How do I setup public chat in WebEx Events

[RemyJ]

Hi I think the title says it all, 

I don't seem to be able to setup a chat where in WebEx Events where "all Attendees", "all Panelists" and the "Host" can communicate. 

In my experience with WebEx Events this used to be possible, but now the "all Participants" field seemed to have grayed out or not-visble for attendees. Am I missing something? 

Thanks 

[Clare Davis, Webex SME]

Hello!  

When you're in an event as the host, go to the top left menu bar and select Participant > Assign Privileges to > Attendees. On the right side under "Communication" check the box "All Attendees" 

[voyou]

Yes, "All Attendees" appears, but that only sends the messages to only attendees and not panelists, host, presenter, etc. (anyone with advanced privileges). I cannot think of a use case where that would be needed or reasonable to have messages only be seen by attendees and not the panelist, presenter or host. This leads to attendees thinking their messages are not seen by the presenters because they are not seen by the presenters. We need the option for attendees to chat to all participants (attendees, panelists, host, presenter, etc.). The host has the option to send to "Everyone" which is what we would need to have an option to allow attendees to send a chat to everyone (or "all participants"). There are definitely times where chat is useful for everyone to see and not just Q&A. 

Additionally, there needs to be a way to set who Q&A questions are able to be sent to. 

[jeriande@cisco.com]

In Event Center (while in a meeting) you can do the following:

Click participant (up on the top toolbar)

Assign privileges to

Attendees

Communications

All attendees

Click assign

This should allow the "All Participants" option to appear.

[voyou]

"All Participants" does not appear. "All Attendees" appears, but that only sends the messages to only attendees and not panelists, host, presenter, etc. (anyone with advanced privileges). I cannot think of a use case where that would be needed or reasonable to have messages only be seen by attendees and not the panelist, presenter or host. This leads to attendees thinking their messages are not seen by the presenters because they are not seen by the presenters. We need the option for attendees to chat to all participants (attendees, panelists, host, presenter, etc.). The host has the option to send to "Everyone" which is what we would need to have an option to allow attendees to send a chat to everyone. There are definitely times where chat is useful for everyone to see and not just Q&A. 

Additionally, there needs to be a way to set who Q&A questions are able to be sent to. 

[RemyJ]

The steps that Clare send are almost correct.

When you're in an event as the host, go to the top left menu bar and select Participant > Assign Privileges to > Attendees. On the right side under "Communication" check the all the boxes. You also want to the same for the panelists. Participant > Assign Privileges to > Panelists On the right side under "Communication" check the all the boxes.
On top of that I explain at the beginning of my sessions that they have select the "to Everyone" option in the chat before sending a message.

[voyou]

I see now that if you enable "all attendee/panelist communication" then you do get the ability for attendees to send to "Everyone" (why would it be buried inside that?). However, "everyone" is buried at the bottom of the "send to" list and is not the default. Additionally, you have to have all of the other options for attendees to message privately enabled which isn't ideal. What would be preferred is if you could have a checkbox for "Everyone" so that only that would be enabled allowing attendees to only message everyone and not other attendees privately (possibly enable it so attendees could message panelists as well). 

[RemyJ]

Yes I totally agree with you and I am in exactly the same situation. I created a little introduction slide before my sessions start session.
This avoids a lot of frustration for all the parties involved including me as host.

Please type your reply above this line -##

[voyou]

I agree... no idea why it would be designed so there is no option for chat to reach every single person on the session. I found this article while researching the issue. Apparently Webex says it is operating "as designed"... WHY!?!?! There are lots of scenarios where the attendee might be chatting in with a question or issue and if they are sending it to all attendees those that would be able to answer the question would not see it. https://wsuccess.typepad.com/webinarblog/2020/05/webex-events-and-the-case-of-the-mystery-chat.html

It certainly looks like it either used to be an option or people expect it to be an option, see this SEC webcast they were expecting to be able to use "all participants" option: https://www.sec.gov/oasb/2020ForumTechFAQs I wonder if they have an option we don't or did it fail completely on them in June when it didn't work like they expected...