Ready to host your first webinar? A seasoned pro? Somewhere in the middle? Wistia’s webinar functionality lets you create, host, and share a webinar recording. With webinar registration enabled and Wistia’s analytics, you can collect registrant and attendee data from your event.
Tip
Check out our Webinar Hosting and Troubleshooting Guide for a full walkthrough on how you can prepare for your webinar and address any issues that may arise.
Create a webinar
To create a webinar in your Wistia account, navigate to your Webinars page from the left-hand side panel and click "Create."
Note
Account Owners, Managers, and Standard Users can create webinars. See Webinar Participant Types for more information.
Tip
You can also create an event from anywhere in your account by clicking "New" from the lefthand navigation. In this dropdown menu, hover over “Host webinar" and then select between a webinar or webinar series. Looking to create a webinar series? Check out this article to learn more.
A four-step webinar setup modal will launch over the new event page to walk you through scheduling and customizing your event.
Click "Save & continue" to move on to the next step. You can always change your selections on the event overview page later if needed.
Want to stream a recording instead of presenting live? Schedule a pre-recorded webinar and choose the media you want to play. Your registration page and links stay the same. Keep the selected media in your account: if it's deleted or moved, the webinar can't play it. See Pre-recorded Webinars for more.
You can also set up external streaming for your webinar. Check out this page for all the details.
Overview page
After you've gone through the setup steps, you’ll be redirected to the Overview page, where you can edit the high-level information for your event and add it to your calendar.
The Overview page includes various webinar details and settings:
Date, time, time zone, and approximate duration
Previews of your registration page, event room, and webinar emails
Description (you can also generate a description via AI)
An event image that will represent your event from start to finish. The event image will be the default image for the registration page, emails, and the screen before the event starts and concludes
Links to the Customize, Audience, Analytics, and Simulcast pages
The option to enable or disable registration and select a registration form
A setting to allow your audience to watch your webinar on-demand recording
The media destination folder for the webinar recording
Information about the date your webinar was created, who created it, and the scheduled date and time
For a full breakdown of the Overview page, head on over to this article.
Duplicate webinar
If you’ll be hosting a similar webinar in the future, you can open up the ellipsis menu and click “Duplicate webinar” to create a brand new webinar with the same title, description, branding, date, and time.
Embed a webinar
Note
Embeddable webinars are available with the Webinars Plus Add-On.
You can also share a webinar by embedding it on your website. To start, head to the Event Overview page, then click "Embed." In the Embed Webinar modal, you can choose to embed either the entire event or just the player. You can also choose to embed your event responsively or in a fixed size.
Once you've made your selections, click "Copy code" and paste it into your website builder. The embed will display the event thumbnail before the event goes live, the live stream while the event is live, and the on-demand recording once complete, if available.
Check out this page for more on webinar embeds.
Share webinar links
To send out links to your co-hosts, panelists, or the audience, click “Share” and then select “Share webinar links.”
In the event links modal, click “Copy link” next to the link you want. You can also add tracking to your Audience link to see where your traffic is coming from.
When you add tracking to an audience link, you can add a Campaign, Source, Medium, Term, and/or content. Once added, you’ll be able to see this information broken down in the registration analytics for your webinar.
Check out this page to learn more about traffic analytics.
Invite hosts
There is no limit to the number of hosts who can join a webinar, but a total of 9 participants can be onstage at once.
Before joining, hosts will be asked to enter their display name and check that they’ve selected the correct Video, Microphone (input), and Speakers (output). They can turn off their webcam, mute themselves, and test everything out before joining. Once ready, they can click “Join as host.”
Check out this page to learn more about the different roles you can have during a webinar.
Note
Hosts need to be logged in to the Wistia account that owns the webinar. Each host should use their own login. If someone joins with a login that's already being used by a host on stage, the event can fail.
Invite panelists
To share your event with panelists, click "Share," then "Share event links." There is no limit to the number of panelists who can join a webinar.
Note
Keep in mind that a maximum of nine hosts and panelists total can be brought on stage at once, so we recommend limiting your panelists to around 20. A 10th slot is saved for screen shares, chat messages, questions, or polls to be brought on stage.
Share the panelist link. Before joining, panelists will be asked to enter their display name and confirm they’ve selected the correct Video, Microphone (input), and Speakers (output). They can turn off their webcam, mute themselves, and test everything out before joining. Once ready, they can click “Join as Panelist.”
Invite audience members
To share your event with your audience, click "Share," then "Share event links." The event link takes an attendee directly to the event page or prompts them to register first.
Tip
Audience members can enter the event room up to 30 minutes before the scheduled start time.
Note
By default, audience members experience the webinar in real-time. However, if an audience member joins from a mobile device, they will be automatically moved to HLS streaming. As a result, they'll experience a 15-second delay for the remainder of the webinar. If an audience member has a poor network connection or joins from an unsupported browser, they'll be prompted to reload the event which will move them to HLS streaming.
We’ll let these viewers know they're watching a delayed stream with in-app messaging. This ensures everyone can participate regardless of their network conditions.
Join the event room
To enter the Event Room as a host or panelist, or to preview the Event Room as an audience member, click on the options listed under “Join event room”.
Check out this page to learn about the different roles you can have during a webinar.
Attendee and duration limits
Each plan includes a set number of attendees and event minutes, but exceeding either limit will not interrupt your webinar. We calculate any overages after the event and charge them monthly, and you'll see them in your post-event analytics.
Webinars have a maximum live duration of 4.5 hours. When that limit is reached, the event ends automatically and the recording stops. Event room sessions are also capped at 12 hours, starting from when someone first enters the event room (even before you go live). Close any event room tabs you aren't using ahead of your event.
Wistia supports up to 2,500 attendees with full interactivity, including chat, Q&A, and polls. If you're expecting more than that, contact our team before scheduling. Streaming and interactive features can't be guaranteed at that scale.
To confirm your plan's attendee and duration limits, click the help icon next to "Usage" in the Webinar info sidebar.
Delete a webinar
If you’d like to delete your webinar, open up the ellipsis menu next to the Embed option, then click “Delete webinar” and confirm your decision.
Alert
Deleted webinars cannot be recovered.
Troubleshooting webinars
My embedded webinar disappeared or isn't gated
Check that the full webinar embed code (the script and the webinar element) is still on your page. Copy it again from Embed on the Overview page if needed. Make sure you're embedding the webinar itself, not a media or recording link.
My event opened up to everyone
Registration may have been turned off. Turn it back on from Customize → Registration Page.
I can't see poll controls
Join the event room with the Join as host option. Panelists can see drafted polls but can't launch them.
The scheduled time shifted or won't save
Contact our Support team instead of recreating the event.
Additional resources
Want to learn more about webinars? Curious about tips and tricks? Check out Wistia’s Webinar Guidebook and our Marketing Webinar Checklist to learn everything there is to know before you go live!
For webinar API options, see our developer documentation.