Every webinar runs on Demio, and the thing that trips people up most is roles — who logs in, who presents, and whose name shows up in the chat. Here's how it works.
The one rule to remember
Someone always has to log in with your Demio credentials to run a webinar. That person is the Host — they start and stop the session. Presenters and moderators cannot enter the webinar room until the host has joined and started it, so the host has to be present for the event to happen at all.
The three roles
Host — the person logged in with the Demio account. Starts and stops the session, invites people on stage, and runs spotlight — plus everything a presenter and moderator can do. There is only ever one host: whoever is logged into the Demio account.
Presenter — goes on camera, shares their screen, presents slides, and can manage materials, resources, and chat. A presenter cannot start or stop the session.
Moderator — works behind the scenes: manages chat and resources, and can view and remove attendees. No camera.
Full permissions by role
Capability | Host | Presenter | Moderator |
Start/Stop Session | ✓ | ||
Join Stage* | ✓ | ✓ | |
Enable Webcam/Mic* | ✓ | ✓ | |
Enable Virtual Background* | ✓ | ✓ | |
Share Screen | ✓ | ✓ | |
Manage Materials | ✓ | ✓ | |
Manage Resources | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Manage Chat | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
View Attendees List & Ban Attendees | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Invite Attendees on Stage | ✓ | ||
Enable Spotlight Mode | ✓ |
* Presenters use these once they've joined the stage — that's how they turn on their webcam, mic, and virtual background.
The most common setups
You're doing everything yourself
Log in with the Demio credentials — you're the host, presenter, and moderator all in one. You start the session and present.
You have an assistant and you only want to present
Your assistant logs in with the Demio credentials — that makes them the host, so they start and stop the session and run the CTAs, polls, and chat. We add you as a presenter so you can focus purely on presenting.
You have a bigger team
A host to run the session, one or more presenters on camera, and a moderator to handle chat behind the scenes.
The name-in-chat gotcha
This is the part that surprises people. The name shown in Demio's top bar and on chat messages is the name on the logged-in Demio account — not necessarily the person typing. So if your account is under one person's name and someone else logs in with it and posts in the chat, it will still show that account's name.
If more than one person will run your webinars, we recommend renaming the Demio account to your business name, so the chat always looks right no matter who is logged in.
If you want messages to appear under a specific person's real name, add them as a team member in Demio and give them a webinar role — then they log in as themselves.
Setting it up
Just tell your account team who's hosting and who's presenting for each event, and we'll configure the roles for you.