5 Easy Steps to Livestream Your Event Online for Free on YouTube

Do you want to host an event for a potentially large number of people, but feel constrained by a limited budget? We have a solution for you. YouTube provides a simple and straight forward way to livestream your event online to your clients and potential clients. You get a number of benefits when you choose to livestream your event online including increasing exposure and reach. It is also a great way to increase new leads.

YouTube Live Events offers two great options for livestreaming. This blog post will discuss livestreaming options and teach you how to livestream your event. The options are called “Quick” and “Custom.” “Quick” allows you to broadcast live to the world, using only your computer and webcam and takes only a few minutes to set up. The “Custom” option is for more advanced broadcasting, where you can control your event production and manage your own encoding settings using your preferred platform. For the purposes of this post, we'll be limiting our discussion to the “Quick” option only.

1. Meet Eligibility Requirements

Before you get started with YouTube livestreaming, make sure you fulfill their requirements:

1. To be eligible to livestream your event, your YouTube account must be verified and in good standing. What does this mean? Verification is easily done over the phone or by text and good standing simply means that you haven’t breached community or copyright guidelines.
2. You need to link your Google+ profile or page to your YouTube channel.
3. You must also enable your YouTube channel for live events. Click on the “Status and Features” section to do this. Once you enable your channel, you’ll see a “Live Events” option in your Video Manager.

2. Set Up Your Event

Click on “Live Events” in Video Manager and select “Create live event”. You will need to complete the “Basic Info” section on the “Info and Settings” page:

1. Enter a title for your event, description and keyword tags. Make your description is clear and specific, explaining the basics of the event and the content in the minimum number of words.
2. Schedule the date of the event and start andend times.
3. Select a security setting for your event. Choose ‘Public’ if you want to make your event available to everyone or ‘Private’ if you want to limit who can join. You can invite guests specific guests or Google+ Circles. The “Unlisted” option allows you to have a public event that won’t be publicly promoted on Google+.
4. Under ‘Type’ select ‘Quick.’ This option is also known as a Hangout on Air.

3. Choose Your Customization Options

Now complete the “Advanced settings”:

1. YouTube Live Events gives you the option of having a live chat facility. This enables viewers to ask questions and interact with you in real-time. Make sure you have this enabled. You will be able to moderate the comments as they come in.
2. Select the most relevant category for your event. This step is critical, because it will help people find you.
3. Make selections for your recording preferences. Once your event is over, it will be posted to your YouTube channel as well as your Google+ home page. From there you can edit it.
4. Click the “Create event” button. The event will now appear in the “Live Events” section of your Video Manager.

4. Run Off-air Demos

1. You can launch a demo by selecting ‘Start Hangout on Air’. This will prompt you to download the Hangouts plugin and enable security settings in your browser.
2. Once you have completed this, the Hangout on Air window will open and your webcam will launch.
3. You will notice options down the left hand side, allowing you to control chat, share your screen, capture a photo, invite and manage event participants, add special effects and share YouTube videos. Feel free to play around with these options.
4. To the bottom right of the screen, you can see how many viewers you have.
5. Use the demo to test your microphone, camera and bandwidth.
6. Your final livestreamed product will be a direct reflection upon the amount of preparation you did, so rehearse.

5. It’s go time!

When it’s time for your event to start simply select "Start broadcast" and have some fun!

Livestreaming couldn’t be easier. With modest equipment you can create a great product. YouTube’s Hangout on Air option is ideal way to bring discussions, webinars, workshops to your clients. If this still seems complicated, please contact us, because we can help you learn how to livestream your event online.