Hold a Digital Event in Minecraft

As COVID-19 concerns prompted school closures around the world, many schools found creative ways to hold their major end-of-year events, such as proms, graduations and university campus tours in digital spaces – and Minecraft is a favorite destination.  Here are a few amazing examples of students using Minecraft to host events and bring their school communities together: 

Cal students create a virtual UC Berkeley campus for online graduation (ABC 7 News)

Minecraft graduation: Japanese students hold graduation ceremony in Minecraft!  (HITC)

MIT students painstakingly recreated their iconic campus in Minecraft (Business Insider)

Campus Is Closed, So College Students Are Rebuilding Their Schools In Minecraft (The Verge)

UPenn students recreated their campus on 'Minecraft' in painstaking detail while stuck at home (Business Insider)

UGA students organize virtual graduation ceremony on Minecraft (TheRed&Black.com)

Quaranteen University: Come graduate in Minecraft

I want to host a graduation, prom or other large event using Minecraft. How can I do this?

This is an awesome idea! There are two different ways you can do this in Minecraft Education, via Dedicated Servers or with Peer-2-Peer connections. 

If you plan to host more than 40 players, a Dedicated Server is the best path for this! Dedicated Servers require some setup from your IT Administration team, but are generally more performant, allow an unlimited number of connections (within the server’s hardware resources), and IT Admins can even setup connections between schools to allow other users to join your event. You can learn how to set these up here: Dedicated Server FAQ

For smaller events that only require a few players, you can also use Peer-2-Peer connections. These sessions are much simpler to setup but only allow up to 40 players to join at one time. The real number of players is highly determined by the host devices resources. They can be hosted with a press of a button but cannot allow users from other schools to join. You can learn more about these here: How To Set Up A Multiplayer Game

How can I invite others to my Minecraft event?

How can I get help building an awesome Minecraft world for my event?

Minecraft has a global community of creators who can recreate your campus, school theater, or just about any venue you can imagine within Minecraft.   Visit the Minecraft Education Content Creators page to learn more.

How can I live broadcast my Minecraft event?

You can use Microsoft Teams to schedule your event and share it with others. For example, you could build and host a Minecraft world that's a replica of your college auditorium or stadium and host a small number of faculty and the graduates inside that world.

Then, the graduates' friends, family, and guests, along with all other members of your educational institution, can join a Microsoft Teams live event broadcasting the Minecraft world as students take part in their virtual graduation.

Those guests on the Microsoft Teams call won't need a Minecraft license, and they won't count against the maximum number of players in your Minecraft world.

For more information, see Get started with Microsoft Teams live events.

If music or other third-party content will be part of your event, it is your responsibility to secure any appropriate licenses or permissions.

Where can I find additional resources?

• Microsoft Virtual Graduation Toolkit
• Minecraft Education Multiplayer Guide
• Minecraft Education Remote Learning Guide