advance of the meeting and upload or create any content you’d like to share in the meeting. For example, if you know that you’d like to conduct a poll in the meeting. You can join the meeting the morning before the meeting and set up the poll. If you plan to share a program during the meeting, you will want to launch the program before the meeting begins.

To find presentation materials during the meeting

1. Within the meeting, hover over the monitor icon and select Manage Presentation Content. [view screenshot]
2. You will see a list of all presentable content and can start or stop presenting or remove content.

Create a contact group

It can be helpful to create a contact group within Skype for Business with all of the attendees before the meeting. This will allow you to instant message everyone at once if something should come up before the meeting. If someone should accidentally leave the meeting, you can quickly drag and drop them from your contacts list to the meeting window to add them back in.

Note: At this time you can only add contacts from KU or organizations who have chosen Open Federation within Skype for Business. For more information, see Contacts & Groups¹⁰.

Running your meeting in a conference room

If multiple people are in the same conference room, only one computer should log on to the meeting to prevent audio feedback unless multiple presenters will be sharing content. If additional computers must log on, they should choose Don't join audio when initiating the meeting.

In addition, if you have a speaker presenting at a podium, and moderators assisting with the meeting, you will want to make sure that the person who is signed at the podium is unmuted and the audio devices set up.

How to project a Skype for Business meeting

1. If you’re using the room projector, connect the cable to your computer and select the appropriate display. Press the Windows key + P to start the display. [view screenshot]
   • Duplicate - shows your desktop on both your computer monitor and the room projector.
   • Extend - extends your desktop from your computer monitor and the room projector.
   • Projector only - shows your desktop only on the room projector.
2. Set your screen display to 1024 x 768 pixels for the best viewing experience (800 x 600 portrait for tablet PCs).
   • Right-click on your desktop and left click on Screen Resolution.
   • Click the drop-down menu by Resolution.
   • Click and drag the slider to 1024 x 768. [view screenshot]

Select and test an audio device

Before using Skype for Business with your meeting, select your audio device and check the quality. You can use your computer’s mic and speakers or plug in a headset.

1. Connect to the conference speaker and/or microphone devices.
2. Launch Skype for Business.
3. Click Select Primary Device using the drop-down menu in the lower-left corner of the Skype for Business interface, then click Audio Device Settings. [view screenshot]
4. Pick your device from the Audio Device menu, and adjust the speaker and microphone volume, as needed.
5. Select Check Call Quality to record a message and hear it played back. [view screenshot]
6. Once you are satisfied with the audio quality, click OK.

With Skype for Business, starting a meeting is the same as joining the meeting.

Start or join a meeting

Because you are from KU and have Skype for Business software on your PC, the meeting will launch in your desktop software after you do one of the following:

• Click on Join Skype for Business Meeting in the Outlook meeting request.
• From the Microsoft reminder pop up, click Join Now.
• From the Skype for Business Calendar view, double-click the Skype for Business meeting. (It will appear in blue.)

Admit attendees from the virtual lobby

By default, attendees joining the meeting through the Skype for Business Web App, who sign in as a guest will wait in a virtual lobby until a presenter admits them. Note: Presenters and attendees who call in will bypass the virtual lobby and directly join the meeting.

1. When attendees are waiting in the virtual lobby, a yellow bar will appear in the meeting window.
2. Click on either Admit to admit all attendees waiting in the lobby or See Lobby to admit individual attendees.

Recording

When you record a Skype for Business Meeting, you capture audio, video, instant messaging (IM), screen sharing, PowerPoint slides, whiteboard, and polling. Any of the presenters can record a meeting and save it on their computers.

How to record your meeting

1. Click the ellipses icon in the lower right corner of the meeting, then Start Recording. [view screenshot]
2. Use the controls at the bottom of the meeting to pause, resume, or stop the recording.
3. To see who else is recording, hover over the red recording button.
4. When you’re done, click the ellipses icon and choose Stop Recording or select the stop button. [view screenshot]
5. Skype for Business automatically saves the recording in MP4 format that plays in Windows Media Player.
6. You can exit the meeting while the recording is being processed.

Participant controls

On the people menu, you see a list of the participants and can access a contact card with a right-click on the names. If you’re a presenter, you’ll have access to other controls, such as muting the audience or inviting more people.

How to view and change participant rights

1. Pause on the people icon to manage participants individually or as a group.
   1. To add additional participants, click Invite More People, and find or select the people you want to invite. Note: This only works for KU contacts or members of organizations that have chosen Open Federation. See How to invite others to the meeting on the fly.¹³
   2. To mute, unmute, make presenter/attendee, or remove from the meeting, on the Participants tab, right-click a person’s name and use the options.
2. To control the rights for multiple attendees at once, click the Attendees icon and then the Actions tab. [view screenshot]
3. Select an option. [view screenshot]

How to invite others to the meeting on the fly

The best way to invite others to a meeting on the fly is to send them the meeting join information. You can do this by:

• Forwarding the original meeting request to the individual. Or,
• Within the Skype for Business meeting, select the ellipses icon > Meeting Entry Info > Copy All Info [view screenshot]
• You can now paste that information into an email or instant message and send it to a new participant.

• If you just want to exit the meeting and let others stay connected, simply close the meeting window.
• To remove everyone from the meeting, click the ellipses icon and then click End Meeting. Click OK on the prompt to continue. This closes the window and disconnects everyone from the meeting, including those participants who called in. [view screenshot]

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After the meeting

Play and share a recording

Once your meeting is over, any recordings will need to process on your machine. This can take several minutes depending on the length of your video. When your recording has been processed, you can access it to play or send to others. Skype for Business displays a message when the recording is ready. You can click the alert to open Recording Manager, or if you miss that, click on the black drop-down button on the Skype for Business main window, then choose Tools > Recording Manager. [view screenshot]

To play your recording:

1. In the Recording Manager window, click your recording to highlight it, then click Play on the right side of the window. You can also rename or delete your recording here.

To share your recording using KU's Media Hub:

You will need to first upload the recording to a media hosting service, such as KU’s Media Hub. From there, you will get a URL to share with others or embed on a Web page.

1. Log in to your media hosting service. To use KU’s Media Hub, go to mediahub.ku.edu¹⁷ and log in with your KU Online ID and password.
2. Click on Media Upload in the left navigation.
3. Click on + Choose a file to upload.
4. Locate the recording by going to your Videos Folder.
5. On a PC, go to Libraries, Videos, and then Skype for Business Recordings.
6. Select the recording and click on Open.
7. The recording will first upload. When it has finished, you will see a message saying, “Finished uploading!” Click on Go to media page.
8. Depending on the size of your video file, it may take a few seconds to several minutes to process. Once it has finished, you will see a preview of the video. Click on Share to locate the URL or the code to embed it on a Web page.

For advanced Skype for Business users, there is a work around allowing you to start an impromptu meeting and invite others. This can be a great way to practice using the features within a meeting.

To start an unscheduled or impromptu meeting by instant message

1. Select one or more contacts.
2. Right-click and select Send an IM. (You can also right-click on a group’s name in your contact list.)
3. Add voice, video, or collaboration features using the icons at the bottom of the instant message window.

To start an unscheduled meeting by using the Meet Now command

1. Open Skye for Business, and in the Skype for Business main window, click the Show Menu black arrow to the right of the Options button, and then click Meet Now. [view screenshot]
2. In the conversation window, click the Skype for Business People Options button , and then do one of the following:
   1. To invite people from your Contacts list, click Invite by Name or Phone Number, type a phone number or select one or more contacts, and then click OK.
   2. To invite people by sending an email, click Invite by Email, and then fill out the meeting request.