Microsoft Extends Increase for Attendees in Live Events to June 2021

Limit Kept at 20,000 for Live Events Organized in Teams, Yammer, and Stream

Reflecting the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic means that people can no longer gather in large numbers for in-person events, in May 2020 Microsoft temporarily increased the normal attendee limit for live events run through Teams, Yammer, or Stream. The increase is from 10,000 to 20,000 attendees.

Since the limit was increased, Microsoft has reviewed and extended it several times. As the pandemic continues and it will take time for vaccines to be deployed, Microsoft has now extended the limit until June 30, 2021 (Office 365 notification MC225752 updated 17 December). After this point, a Teams advanced communications license will be needed to organize a live event for more than 10,000 participants or lasting more than four hours. That’s good for Teams, but Microsoft hasn’t said how tenants can license large Live events organized through Yammer or Stream.

For customers needing to run even larger online events, Microsoft has a live events assistance program that can increase the limit for an event to 100,000 attendees, which should be enough to cater for even the largest events.

Online Events Popular While In-Person Events Decline

Pretty well every in-person technology conference of any size scheduled for 2020 has been recast as an online event and all Microsoft events will be online until at least July 1, 2021.

Of course, many things must fall into place before a large-scale in-person event becomes feasible again. I hope this happens as I miss the buzz of large crowds and the chance to gorge on technology for a few days. I guess I must be weird…