Inviting people to a meeting

Inviting people to a meeting (merged article draft)

Sep 21, 2026 · @Rohith

Inviting people to a meeting

Facilitators can invite people to a retrospective, health check or estimation meeting. You choose each person's role when you invite them, either from the invite dialog that appears when you create the meeting, or from the TEAM side panel once the meeting has started.

To bring in someone from outside your organization, such as a client, contractor or external coach, invite them as a guest.

Which role do I need?

| Role | Best for | Adds ideas and votes | Added to the team | Anonymity | Plan | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Participant | Team members taking part as normal | Yes | Yes | Depends on meeting settings | All plans | | Facilitator + Participant | Running the meeting and taking part. This is the default for whoever creates the meeting. | Yes | Yes | Depends on meeting settings | All plans | | Facilitator only | Running the meeting without influencing the outcome | No | Yes | Depends on meeting settings | All plans | | Guest | People outside your organization joining a single meeting, such as a client or external coach | Yes | No | Depends on meeting settings | Enterprise | | Observer | Leaders, coaches or new team members who want to watch and learn | No | No | Always named | Enterprise |

A guest takes part in one meeting but isn't added to your team. An observer can watch but can't take part, and is always named so participants know who is in the room.

For the full list of permissions for each role, see TeamRetro Roles and Permissions.

Inviting your team

People you invite as participants are added to your team once they accept, so use this for colleagues who will join your meetings regularly. To add people to your team outside a meeting, see Adding team members.

Inviting people when you create a meeting

1. Browse to your team HOME page.
2. Navigate to the RETROSPECTIVES, HEALTH CHECKS or ESTIMATIONS tab and create a meeting from a template. An invite dialog will appear.
3. Invite people by EMAIL, or copy the CODE/LINK and send it to them. By default, they join as participants.
4. Once they accept, they will be added to your team.

Inviting your whole team immediately

When you create a retrospective, health check, maturity model or estimation, you can invite everyone on your team in one step.

1. Navigate to the RETROSPECTIVES, HEALTH CHECKS or ESTIMATIONS tab and select a template.
2. Toggle on INVITE TEAM IMMEDIATELY.
3. When you start the meeting, every team member will receive an email invite. If you have connected Slack or Microsoft Teams, a link to join will also be posted in that channel.

Inviting people after the meeting has started

1. Click on the TEAM side panel.
2. Click on INVITE TEAM, then enter their email address or copy the join link.

If someone should take part without being added to your team, invite them as a guest instead (Enterprise plans only).

Inviting a facilitator

Facilitators can modify meeting settings, invite participants, move the meeting between steps, group ideas, and add actions and agreements. There are two facilitator roles:

• FACILITATOR + PARTICIPANT runs the meeting and takes part as normal. This is the default role for whoever creates the meeting.
• FACILITATOR ONLY runs the meeting and joins the discussion, but doesn't add ideas, votes, ratings, estimates, poll answers or standup updates. This keeps the facilitator from influencing the outcome.

Inviting someone as a facilitator

1. Click on the TEAM side panel.
2. Click on INVITE TEAM and enter their email, or click on the name of someone already in the meeting.
3. Set their role to FACILITATOR ONLY or FACILITATOR + PARTICIPANT.

Changing your own facilitator role

1. In the meeting, click on the TEAM side panel, then click on your name.
2. Select FACILITATOR ONLY or FACILITATOR + PARTICIPANT from the dropdown.

Claiming the facilitator role

If the facilitator isn't in the meeting, a participant can take over.

1. Click on the TEAM side panel.
2. Click on BECOME FACILITATOR. You will now be listed as the facilitator of the meeting.

Inviting a guest

Inviting guests is available on Enterprise plans only.

A guest joins a single retrospective, health check or estimation and contributes like a participant. Guests aren't added to your team and can't see any other team data, team pages or account pages. Use this for people outside your organization, such as a client, contractor or external coach.

1. Browse to your team HOME page.
2. Navigate to the RETROSPECTIVES, HEALTH CHECKS or ESTIMATIONS tab and create a meeting from a template. An invite dialog will appear.
3. If it doesn't, click on the TEAM side panel, then click on INVITE TEAM.
4. Click on the GUEST LINK tab and copy the link.
5. Send the link to your guest.

Once they join, they will be labeled as a guest in the TEAM side panel.

Not on an Enterprise plan? You can invite them as a participant instead, which adds them to your team. To send meeting summaries and actions to people who didn't attend, use SHARE in the CLOSE step. [CONFIRM: can SHARE send to email addresses outside the team?]

Inviting an observer

Inviting observers is available on Enterprise plans only.

Observers watch a meeting without taking part. Unlike participants, observers:

• are always named, whatever the meeting's anonymity setting, so participants know who is in the room
• can't add ideas, vote, react, rate or comment
• are named in reports but aren't counted in participation stats

You can invite someone to observe a single meeting, or make them a team observer so they're invited to every meeting.

Inviting a meeting observer

Meeting observers aren't added to your team.

1. Browse to your team HOME page.
2. Navigate to the RETROSPECTIVES or HEALTH CHECKS tab and create a meeting from a template. An invite dialog will appear.
3. Invite the person by EMAIL or CODE/LINK and set their role to OBSERVER ONLY.
4. Once they accept, they will appear as an observer in the TEAM side panel.

A facilitator can change a meeting observer's role during the meeting.

Inviting a team observer

Team observers are automatically invited as non-participating observers to every retrospective, health check and estimation. They can view meeting outcomes, team insights and trends, which makes this a good fit for managers, coaches and stakeholders who need visibility. A team observer always joins as an observer.

1. Browse to your team HOME page.
2. Navigate to the MEMBERS page.
3. If the person isn't a member yet, invite them first. See Adding team members.
4. Find their name and change their role to OBSERVER from the team role dropdown.

They will now be invited as an observer to future meetings.

Publishing notes (internal, remove before publishing)

Article name: Inviting people to a meeting

Keywords: invite, inviting, invite team, guest, guest link, external, outside organization, client, observer, team observer, facilitator, facilitator only, facilitator + participant, become facilitator, invite team immediately, meeting roles

| Article | Action | | --- | --- | | 334 Inviting guests | Unpublish, redirect here | | 416 Inviting observers | Unpublish, redirect here | | 420 Inviting Facilitators | Unpublish, redirect here | | 176 Assigning or changing facilitators | Unpublish, redirect here | | 345 Invite team members immediately | Unpublish, redirect here | | 175 Adding team members | Keep, link here from its meeting invite section | | 147 TeamRetro Roles and Permissions | Keep |