Webinar: Practice before going live

Use practice mode to rehearse your scheduled webinar privately with your team, then watch it from the audience seat before you go live.

Who: Account members with host or producer access
Plan: Webinar and Business
Device: Computer browser

Step by step

Schedule a webinar with pre-registration or a direct session link.
On your webinar’s Overview page, click Practice and join the studio.
If you are already in the studio, click Enter practice mode on the card in the People panel, or, hover over the Go live button menu and click Practice webinar.
Check that PRACTICE MODE appears at the top of the studio.
Click Start to begin recording your practice run.
To see your webinar as attendees will, click Audience view in the top right corner of the studio.
The attendee page opens in a new tab.
Use chat, reactions, polls, Q&A, layouts, scenes, branding, and media just as you would in the real webinar.
Backstage chat with your producers works as usual.
To finish a run, click End, then click End practice run.
You stay in the studio in practice mode, so you can debrief with your team, make changes, and click Start to run again.
To leave practice mode, click Exit practice mode on the banner, on the People panel card, or in the Start button menu.
You can also click Leave to exit the studio.
To watch a run, go back to your webinar’s Overview page. Under Practice runs, click Watch next to the run you want.
The recording opens in Projects, where you can watch, edit, and export it like any other recording.

While practice mode is on, registrants who open the webinar link stay on the waiting page. They can’t see or hear anything from your practice. Once you exit practice mode, the regular pre-show lobby and chat work as usual.
Practice runs don’t stream to your live stream destinations. In the Live stream panel, destinations show as Not used.
Polls you create during practice stay ready for your real webinar. Votes and results from practice are cleared, along with practice chat and Q&A.
Other setup changes you make during practice, like layouts and branding, carry over to the real webinar.
Practice runs don’t affect your audience stats, survey responses, or follow-up emails.
There’s no time limit on practice runs and no limit on how many you can do.
Guests and invited producers can’t join a practice. Only account members that can join a studio as a host or internal producer can enter practice mode, start or end a run, and open Audience view.