You can use Live Meeting to schedule meetings and invite participants, just as you would for a meeting in a physical conference room. This topic describes how to:

• Schedule a meeting by using Outlook
• Schedule a meeting by using Live Meeting Manager
• Schedule and join a test meeting

Schedule a meeting by using Outlook

One way to schedule a meeting is by using Microsoft Office Outlook. To use Outlook to schedule meetings in Live Meeting, you must install the Live Meeting Add-In for Outlook. With the add-in, you can use Outlook calendar features to schedule meetings so that you can determine if users in your address book are free or busy for a meeting time. You can also look up e-mail addresses in your address book when sending invitations.

To schedule a meeting using Outlook

1. On the Live Meeting toolbar in Outlook, click Schedule Live Meeting.
2. On the toolbar in the meeting invitation, click Make this a Live Meeting.
3. In the Make this a Live Meeting dialog box, verify that the meeting settings suit your needs, and then click OK.

   Note  If you chose, in your meeting settings, to allow some or all attendees to present, Outlook creates a second invitation where you can enter the e-mail addresses of your meeting presenters. The original invitation is used for meeting attendees.

4. You may receive a warning from Outlook indicating that a program is trying to access e-mail addresses you have stored. This warning refers to the Live Meeting Transport that is added to your Outlook profile and is used to help schedule meetings, as well as add join instructions to Live Meeting invitations. Click Yes to continue.
5. In the attendee (and presenter) invitation, select an appropriate start time in the Start time box and an appropriate end time in the End time box.
6. In the attendee (and presenter) invitation, in the To box, enter the participants you want to invite, either by clicking To to look up each participant in your address book or by typing each participant's full e-mail address (for example, somebody@microsoft.com), separated by semicolons.
7. In the attendee (and presenter) invitation, in the Subject box, type a name for the meeting.
8. If you want, in the message area, type a message to the people you are inviting. This message will be added at the beginning of the standard Live Meeting invitation text.
9. When you are done composing your invitation(s), click Send.

Allow several minutes for the meeting invitations to arrive in the inbox of each invitee. Live Meeting sends a separate meeting invitation to each of the presenters and attendees you invited. The invitation contains your personal message if you provided one, the standard Live Meeting greeting text set by your Live Meeting account administrator, and the meeting details that each participant will need in order to join the meeting. Invitees also receive a calendar item that they can directly add to their calendars.

Accept the meeting invitation and join the meeting

When the scheduled meeting invitation arrives, click Accept to accept the invitation so it is stored in your calendar. When it is time to join the meeting, open the meeting entry in your Outlook calendar, and then click Join Meeting.

Schedule a meeting by using Live Meeting Manager

You can also schedule meetings by using Live Meeting Manager. When you schedule meetings by using Live Meeting Manager, you can either send e-mail invitations using the Live Meeting service or using your e-mail program.

To send invitations using the Live Meeting service

1. Log on to Live Meeting Manager using your Live Meeting user login and password. This information, along with the URL for your Live Meeting conference center, is available from your Live Meeting account adminsitrator.
2. On the My Home page, in the Meet area, click Schedule Meeting.
3. Click Attendees to select the attendees you want to invite from the Live Meeting address book, and then click Presenters to select the presenters you want to invite. For participants who do not appear in the address book, you can type each user’s full e-mail address (for example, someone@example.com) in the Attendees or Presenters box.
4. Type the meeting title in the Subject box.
5. Select the start and end dates and times.
6. Click Time Zone to set the time zone.
7. In the Occurrence box, click One Time (occurs once only), Recurring (occurs on a regular schedule with a specified end date), or Ongoing (no end date enforced).
8. To override the default scheduled meeting options for this meeting only, click Meeting Options, and then make the necessary changes. For more information, see How to Set Meeting Options.
9. In the Message text box, type the custom message that you want to appear in the invitation.
10. Click Send Invitations using Live Meeting to send the invitations using the Live Meeting service.
11. Click Send Invitations to send the invitations to the invitees.

Allow several minutes for the meeting invitations to arrive in the inbox of each invitee. Live Meeting sends a separate meeting invitation to each of the presenters and attendees you invited. The invitation contains your personal message if you provided one, the standard Live Meeting greeting text set by your Live Meeting account administrator, and the meeting details that each participant will need in order to join the meeting. Invitees also receive a calendar item that they can add to their calendars.

To send invitations using your e-mail program

1. Log on to Live Meeting Manager using your Live Meeting user login and password. This information, along with the URL for your Live Meeting conference center, is available from your Live Meeting account adminsitrator.
2. On the My Home page, in the Meet area, click Schedule Meeting.
3. Click Attendees to select the attendees you want to invite from the Live Meeting address book, and then click Presenters to select the presenters you want to invite. For participants who do not appear in the address book, you can type each user’s full e-mail address (for example, someone@example.com) in the Attendees or Presenters box.
4. Type the meeting title in the Subject box.
5. Select the start and end dates and times.
6. Click Time Zone to set the time zone.
7. In the Occurrence box, click One Time (occurs once only), Recurring (occurs on a regular schedule with a specified end date), or Ongoing (no end date enforced).
8. To override the default scheduled meeting options for this meeting only, click Meeting Options, and then make the necessary changes. For more information, see How to Set Meeting Options.
9. In the Message text box, type the custom message that you want to appear in the invitation.
10. Click Send Invitations using your Email client to send the invitations using your e-mail program.
11. Click Send Invitations to begin preparing the e-mail invitations using your e-mail program.
12. On the Send Invitations page, do one of the following:
    • If you use Outlook as your e-mail program, click Invite Attendees to open the e-mail invitation to Attendees in Outlook, and then click Send. Click Invite Presenters to open the e-mail invitation to Presenters in Outlook, and then click Send. When you have sent the e-mail messages to all participants, return to the Send Invitations page in Live Meeting Manager, and then click Done.
    • If you use an e-mail program other than Outlook, create a new e-mail message. Copy and paste the text in the To and Message boxes under Invite Attendees into the corresponding boxes in the e-mail message, and then send the e-mail. Create another new e-mail message. Copy and paste the text in the To and Message boxes under Invite Presenters into the corresponding boxes in the e-mail message, and then send the e-mail. When you have sent the e-mail messages to all participants, return to the Send Invitations page, and then click Done.

Allow several minutes for the meeting invitations to arrive in the inbox of each invitee.

Schedule and join a test Meeting

To become more familiar with the Live Meeting scheduling process, as well as to test the default options you have set for scheduled meetings, you can schedule a test meeting with yourself. This test procedure can help you understand Live Meeting scheduling behavior before you invite a large group of people to your first scheduled meeting. For more information about setting options for scheduled meetings, see How to Set Meeting Options.

To schedule a test meeting using the Outlook add-in

1. Start Outlook.
2. On the Live Meeting toolbar, click Schedule Live Meeting.
3. On the toolbar in the meeting invitation, click Make this a Live Meeting.
4. In the Make this a Live Meeting dialog box, verify that the meeting settings suit your needs, and then click OK.
5. You may receive a warning from Outlook indicating that a program is trying to access e-mail addresses you have stored. This warning refers to the Live Meeting Transport that is added to your Outlook profile and is used to help schedule meetings, as well as add join instructions to Live Meeting invitations. Click Yes to continue.
6. Schedule the meeting for the current time by using the Start time and End time boxes.
7. In the To field, type your own full e-mail address (for example, somebody@microsoft.com). This will instruct Live Meeting to send you an invitation to the meeting.
8. Optionally, in the Subject box, type a title for the meeting (for example, "Test Meeting").
9. Optionally, in the message area, type a custom message to include along with the standard invitation text (for example, "Test Message"). This message will be added at the beginning of the standard Live Meeting invitation text.
10. When you are done composing your invitation, click Send.

Note  The meeting invitation may take several minutes to arrive in your inbox.

When the meeting invitation arrives, open the invitation, and make sure that it contains the expected information. If you are using phone conferencing for your meetings, make sure that your invitation has the correct phone conferencing number and participant code. If any information is wrong or missing, click Live Meeting in Outlook, and then click Preferences, correct the settings as necessary, and then click OK. Then, schedule a new test meeting.

To join the meeting that you have scheduled

1. Open the e-mail invitation for the meeting.
2. In the meeting invitation, click the Join Meeting link.
3. On the Join Meeting page, enter your name, and then click Join Meeting.
4. Live Meeting starts the Live Meeting console, and your scheduled meeting is displayed.