Google Meets is a virtual meeting service (audio & video) provided in our Concordia Google Suite. It integrates well with Google Calendar and Mail along with other Google services. External guests, however, have posed challenges for some, as they try to manage meetings.
What is an External Guest?
An external guest is a participant in a CUE-hosted Google Meet who does not use (or have) a CUE Google account. They may be an invited speaker, a contractor, or any other sort of individual participating in a CUE meeting or class. They are distinguished from CUE participants, who are anyone participating in the Google Meet using their CUE Google account (either @student.concordia.ab.ca or @concordia.ab.ca). Therefore, an instructor or student who connects to a Google Meet and does not use their CUE Google account will be treated as an external user.
Unlike CUE participants, guests are not automatically permitted entry into Google Meets. They make a request to join, which must be approved by the meeting owner.
Who is a Meeting Owner?
In simple terms, a meeting owner is the organizer of a Google Meet, however, there are some caveats to that statement (see below). As the owner, they have additional functions in the meeting that other participants do not have such as creating muting other participants, creating polls, etc. For the purposes of this guide, the key feature that the meeting owner has is the ability to admit external guests into the meeting. If the owner/organizer of the meeting does not join the meeting, there will be nobody on the call to actually admit those external guests when they make the request.
How do I successfully organize a meeting with external guests?
In most cases, the process is simple and familiar.
- You create a calendar event
- Add the videoconferencing functionality
- Add the guests and send out invites
- At the scheduled time, join your Google Meet
- When they make their request, allow external guests to join.