Microsoft publishes a plain table of what attendees can do in a Teams event. Up to 1,000 attendees, they can switch on their microphone and camera, and the organiser can open breakout rooms. Above 1,000, microphones and cameras stay off, and breakout rooms are no longer supported. Chat, polls and raised hands stop at 20,000 attendees. Only the Q&A panel works up to 100,000 (Microsoft Learn, meetings and events feature and capacity comparison, updated 17 September 2026).
Read from top to bottom, that table describes a webinar. The bigger the audience, the less each person in it can do. A webinar scales by taking interaction away.
That trade suits many B2B goals and fails others. This guide explains what a webinar is, how it differs from a video meeting, a livestream and a virtual conference, and which formats exist. Above all, it answers when a webinar is enough and when your audience needs a virtual conference. Our thesis is simple. A webinar is the right format when people come to hear one speaker, and the wrong one when they come to meet each other.
What is a webinar?
Start with the word itself. It is a blend of “web” and “seminar”. Merriam-Webster defines a webinar as “a live online educational presentation during which participating viewers can submit questions and comments”. It dates the first known use to 1998 (Merriam-Webster, entry “webinar”, accessed 9 November 2026). The definition has held up well, because it names the two things that make the format work: one presentation, and a channel back to the speaker.
In practice, a B2B webinar has a fixed set of features:
- One stage: a single session with one or a few speakers and a moderator.
- Registration: attendees sign up in advance, which gives the organiser names, companies and permission to follow up.
- One-way video: speakers are seen and heard; attendees watch and do not appear on screen.
- A feedback channel: Q&A, chat and polls let attendees respond without interrupting the speaker.
- A recording: the session is kept and offered on demand to people who missed it or want to watch again.
The roles follow from that structure. A host runs the technology, a moderator manages questions and time, and presenters or panellists speak. Everyone else is an attendee with a narrow set of controls.
Is a webinar like a Zoom meeting?
Not quite, although both often run on the same software. A video meeting is built for conversation. Everyone may speak, everyone may share a screen, and the group is small enough for that to work. A webinar is built for an audience. Most participants listen, and the few who speak are chosen in advance.
The difference becomes clearer next to the formats people often confuse with webinars:
| Format | Who speaks | Typical audience | What it is for | What you measure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Video meeting | Everyone | A handful to a few dozen | Discussion and decisions | Outcomes, actions |
| Webinar | A few speakers, audience via Q&A and polls | Dozens to thousands | Knowledge transfer, lead generation | Registrations, attendance, questions |
| Livestream | Speakers only | Open, often public | Reach | Views, watch time |
| Virtual conference | Many speakers across several sessions, attendees with each other | Hundreds to thousands | Programme, community, business contacts | Session attendance, meetings, sponsor leads |
A livestream drops even the registration and suits public announcements. A virtual conference sits at the other end: many sessions in one programme, plus a way for attendees to find and talk to each other.
If you are weighing those wider formats against each other, our ranking of ten types of virtual events by networking results places the webinar among them. For a webinar on its own, the next question is which variant to run.
Which types of webinars are there?
Within that basic shape, organisers have more choice than the word suggests. The most common formats differ in how the content is produced and when the audience sees it:
- Live webinar: speakers present in real time and answer questions as they come in. This format has the most energy and the most risk.
- On-demand webinar: a recording is offered after the event or produced without a live audience. Attendees watch when it suits them.
- Pre-recorded webinar at a fixed time: the talk is recorded in advance and aired at a set time, while a moderator handles live Q&A. Some tools call this “simulive”.
- Panel or interview webinar: a moderator leads a conversation between two to four experts, which often feels livelier than a single talk.
- Product demo or training: a specialist shows how something works, step by step, with time for practical questions.
- Webinar series: a run of sessions on related topics, often monthly, which builds a returning audience.
Picture a software company that launches a new reporting feature. A live demo for existing customers, followed by an on-demand recording for the rest, covers both groups with one production. The format choice is mostly a question of who needs to be live, and who only needs the content.
What the numbers say about webinar attendance
Whichever format you pick, the audience will be smaller than the registration list. The webinar platform provider ON24 publishes yearly benchmarks from its own platform, and its latest report covers webinars run in 2025.
Webinar benchmarks from ON24 for 2025
Three consequences follow. First, about six in ten registrants watch, live or on demand, and only about two thirds of those join live (ON24), so treat the recording as part of the product, not an afterthought. Second, an average of 239 attendees is a well-filled room, not a mass audience. Third, attention lasts a little under an hour, so a 90-minute agenda will lose people before the most important part.
These are vendor figures from one platform’s customers. Use them as a reference point and compare them with your own past sessions. Yours matter more.
Even the best attendance figure leaves one question open.
When a webinar is the right format
That question usually comes from a sales director who receives the attendee list the next morning. Two hundred names, job titles and the questions they asked. Then comes the question every webinar report has to answer: who on this list did we actually talk to?
If the honest answer is “nobody yet, but they know what we do now”, a webinar did its job. It is the right format whenever one message has to reach many people efficiently. Typical cases in B2B:
- A new regulation or standard that many members or customers must understand by a set date.
- A product launch or feature update with a demo and a few practical questions.
- Expert content that builds trust with buyers who are not ready to talk to sales yet.
- Onboarding and training that has to be repeated for every new group of users.
- A warm-up for a larger event, where speakers preview their topics and registrations start early.
What these cases share is a one-way flow of knowledge. The audience comes for the speaker, and the questions go to the speaker. Nobody expects to leave with a new business contact, and nobody is disappointed when they do not.
The webinar is a broadcast with a feedback channel. That is its strength.
When a virtual conference is worth the extra effort
The picture changes when your audience comes for each other. An association whose members want to compare notes, a trade organisation that connects buyers and suppliers, an investor programme that pairs founders with funds: in all three cases the attendees are the content. A webinar would put them in one row of seats facing the stage, and the Teams table at the top shows why that stays true as the audience grows.
A virtual conference costs more because it does more. It runs several sessions, gives sponsors a place to meet prospects, and adds a layer in which attendees can find each other and book conversations. Choose it when at least one of these applies:
- Peer exchange is the goal: attendees value each other’s experience as much as the speakers’ views.
- Business contacts are the deliverable: the report afterwards has to count meetings, not viewers.
- Several audiences need several tracks: one session cannot serve buyers, suppliers and technical staff at once.
- Sponsors expect contact: a logo in a webinar slide is worth less than a booked conversation with the right buyer.
For that sales director, the difference is concrete. After a webinar he gets a list of viewers. After a virtual conference with a meeting programme he gets a list of conversations that already happened. How to build the meeting part so that it produces real appointments is set out in our guide to virtual networking events. The platform side, from streaming to matching, is compared in how to choose a virtual or hybrid event platform.
How to plan a B2B webinar
If the webinar is the right fit, the planning is lighter than for a conference but still has a sequence. The steps below assume a live webinar with registration and a recording.
A B2B webinar from topic to follow-up
- 4 weeks Fix topic and speakers Write one sentence that says what attendees will be able to do afterwards, then brief speakers on it.
- 3 weeks Open registration Ask only for the fields you will use in follow-up, such as company, role and one question.
- 1 week Rehearse the technology Run a test with every speaker on the actual tool, including screen sharing and the Q&A panel.
- Day before Send the reminder Repeat the start time in the attendee time zone and the link, nothing else.
- Live Leave room for questions Plan at least a quarter of the session for Q&A and seed the first question yourself.
- 2 days after Follow up with the recording Send the recording to everyone who registered and a personal note to those who asked questions.
The timings are a working plan, not a rule. An existing community needs less notice than an audience you still have to win. The invitation and reminder emails follow the same logic as for any event, and our event email sequence has templates for each of them.
Measure the webinar against its purpose. For lead generation, count registrations from target accounts and the questions asked. For training, count completions. Our overview of event KPIs shows which numbers fit which goal. And if many registrants do not show up, the reasons often lie in the reminder sequence rather than the topic, as our analysis of no-show rates explains.
Webinar or conference? Often both, in sequence
The choice is rarely either-or. Many B2B programmes use a webinar series to build an audience across the year. They then invite the most engaged attendees to a conference or a hosted buyer event, online or on site. The webinar creates interest at low cost. The meeting programme turns that interest into conversations.
Associations work the same way between congresses: a monthly webinar keeps members informed, and a roundtable lets them talk to each other, as our guide to member engagement between congresses shows.
The handover between the two formats is where many programmes lose people. A viewer who asked a sharp question in March should not have to fill out a cold registration form in September. Keep the thread from one format to the next.
Solution: Converve does not replace your webinar tool. It covers the step that follows, when attendees should meet each other in a programme. Organisers define a meeting matrix with rules for who may meet whom. Participants request and accept one-to-one meetings, and confirmed meetings appear in their personal agenda. This works for virtual, hybrid and on-site formats. The matchmaking module shows how the rules are set up.
Conclusion: choose by what people come for
A webinar is a live online presentation with a feedback channel. It reaches many people efficiently because it limits what each of them can do. That makes it the right format when your audience comes to hear one speaker: a regulation explained, a product shown, an expert view shared. It is the wrong format when they come to meet each other. Then a virtual conference with a meeting programme, or an on-site event, earns its higher cost.
Decide before you book the tool which report you will hand your sales director: a list of viewers or a list of conversations. If the answer is conversations and you want to see how a meeting programme can sit next to your webinars, get in touch with Converve.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a webinar in simple terms?
A webinar is a seminar held online. One or a few speakers present live to a registered audience, which responds through Q&A, chat and polls but does not appear on screen. Merriam-Webster describes it as a live online educational presentation during which viewers can submit questions and comments.
Is a webinar the same as a Zoom meeting?
No. In a video meeting, every participant can speak and share their screen, which works for small groups. In a webinar, a few speakers present and the audience mostly listens, which works for hundreds or thousands. Many tools offer both modes. Microsoft Teams, for example, switches off attendee microphones and cameras in events with more than 1,000 attendees (Microsoft Learn, September 2026).
What is the difference between a webinar and a virtual conference?
A webinar is a single session with one stage. A virtual conference combines many sessions into a programme, often over one or more days, and adds sponsor areas and ways for attendees to meet each other. Choose a webinar when people come for the speaker, and a virtual conference when they also come for each other.
How long should a webinar be?
Long enough for the content and short enough to hold attention. ON24’s benchmark report found an average engagement time of 49 minutes per attendee in 2025 (2026 Digital Engagement Benchmarks Report, vendor data). Plan the core content for under an hour and keep a quarter of it for questions.
How many registrants actually attend a webinar?
Expect a clear gap between registrations and live attendance. ON24 reports that on average 60 per cent of registrants attended webinars on its platform in 2025, live or on demand, and that about two thirds of attendees joined live (2026 Digital Engagement Benchmarks Report, vendor data). Compare that with your own past sessions, and send the recording to everyone who registered.
