Forum Discussion
Creating a link to opt-in to Teams Meetings/add to Outlook calendars
We're a trade union and host a number of meetings each month that we advertise to our members. Our members list is confidential, so we can't add members to the events in the way you normally would for work events. Instead, we create a teams meeting and invite the named officers (whose membership is public knowledge). We then copy the meeting link to each of the meetings and send them to members via email. Members then have to remember to manually add this to their Outlook calendars. Some use out-of-organisation emails to access these meetings. With the barrage of emails that are sent, many forget to add meetings to their calendars and then subsequently forget that the event is happening.
Is there a way that colleagues could add themselves to an invite? Is there a link or perhaps power automate tool that could add this event to their diaries if they were to click a link that we sent? It would need to be opt-in as some don't want their membership known and don't attend meetings.
Hello MWalmsley1810 ,
To allow colleagues to add themselves to an invite for your trade union meetings and have the event automatically added to their calendars, you can utilize the "Add to Calendar" feature in Microsoft Teams. This feature generates an .ics file (iCalendar) that can be imported into various calendar applications, including Outlook, Google Calendar, and others. By providing a link to the .ics file, colleagues can opt-in to add the event to their calendars. Here's how you can set it up:
1. Schedule the Meeting in Microsoft Teams:
- Create a Teams meeting as you currently do and invite the named officers.
- Set the meeting details, such as the date, time, and agenda.2. Generate the .ics File:
- After scheduling the meeting, go to the meeting chat in Microsoft Teams.
- In the chat, locate the meeting information message, which typically contains the meeting details and the "Join Microsoft Teams Meeting" link.
- Click on the "More actions" (three dots) button next to the meeting information message.
- From the menu, select "Add to calendar."3. Obtain the .ics File Link:
- After clicking "Add to calendar," Microsoft Teams will generate the .ics file.
- Download the .ics file to your local machine.4. Distribute the .ics File Link:
- Upload the .ics file to a location accessible by your colleagues, such as a shared network folder, an intranet site, or an email attachment.
- Send an email to your colleagues, including the link to the .ics file and instructions on how to add the event to their calendars.When colleagues receive the email and click on the .ics file link, their calendar application (Outlook, Google Calendar, etc.) should open and prompt them to add the event to their calendar. They can review the event details and choose to accept or decline the invitation.
It's important to inform your colleagues that opting in to add the event to their calendars is voluntary. This way, those who don't want their membership known or don't wish to attend the meetings can choose not to add the event to their calendars.
By using the "Add to Calendar" feature and providing the .ics file link, you can simplify the process for colleagues to add the meetings to their calendars and reduce the chances of them forgetting about the events.
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This solution doesn't work for us.
I created ICS files as per instructions. Uploaded them to our shared drives (we are a Microsoft shop where I work) and I linked in my email to this ics file.
However my colleagues see this when they click on it
Why isn't it just opening in Outlook as event to be saved??
Why is it so difficult to get something that simple done? Microsoft, do better!
- To further this conversation, we also get the "missing preview" notice above AND as of the last Microsoft update, a cybersecurity warning people that their download folder is a dangerous place. We're very interested in a resolution for this. We use SharePoint as the place that hosts the ics file, but will probably move to something less complicated.
We're not allowed to PUSH invites onto our employees and often have multiple meeting times, so employees do have to pull the invites as they choose. A solution to this would be great.
Deleted This is really helpful thank you. This might be beyond scope, but we also like to mailmerge a number of these emails and I'm conscious that you can't add attachments when mailmerging emails. Would the workaround have to be to upload the file somewhere on a shared drive and then share access to the file?
This looks like an AI-generated answer, so may very well be incomplete/inaccurate.
