I share here a best practice how to handle open calls, webinars or any events if you are also using Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams and want to share the event in an open platform like HCL Connections ESN. (without inviting your whole company via Outlook; pull vs. push)
Current Limitations
HCL Connections does not offer a full integration with Microsoft Outlook in regards to Event handling.
See the idea here IDEACNCTNS-I-1612
Microsoft Teams will soon release a better way to offer Webinars.
If you want to share an open meeting to many, it can be quite tricky.
You could share a Teams meeting link but still receivers won't get the meeting directly in their calendar and you won't know as well who accepted the invitation.
Key trick: share Outlook meeting via ics file
The key idea is to create the (Teams) meeting in your Outlook and then export it as .ics file and share this file with others.
The second key learning is that you shall create a real meeting (not an appointment), which means, before the export, you have to send the meeting invitation to someone (you can use yourself, yes you properly read: you have to invite at least yourself and SEND the invitation)
The magical part of doing like this, is that if someone then imports the .ics in their calendar and accepts the meeting, you will see them added as Optional Attendees (cc field) to your original meeting.
This is pretty nice to have an overview of who accepted the invitation - directly in your Outlook meeting.
Better handling of Connections Event
With this, there is not really the need to import the Event with participants from Connections to Outlook anymore. (like you can do with the Connections Enhancer)
Simply add a link to the ics file in the Connections event to let the other import the event to their calendar. (Instead of using the Connections import to calendar feature which will break the rich text format and won't provide any feedback to the organizer.)
Update handling
If you update the event, you need to re-export the ics file and overwrite the shared version.
Note: people that have already accepted the original ics file, will be automatically informed about the update (since they become part of the attendees)
But for new attendees, you need to update the shared ics file.
You would need also to adjust the time (if changed) in the Connections event.
Pro-tip: share direct download link to ics in OneDrive
To share the ics file, I personally like to upload it to my OneDrive Public location.
If you share the link using the normal share link feature (the link looks like something like: https://<tenant>-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/<ouid>_com/ERs7-HHqkRJJjsf06svAGgoBP5YZ_ffCXyvBbIEi7-YJcA?e=QAc4HM) , it won't be a direct download link but look like this when opening it
Whereas if you use such a direct neutral link https://<tenant>-my.sharepoint.com/personal/<ouid>/Documents/Pictures/GUIDEs/VR%20GUIDE%20Event%20-%20Forward%20to%20the%20Future%20-%20Option%202.ics it will automatically download the file when clicking on it.
You can get such direct link easily from the File Explorer using the NWS PowerTool and the IntelliPaste feature (Ctrl+C and Ins).
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