Webinar Attendees Guide

Content

Getting Started

This user guide will provide you with the information you will need to join and fully participate in the webinar at MyOwnConference.

Join a webinar

If you see this message, you have followed a wrong webinar link.

Webinar attendee guide – incorrect link

You do NOT need to register a free account with MyOwnConference.

It is required only when hosting webinars. Attendance in webinars is possible ONLY via the links emailed by the organizers, or sent by them via messaging or social networks.

What should do when a link does not work?

  • Check the link. It is expected to look similar to https://go.mywebinar.com/xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx
  • Copy it once again and open it in your web browser.
  • Contact your webinar organizer via social media, messengers or email.

Requirements to Attend a Webinar

To participate in a webinar, you need a computer, a smartphone or a tablet PC with an internet connection of at least 10 Mbit/s.

To reduce the possibility of issues that may interrupt the webinar, we recommend that you suspend or pause any internet downloads and close any open browser tabs. Additionally, we recommend that you temporarily disable any applications that might impact the Internet connection speed, e.g., Skype, etc.

How to Join a Webinar?

What follows is step-by-step instructions for joining a webinar:

Step 1

Approximately 5-10 minutes before the webinar starts to click on the link that you received from the webinar organizer.

Webinar attendee guide – invitations

Step 2

Once you click on the link, a window will open in your browser. This is the authorization form that you will have to fill out before you can join the webinar. All fields that are presented to you are required and must be filled in properly in order to enter the webinar room:

Webinar attendee guide – registration page

Step 3

After entering information into all of the required fields, simply click on the “Login” button to enter the webinar room.

You can also join the webinar by using one of your social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). To use a social media account, simply press the icon that corresponds to the account you want to use. This will invoke the Social Entrance Authorization service, which will request access to your account. After you have joined the webinar, you can close access to the service.

Note: You must also click on the “I agree” button to accept cookies.

How to join a Webinar from a Mobile Device

You can participate in the webinars held at MyOwnConference using a mobile browser by simply clicking on the link that, you received from the webinar organizer. When the authorisation screen opens, you will enter your credentials to join the webinar.

Note! If you have no sound during webinar on your iPhone just turn the vibration mode off!

Note: The minimum bandwidth requirement to participate in the webinar is 1 Mbit/sec

Webinar attendee guide – myownconference on mobile device


After your credentials are verified, you will be able to participate in the webinar:

Mobile webinar

Webinar Interaction and Customization Options

Once you have entered the webinar room, you can adjust the localization of your webinar room by clicking on the “Flag” icon in the top right corner of the open control panel on the right side of the window:

Flag page settings

The central part of the control panel will provide you with access to the keynotes or other materials broadcasted by the presenter. To maximize the keynote to full screen simply click on the box next to the localization flag. To exit full-screen mode simply press “ESC” on your keyboard:

Fullscreen mode

If you’d like to to view the list of webinar attendees, simply click on the three-bar icon located on the extreme right-hand side of the control panel.

Note: While the webinar is in progress, you will need to respect the presenter and other attendees or else the webinar organizer may remove you from the webinar room.

On the left side of the window, there are two buttons labeled “Ask a question” and “Ask to speak.” The “Ask a question” button enables you to send a message to the presenter. The “Ask to speak” button enables you to speak during the webinar. Near the bottom of the window you will see the chat area that can be used to communicate with the webinar presenter and other attendees of the event:

Ask questions: to speak

How to Speak in the Webinar

The “Ask to speak” button is located on the left side of the webinar room. When the presenter invites you to join the conversation, simply click on the button and answer “Yes” in the dialog box:

Ask to speak
Invite to conversation

Dealing with Webinar Technical Issues

There are several situations that you might encounter that could prevent you from joining the webinar, the most common are as follows:

  • You can not enter the room
  • Cannot see the presenter
  • Cannot hear the presenter
  • Echo
  • Problems with text chat

Some but not all of these situations may be attributed to technical issues with your hardware, your browser or in some cases your installed software. To ensure that you can join the webinar, there are a few things that you must check:

  • Your web browser must support HTML5,
  • JavaScript must be disabled.
  • Your web browser, or any of the installed extensions, block execution of software. These may include, but be not limited to, AdBlock, FlashBlock, etc.

Note: in most cases, clearing your web browser cache will be enough to solve most issues. To identify other possible reasons for the issues, you might need to run the system test. More information on how to clear your web browser cache is available in our video lesson.

How to Run the System Test

Before you even attempt to join a webinar, it is a good idea to run the system test to ensure that your computer meets the minimum requirements. To do this, click this link to open the system test window:

Webinar attendee guide – system test

The series of tests included in the System Test will quickly identify any issues that need to be corrected so that you will not run into any issues during the webinar. The system test will perform the following tests of your system:

Click on “Summary” to see a summary of the test results:

Test results

Reasons why you can’t Enter the Webinar Room

If you are having difficulty entering the webinar room, there are a few possibilities that you may need to investigate and correct as follows:

  • You may have been banned from entering this webinar by the presenter. If you find yourself in this situation, then you will need to contact the presenter to request access.
  • Your IT administrator may have locked down all ports and external access per the company’s network security policy. If this is the case then you can request your Administrator to allow external access to the following required Ports, and Domains:
  • Open ports 80 (HTTP), 443 (HTTPS)
  • UDP ports for WebRTC

Unrestricted access to the following domain names:

*.moc.ac
*.wbnr.im
*.mywebinar.io
*.mywebinar.net
*.mywebinar.live
*.mywebinar.com
*.myownconference.com
*.myownconference.net
*.myownconference.org

How to Resolve the Echo Effect

If you are experiencing an audio echo effect, the first thing you should do is determine if it is your system or the presenters system that is causing it. To do this, contact the presenter and ask them to lower their microphone sensitivity to the minimum and disconnect/disable all other audio input devices. If this does not eliminate the echo, then the problem is in your system. To eliminate the audio effect in your system, follow these steps:

  • Use an audio headset.
  • If you are using a standalone microphone and speakers instead of a headset, try to decrease the speakers’ volume or lower the microphone’s sensitivity using the “Sound level” adjustment in the webinar room or your computer’s setting. It is advisable that the “software” volume should not exceed 80%.
  • Activate echo cancellation in your sound card settings (available in most sound cards). The exact steps to perform this depends on the sound card model. In most cases, this can be done either via the Control Panel in Windows or the application software that was installed with the sound card drivers. For some sound cards, to enable echo cancellation you would need to switch to the “optimum for audio conferences / IP telephony” mode. Consult your sound card user guide for more details.
  • If the audio input devices contain a stereo mixer, you will need to disable it or lower the volume to the minimum.
  • As a last resort, disable all other devices (like line input) except for the microphone.

Other issues

1. Cannot hear the presenter
Solution: on your computer desktop, find the loudspeaker/headphones icon and make sure that it does not have an “X” on it. If it does have an “X”  then click on it to open the dialog box and then click on the icon and adjust the slider for volume.

2. Cannot see video from the presenter or it is very slow
Solution: refresh the webinar page or reconnect to your Internet connection.

3. Cannot see the text chat field
Solution: bring the scale of your web browser window back to 100%.

4. Cannot see keynote slides
Solution: check the date on your computer and set it to the current date.

5. Absence of audio and video signal from the presenter

Solution: check to make sure that there is not a proxy server getting in the way as this may totally limit your ability to accept these streams.

Additional information

The information provided in this user guide should give you the basic knowledge needed to attend and participate in a MyOwnConference webinar.

If you still have questions about the MyOwnConference service, we invite you to refer to our other user guides that will provide more in-depth information on specific aspects of the service.

We have also created a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) that may further assist you. If you cannot find what you are searching for please do not hesitate to contact our Technical Support team by selecting one of the options located at the very bottom of MyOwnConference website.