Register for a webinar

A webinar's registration page is at the address its host shared. Registering needs no Magpie account.

Register

1. Open the registration page. The time is shown in the webinar's time zone, with a line in your own time when that differs.
2. Under Registration, enter your Name and Email, and answer the host's questions. A question the host made required has to be answered; if one is left empty, the page will say which.
3. When the page has a box with Email me and the name of the host's Newsletter, tick it only if you want that Newsletter.
4. Select Register.

The next page will say what happened, and Magpie will email you at the address you entered. Emails about the webinar come from the name of the team or person running it, or another name the host chose, followed by "via Magpie". Replying to one will reach one of the webinar's hosts.

Your join link

When you are registered, the page says You are registered and names the address your join link was sent to. The email, You are registered for and the webinar's title, has the time, the Join the webinar button with your join link, and a calendar invitation.

The join link is yours: anyone who has it can join as you. Do not forward the email. Someone else who wants to attend registers with their own email address. If someone else has your link, ask the host to remove you and add you again: you will be emailed a new link, and the old one will stop working.

Before the webinar, the link opens a page with its title and time, which says to keep the link: it is how you join the webinar when it starts. Close to the start, the page says it will open the webinar 30 minutes before it starts, and it does so while it is open.

Add the webinar to your calendar

Open the calendar invitation in the confirmation email. You can also select Add to calendar on the page your join link opens, which will download the same event as a file, with the join link in it. Add to calendar on the page you see after registering will download the event too; its file says where the join link was emailed instead of holding it.

Reminders

Magpie will email you reminders before the start, each with your join link. The host chooses which: the day before, an hour before, and one more at another time. A reminder whose time has passed when you register will not be sent. Reminders go to registered attendees only, not to people waiting for approval or on the waiting list.

Waiting for approval

When the host approves each registration, the page after registering says Your registration was sent, and you will be emailed that it is waiting for approval. If the host approves it, you will be emailed your join link with a calendar invitation. If the host declines it, you will be emailed that your registration was not accepted.

The waiting list

When the webinar is full, its registration page offers Join the waiting list in place of Register. You will be emailed that you are on the waiting list. If a place opens, you will be registered and emailed your join link with a calendar invitation. Places go to people in the order they joined the waiting list.

Registering again

While you are registered, waiting for approval or on the waiting list, registering again with the same email address will send your confirmation email again, and the page will say Already registered. If you are registered, the email will have the same join link. If one was sent to you in the last 10 minutes, nothing more will be sent: look in that inbox for it. If the host declined your registration, the page will also say Already registered, and nothing will be sent.

A new time or a cancellation

If the host moves the webinar while you are registered or waiting for approval, you will be emailed the new time. Registered attendees will also get an updated calendar invitation, and the join link will stay the same. If the host cancels the webinar, you will be emailed their message, and registered attendees will also get a cancellation for their calendar. The registration page will then say the webinar was cancelled.

Join the live webinar

From 30 minutes before the start, your join link opens the webinar's live page. There is nothing to sign in to and no name to type: the page uses the name you registered with. Until the webinar starts, the stage counts down to the start time, then says the host has not started yet; the page will show the webinar by itself when it starts.

The live page has the stage, the controls under it, and the Chat, Q&A and Resources tabs. An open poll is shown above the tabs. On a phone, the stage comes first and the rest is below it. While the webinar is live, the status line says how many are watching. When the host lets attendees see who else is here, select that count to see their names.

Sound and video

If the browser holds back the sound, the page shows Turn on sound: select it to hear the webinar. Some browsers also need Start the video.

When the connection drops, the stage says Reconnecting…, then keeps trying, with Try now. The stage needs a network that lets video calls through: a network that allows only web pages cannot connect to it. Try another network, such as a phone's mobile data.

The chat

In Chat, everyone watching reads what you write. A message can be up to 2,000 characters, and web addresses in it become links that open in a new tab. The chat opens when the webinar starts. It says so when the host has turned it off, when a host has muted you in it, and when the webinar has ended. Messages from the people running the webinar show their role, such as Host, and a host or moderator can pin a message above the chat or delete one.

Questions and votes

In Q&A, write Your question, up to 500 characters, and select Send question. Tick Ask anonymously to hide your name from the other attendees; the hosts, speakers and moderators still see it. When questions need approval, yours says Waiting for a host or moderator to approve it. Other attendees cannot see it yet. until one of them approves it.

Select Vote on the questions you want answered; you can vote for each once. The list shows the questions with the most votes first, with any written answer under a question and Answered live on those answered aloud. You can ask and vote while the webinar is live and the host has Q&A on.

Polls

When the host opens a poll, it appears above the tabs. On a phone, Answer the poll takes you to it. Choose an answer, or several when it says Choose any that apply., and select Send answer. Change answer lets you answer again until the poll closes. The host can show the results on the stage, and they then appear above the tabs too.

Reactions

The emoji buttons under the stage send a reaction, which appears over the stage for everyone watching. They are there while the host has reactions on. Reactions are not in the recording.

Raise your hand and go on the stage

While the host allows it, Raise hand asks to speak, and Lower hand takes the request back. A pre-recorded webinar has no Raise hand. If a host invites you, the top of the stage says so, with Join the stage… and Not now:

• Join the stage… opens Camera and microphone, where you choose your camera and microphone; the browser asks for them then. Join the stage puts you on the stage, where everyone watching sees and hears you, and the recording too while the webinar records.
• Not now lowers your hand.

On the stage, Microphone, Camera and Share screen are under it, and Leave the stage takes you off. A host can also take you off.

Breakout rooms

When the host opens breakout rooms, you may be put in one: the stage counts down 10 seconds with the room's name, and you join it. A room is a video call with the other people in it:

• Your camera and microphone stay off until you turn them on. Share screen shares to that room only. Rooms are not recorded.
• Chat becomes the room's own chat.
• The status line says which room you are in and the time left.
• A message from the host to every room appears at the top of the stage.
• Leave the room takes you back to the stage, and Back to with the room's name takes you back to it.

When the host lets attendees choose, the stage lists the rooms, each with Join room, or Full when it is. The rooms close after a countdown of 30 seconds, and everyone is back on the stage.

Resources and the call to action

Resources lists the files and links the host offers: a file downloads, and a link opens in a new tab. When the host shows a button under the stage, such as Book a call, it opens its page in a new tab.

How your name appears

Under the chat box, the page says how your name appears. Change name opens Your name in this webinar: select Save name to use it in this webinar from then on, on your messages, on the stage and in the list of who is here. Your registration keeps the name you registered with. To use it again in this webinar, enter it and select Save name.

Another tab or device

Your join link also works on a second device, such as a phone, and the first one keeps working; you count as one attendee, and your votes and poll answers count once. When the live page is open in two tabs of the same browser, the second tab's sound is off, with Turn on sound here.

After the webinar

When the webinar ends, the page says so, with Answer the survey when the host offers one. Your join link then opens the replay page: the recording once it is ready, the questions and their answers, the poll results, the resources and the survey. Magpie will email you the follow-up with the replay's link. When the host has not made a replay available to attendees, the page and the email have everything else.

A link that no longer works

This link no longer works means the link opens nothing: the host removed you from the webinar, the webinar was deleted, or the address is incomplete. If you registered again after being removed, only the newest link works. Ask the host for a new one: they can add you again, and you will be emailed a new link. While registration is open, you can also register again on the registration page. If the host approves each registration or the webinar is full, you will wait for approval or join the waiting list before you get a link. An open live page says the same as soon as the link stops working.

This link cannot be opened now means too many links that do not work were opened from your connection. Try again after the time the page gives.

A speaker's or moderator's link

A speaker or moderator from outside the host's team is emailed a link of their own, with Open the webinar. Anyone who has it can join as them, and a new link from the host replaces it.

• Before the webinar, the link opens the live page with the backstage chat, under Backstage, to write to the hosts and other speakers. The status line says when backstage opens: 30 minutes before the start.
• Backstage, the people running the webinar see and hear each other; attendees and the recording do not. Microphone and Camera turn yours on, and Camera and microphone… chooses them and tries screen sharing where only you see it.
• A speaker goes on the stage with Go on stage once a host lets them, or when a host brings them on, and Leave the stage goes back. On the stage, attendees and the recording see and hear them, and Share screen shows a screen. A message from a host can appear over the stage.
• A moderator does not go on the stage, and works in the chat, Q&A and polls.

After the webinar, the link says it has ended. How the webinar is run is in Host a webinar.

For a problem with the page itself, Contact support.