Microsoft Teams for Meetings: Business Meeting Guide

Types of Teams Meetings

Teams supports several distinct meeting formats, each suited to different business scenarios. Understanding which format to use — and how each behaves — helps avoid common problems like unexpected admission issues or recording difficulties.

Scheduled Meetings

Created from the Teams Calendar or Outlook, scheduled meetings generate a join link that can be shared with internal and external participants. The meeting lobby, recording settings and participant permissions are all configurable at the meeting level. This is the standard format for client calls, team standups and project meetings.

Meet Now (Ad-Hoc Meetings)

Started instantly from the Teams chat or calendar without pre-scheduling. Useful for quick calls that don't warrant a calendar invite. Meet Now sessions behave like scheduled meetings in terms of features, but have no predefined participant list.

Channel Meetings

Scheduled within a Teams channel, making them visible to all channel members. A useful format for regular team meetings where all channel members should be able to join. Note that breakout rooms are not available in channel meetings.

Webinars

Available on Business Standard and above, Teams Webinars support registration, structured Q&A, and presenter-focused sessions for up to 1,000 attendees. Webinars are better suited to external events, training sessions with an audience, or company-wide broadcasts.

Town Halls

Town halls (formerly Live Events) support up to 10,000 attendees in a broadcast format, where most participants are view-only. These are available on Business Premium, E3 and E5 and are designed for large internal communications — all-staff briefings, executive updates, or major announcements.

Scheduling a Teams Meeting

To schedule a meeting, open the Teams Calendar and click New Meeting. Add attendees by name or email address (including external participants), set the date and time, and add an agenda in the description. The meeting join link is automatically generated and included in the calendar invite.

When inviting external participants (those outside your Microsoft 365 organisation), they'll receive an email invite with a join link. External attendees can join via a browser without needing a Teams account, though a Teams account provides a better experience.

Recurring Meetings

Teams supports daily, weekly, monthly and custom recurrence patterns. Changes to a recurring meeting can be applied to just the selected occurrence or all future instances. For recurring series that have been running for a long time, it's worth periodically reviewing and updating the attendee list.

Meeting Features

Lobby Management

The meeting lobby holds participants until the host admits them. By default, external guests are held in the lobby while internal users join directly. Lobby behaviour can be adjusted per meeting or via organisation-wide policy in the Teams Admin Centre. For sensitive client meetings, set the lobby to hold everyone until the organiser is ready.

Recording and Transcription

Recordings are available on Business Basic and above. Click More > Record & Transcribe > Start Recording. Recordings are saved to OneDrive (for scheduled meetings) and a link is shared in the meeting chat automatically. Transcription runs in parallel to recording and produces a searchable text record with speaker labels.

Note: recording policies can be set by IT administrators — some organisations restrict who can record. Check with your IT team if the recording option is greyed out.

Background Effects

Teams supports background blur and custom background images on both Windows and Mac. Video backgrounds are a standard expectation in client-facing meetings. Background effects can be applied before joining a meeting via the device settings screen.

Noise Suppression

Teams includes AI-powered noise suppression that filters out background sounds — keyboards, traffic, office noise. The suppression level (off, low, high, auto) can be adjusted in Settings > Devices. For staff working in open-plan offices, enabling high noise suppression significantly improves call quality for remote participants.

Reactions and Raise Hand

Participants can send emoji reactions and use Raise Hand to signal they want to speak without interrupting. The organiser can see raised hands in the participants panel and lower them once the person has spoken. This is particularly useful in larger meetings where everyone talking at once is a problem.

Presenter Mode

When screen sharing, Teams supports Presenter Mode options: Standout (your video overlaid on the shared content), Reporter (content shown over your shoulder), and Side-by-side. These options create a more polished presentation experience than simply sharing a window.

Meeting Best Practices for UK Businesses

• Use a calendar invite, not a chat message — scheduled meetings appear in attendees' calendars, reducing no-shows
• Set an agenda — even two bullet points in the meeting description helps attendees prepare
• Test audio before client calls — the device settings screen before joining a meeting lets you check microphone and speaker without entering the call
• Enable transcription for important meetings — transcripts are searchable and can be reviewed after the call without watching a full recording
• Use the meeting lobby for external attendees — avoid clients joining before you're ready by ensuring the lobby is active
• Assign a co-organiser — for larger meetings, a co-organiser can manage the lobby and participants while the host presents

Teams Meetings on Mobile

The Teams mobile app supports joining and hosting meetings on iOS and Android. Audio, video and screen sharing all work on mobile. For hosting complex meetings with breakout rooms or managing participants, the desktop app is preferable. Mobile is well-suited for joining meetings on the move or when a desktop isn't available.

Licensing for Meetings Features

Core meeting functionality (audio, video, screen sharing, chat) is available on all paid plans including Business Basic at £4.60/user/month. Meeting recording requires Business Basic and above. Webinars require Business Standard (£9.40/user/month) or higher. Town Halls require Business Premium (£17.60/user/month) or an Enterprise plan.

AMVIA can advise on which plan level is appropriate for your meeting requirements and configure Teams policies across your organisation to match your business needs.