BigBlueButton How-To

BigBlueButton is our conferencing system, along with Greenlight.

Information for Presenters

Be sure to test your full setup ahead of time to make sure event time isn't spent troubleshooting! Make sure your PC and internet connection can handle simultaneous voice, screensharing, etc.

You can get your own login at https://workshops.hope.net to set up a test room and get familiar with how things work. During HOPE, your workshop will be assigned a specific room, and the presenter and registered attendees will get the link by email before the session.

General Troubleshooting

• To reduce mayhem, most workshops do not allow participants to speak.
• I'm allowed to speak, but can't.
  Make sure you joined the conference in "Microphone" mode, not "Listen only" mode. You can click the headphones button at the bottom to disconnect audio, then click it again to re-join in a different mode.
• How can I ask a question?
  Ask your question in chat, or click your icon on the left to set your status to "Raise [hand]"
• The conference died!
  Wait a minute, then refresh. If that doesn't work, go back to the original meeting invite link and re-join the meeting.

Some details on BBB capabilities and use

• Workshops will happen over Big Blue Button (BBB).
• Test out BBB the day before your first workshop presentation, using your own BBB room.
• You can share your screen with your workshop participants. This works for PowerPoint and other presentation software, but it doesn'twork well at all for video or audio recordings.
• What works better for PowerPoint, PDF, MS Office, Libre Office, or photos for presentations/documents is uploading them to BBB. But max file size is 30MB, so if you have a larger presentation, break it up into smaller files, and upload all of them. You can switch between presentations during your workshop in BBB.
• If you have a video or audio recording, the best thing to do is to upload it to YouTube, Vimeo, Instructure Media, Twitch or Daily Motion. You can then share the video url on BBB during your workshop.
• You can log in to your workshop with both your laptop and a phone/tablet. You can use your phone/tablet as another camera for showing close-ups of what you want to show to your participants. If you do this, be sure to turn mute both the mic in BBB and the speaker on your phone/tablet.
• You can record your workshop while you're giving it -- there is a "Start Recording" button at the top of the screen of BBB.

Having other issues? Please reach out to your assigned workshop support person or our NOC.