In Canapii’s quiver of new features, we present to you the green room: a dedicated area for speakers to connect and engage prior to being broadcasted live on a virtual stage.

Think of this space as the backstage, the ‘behind the curtains’ area which you would have at any in-person event. Speakers, moderators, and event organizers can all meet and interact in this virtual room as they prepare to go live!

The Canapii green room is created around the live stage and the holding rooms. The holding rooms essentially allow your speakers and audience to join the room without being automatically broadcast to everyone else.

How does the Canapii green room work?

Going live in the RMTP stream means that you have the ability to share your screen, play videos, and share your audio or camera at the same time. You can also allow for multiple moderators by adjusting admin access in the Console itself – the admin permissions carry over, so all you need is admin access for the event to moderate. That way, you can have one speaker giving their presentation while their colleague helps them out with the slides if you’d like. To learn more about RTMP streaming and decide whether it’s right for your event, check out this Vimeo article on the subject.

Click the “Raise hand” option to alert the green room administrator that you have a comment you’d like to add. The administrator can chat privately with you or simply add you to the broadcast. When you’ve asked your question, you can be added back to the holding room so you aren’t broadcasting to the whole room – not only does this cut down on the bandwidth strain on your network, but it allows for a dynamic webinar-style round table discussion without a lot of extra camera feeds and noise distractions.

Private chat within the green room – Unashamedly, WhatsApp was our inspiration for this! The vast majority of people have access to WhatsApp and therefore instructions or guidance shouldn’t be required to make the most of this feature. It does exactly what it says on the tin: It’s familiar, quick, and an efficient way to communicate! An administrator has the ability to call individual audience members in the holding room directly (they can individually toggle their media options for each room, enabling them to have a private conversation while muting their feed in the main room). That way, you can check in with your speakers before they go live, have a private conversation with your moderation team, give last-minute reminders, and more!

Why use the green room for your virtual and hybrid events?

• Conduct tech checks with your speakers. Test your speaker’s cameras and microphones in a private one-on-one chat before pushing them out in front of your audience.

• Queue your speakers and control the flow. The last thing you want is having all of your speakers all at once, speaking over each other or simply waiting for their turn to present. With the green room, you can add an element of surprise and create a seamless keynote session as you can promote speakers to live broadcasts as well as pull them back into the holding room. It also enables an event manager to control the workflow leading up to a live session, all the better for your live broadcast!

• Simplify the job of your moderators and tech operators. Enough of the world-renowned phrase ‘Next slide please’. By bringing in the admin team, you can ensure a continuous flow and take cues to advance slides or play videos. Your speakers can also share their screen, their slides, and their audio – all at the same time!

• Rehearse, adjust and improve. Your speakers need to feel confident and ready to present on stage. You can make the most out of the green room and interact with them directly without the rest of the audience is aware of what is happening behind the scenes. Do you have any last-minute additions to your script? Maybe change or word or two based on what the previous presenter mentioned? This is the place and space where you can anticipate such changes.

Today, the green room is included in our Motivator, Driver, and Professional plans. For more information about the Canapii green room, you can directly reach out to our team of event experts and schedule a live demo!