Conducting and Scheduling a Teams Meeting 101

Microsoft Teams does a lot!! But if you just need to know how to schedule a simple video conference then this is the help document for you! This will just tell you the multiple ways to schedule or start an audio or video call. For detailed information on all the video conferencing features once you are on a call, please check out this document --> Using Teams for Meetings and Calls

First off - if you have not installed Teams on your PC then you should start here --> Getting Started with Microsoft Teams

Note - You don't need a formal Team created to create a Teams meeting. You can create a Teams meeting with whomever you want, whenever you want independent of any actual Team. If you DO have a formal Team created then there are ways to create a meeting within that actual Team/Channel. This will be described farther below.

Schedule a Teams meeting via Outlook

Probably the easiest way to schedule a Teams meeting is to go into your calendar within Outlook and click on the "New Teams Meeting" icon that should be there if you have Teams installed on your PC. If you have Teams installed and you don't see this option - put in a Help Desk ticket.
Note - Scheduling a meeting from Outlook does not schedule it within an actual Team/Channel. For just a regular meeting that is fine. However if you DO have a formal Team/Channel setup then you should schedule the meeting within the Teams application which will be explained later.

This will open the new meeting screen just as you are familiar with but it will have the meeting links already included in the meeting details. Go ahead and invite your attendees, set the date and time, etc.

We have an add-on with our meeting links to allow "H.323 compatible" Video Conferencing Devices, such as the Lifesize units in many of our conference rooms. External guests can also use this if they have a compatible conference room device. That is what the "Join with a video conferencing device" information is below the main link. Our system will always provide this. If you don't want to include it, simple remove it, just make sure you leave the main "Click here to join the meeting" link. See this document for more information --> Using a LifeSize unit with Teams.

If you need to provide Audio/Phone Call-in as an option, you need to be licensed for this as there is a monthly cost. If you need this you will have to put in a Help Desk ticket request. Once you are licensed, all your meeting information text will include call-in information as well. See below for an example.

Schedule a Teams meeting within Teams (Teams Area)

If are in Teams and on a particular channel where you want to create a meeting for team members, you can click the down arrow next to "Meet" and then select "Schedule a meeting"

Then fill in the details. The channel will be auto-populated with the channel you are currently one.
TIP - when scheduling a meeting in a channel, you don't necessarily have to include attendees. All members of the Team Channel will be invited automatically. But if you need to invite someone outside the team, you can do so without having to make them a member of the Team.

Schedule a Teams meeting within Teams (Calendar Area)

You can also just go to your calendar within Teams, find the correct date and time and double click. This will open the New Meeting screen and auto-populate the date and time. You will need to manually add in the desired Channel. A Channel is not mandatory however; if left blank the meeting will not be associated with a Team or Channel.

Conducting a Teams meeting within Teams (Chat Area)

You can't schedule a meeting within the Chat Area, but you can start an ad-hoc meeting (Video, Audio, or just a screen share). Just use the buttons up near the top right.

If you need to schedule a meeting for the people in your chat, simply use your Outlook or Teams calendar to schedule the meeting, and manually invite the attendees.

Conducting a Teams meeting within Teams (Calls Area)

In the Calls Area you can make audio or video calls to your contacts if it knows how to get a hold of them (if they are connected to Teams.) Anyone in your contacts that have the icons shown below you can instantly call (audio or video), send an email or start a chat.

Keep in mind that not all Christman employees are necessarily in your contacts.

However, you can also use the "Make a Call" function to call anyone within Christman (as long as they are using Teams) included registered guests. Just start typing part of their name and they should pop up. Registered guests are anyone that already belongs to a team and thus is in our global directory. Include multiple people for a multi-party call.

Conducting an instant Teams meeting from Outlook

Scenario: You get an email from someone and to save time you want to have an instant discussion about the topic. You can call them via Teams quickly by double clicking on their profile picture. When their profile information window pops-up, click on "Start audio call" or click the video camera icon (depending on your version of Outlook). This will call the other person via Teams and they can choose whether to answer audio only or make it a video call. So within seconds you've connected with them live!

If you click on "Start Chat" - you can start a Teams Chat in a pop-out window. From that window you can start an audio or video call, or just share your screen.