Hi,
The unidentified caller feature is only available in GoToMeeting at this time, but the GoToWebinar team have been made aware that there is interest in it for GoToWebinar and managing panelists.
In the GoToWebinar dashboard (https://dashboard.gotowebinar.com/ )
Go to the webinar in question.
Open the Settings section of the web page.
In an emergency, give your presenter the phone number listed as well as the Panelist PIN.
Tell them to NOT SHARE IT WITH ANYONE.
This lets them connect to the the webinar with just a telephone.
They will be unmuted, and you as the organizer, will have no way to mute them nor kick them out of the webinar. You will not even see them in the Attendee list.
For these reasons, I do not give out this phone number/Panelist PIN unless there is an emergency.
This would be a viable solution, if I was not the Organizer running the event. I cannot stop managing the event and go back and forth with the panelist with the connection issue. We wouldn't know there was an issue until he contacts someone, via email, Teams chat or What's Up app. There should be separate processes for Attendees and Staff. Staff should not have to enter a PIN or the PIN should be visible for me to share it with the affected staff person.
I start my webinars a half hour early and encourage my presenters to connect during that time so we can check their microphones. Most people have no problems, but I have to work with some a lot until they can be heard. All of this happens before I start the broadcast.
For really important webinars, I hold a practice session the day or week before to ensure that everything will work. Sometimes the practice session works great, and then they show up at the real webinar with a different computer or a new microphone! (smile)
Golder PINs help you identify individual participants, but are not required to hear the audio. Phone callers can always bypass the PIN request by pressing the pound (#) key on their phone keypad. Keep in mind that you cannot un-mute someone manually who has not entered a PIN -- Panelists can however, manage their own muting controls as long as you don't use the 'mute-all' function.
We have major issues with Panelists who have to dial-in and avoid connecting to the webinar due to various network bandwidth issues. There has been talk over the years of being able to at least identify a phone number or a Caller ID (like Caller 01, or Caller 02)and having it show up in the staff list for GoToWebinar like GoToMeeting currently does. Is there a timeline for when this can be included? With no control over the phone callers without webinar link access, and no identification of their number or simple Caller ID in the control panel, the audio disruption can hugely impact the success of the meeting as staff are scrambling to identify who the person is that is causing unwanted noise.
