IT and Library Services

Meetings and Conferences

How to organise or join meetings and share content with all attendees.

Schedule your meetings using Outlook or via Microsoft Teams from a web browser, PC or mobile device.

Introducing Meetings

Meetings in Teams include audio and video capabilities, and allow for face to face meetings at any time. You can share your screen, files, meeting notes and chat with meeting participants.

Live event meetings in Teams haven't been fully rolled-out yet but this is being worked on.  Live events in Teams will allow the University up to 15 concurrent broadcast events with audience sizes of up to 10,000 people. Find out more about Teams Live Events.

Find out how to create, join and manage your meetings here.

Breakout Rooms

Breakout Rooms are rolling out at the university, they may appear on some accounts and devices before others. Please note Breakout Rooms features are changing frequently as Microsoft add new functionality.

The guidance on how to manage breakout rooms during meetings is available for staff and students can learn how to join a breakout room. Breakout Rooms include random or manual assignment of students, moving students from one room to another, presenters joining or sending announcements to each breakout group, and bringing students back all at once to the main class when they are ready.

There is no requirement or expectation for staff to use Breakout Rooms for teaching or other purposes. If you choose to use Breakout Rooms, consider the following when you are planning your sessions:

  • Breakout Rooms must be created in the Teams for Education Desktop App. Attendees can now join via the desktop or mobile app.
  • Breakout Rooms must be created by the meeting organiser.
  • The meeting must be scheduled using the Moodle, Teams or Outlook calendar.
  • Breakout Rooms can be created and named at any time prior to the meeting start time. If the organiser leaves and returns, the rooms are still there.
  • Assignment of external participants to a room may not be possible, students should join using their @gre.ac.uk account and the main room should be left open as a fall-back for attendees.
  • Participants can be automatically assigned to Breakout Rooms, or assigned manually. Consider the number of attendees when deciding to manually assign rooms.
  • Be clear with yourself and your participants why you are getting them to break out, provide clear instructions and set time limits and expectations around outputs/reporting back to the main group.

Further training is available on Breakout Rooms from Microsoft, including:

Scheduling a Meeting in Outlook

You can schedule your Microsoft Teams meetings in Outlook, via the desktop app or the browser version. Attendees can also view, accept, and/or join meetings via Outlook. This is particularly useful if you are only inviting certain people to the meeting rather than a whole Channel.

Outlook (PC)

Step-by-step
  • Open the Outlook app and switch to calendar view.
  • Click New Teams Meeting at the top of the view
  • Add the details of your meeting and click Send
  • The calendar event will now contain a Join Teams meeting link that you and all participants can click to join the meeting

Outlook (MacOS)

Step-by-Step
  • Open the Outlook app and switch to calendar view
  • Click "Meeting" from the top bar
  • Add the details of your meeting
  • Click "Teams meeting" from the top bar
  • Click Send
  • The calendar event will now contain a Join Teams meeting link that you and all participants can click to join the meeting

Outlook on a Web Browser

  • Open the Outlook Calendar within Office 365
  • Click "New event" to create a new meeting
  • To the right of the "Search for a room or location" box is "Add online meeting". Click this and select "Teams meeting"
  • Add the details of your meeting
  • Click Send
  • The calendar event will now contain a Join Teams meeting link that you and all participants can click to join the meeting

How to schedule your meeting within Teams

You will need to schedule the meeting within Teams if you want the meeting to be in a Channel.

  • Select the Calendar icon from the navigation bar
  • Click "New meeting"
  • Add the details of your meeting (date/time, attendees, title)
  • If you want the meeting to be in a Channel, type your Team name in the "Add channel" box, then click the Channel.
  • Click "Send"
  • The meeting will now show in your calendar in Teams and Outlook, and a meeting invite will be sent to attendees with a Join Teams meeting link.

How to create a Teams meeting in Outlook on a Windows device

The "Meet Now" feature

  • For impromptu ad-hoc meetings, use the " Meet Now" feature of Teams:
  • Navigate to the relevant Channel that you want the meeting to be in
  • At the bottom of the Teams window, click the video camera icon ("Meet Now") to start a new meeting. A box will open.
  • At the top of the box, click in the "Want to add a subject?" text and write your meeting title.
  • Click "meet now" to begin your meeting

Teams Meeting Rooms

Teams Rooms bridge the gap between people working remotely and those in the office with meetings where everyone can be seen, heard, and fully participate from anywhere.

The Microsoft Teams Meeting Rooms are available to book via the university Room Booking system. You must book the room you wish to use via the university room booking system first. Please only arrange the meeting including the Microsoft Teams Room via Microsoft Outlook once you have confirmation from timetabling.

Once your booking is confirmed, arrange the meeting and include the Microsoft Teams Room in your Outlook Calendar. You can use the Scheduling Assistant and Room Finder for meetings in Outlook.

Joining a Meeting

Calendar in Outlook

The person who set up the Teams meeting can invite you via a meeting invite in Outlook.

  • This invite will include a link to allow you to join the meeting online (as show in the image across).
  • When your meeting is due to begin click this link.

Alternatively, you can join via Teams after being sent a meeting invite in Outlook.

  • Just before the meeting starts you will receive a notification in Teams asking you to join the meeting that you can click to join.
  • You may be prompted to sign into Teams if you are not already, use your University log-in details to do so.

How to join a Microsoft Teams meeting

Calendar in Teams

All meetings to which you are invited will appear in your Calendar in Teams.

  • Access your calendar using the Calendar icon on the navigation bar just before your meeting is due to begin
  • Click the meeting
  • Click the "Join" button in the top right of the Teams window to join the meeting

Teams Channel

If a meeting has been set up in a Teams Channel that you are a member of, you can join the meeting from that Channel.

  • Navigate to the post in which the meeting was created and click the "Join" button.

Chat space

You can also join meetings from your chat space if the meeting has begun.

  • Click, the meeting in your recent Chat list
  • Click the "Join" button in the top right of the Teams window to join

Screen sharing during a Meeting

Share your screen

During your meeting:

  • Click the "Share" icon (an icon with a rectangle and an arrow) located on the bar underneath your profile picture
  • Next, you may be prompted to select "Screenshare"
  • Then, select if you want to share your whole screen, a specific web browser tab, or choose which screen to share if you use multiple screens
  • To stop sharing your screen click the "Stop Sharing" button

Share PowerPoint

During your meeting:

  • Click the "Share" icon (an icon with a rectangle and an arrow) located on the bar underneath your profile picture
  • Next, click "Browse" located to the right of "PowerPoint"
  • Select your PowerPoint file either through Teams (if you have already uploaded it to Teams) or from your computer to share it
  • To stop sharing your PowerPoint click "Stop Presenting"

Share a Microsoft Whiteboard

During your meeting:

  • Click the "Share" icon (an icon with a rectangle and an arrow) located on the bar underneath your profile picture
  • Next, click the blue button underneath the Whiteboard heading to share it.