Breakout Session Best Practices

We’re going to make a bold claim: breakout sessions are just as important as any other part of an event. While general sessions allow full teams to come together and align on messaging and galas allow everyone to celebrate together, breakouts are often the only opportunity for smaller teams to meet. This allows for educational sessions with specific, targeted topics, opportunities to network, hands-on workshops, geographic-specific information, and more. Because of this, breakouts are often where people get a lot of the specific tools and resources they’ll need to use on a day-to-day basis.

And yet, because breakouts are smaller in size and every attendee won’t pass through each one, these very important sessions often become an afterthought.

Keep reading to learn more about how you can uplevel your breakouts so that attendees can get the most out of your event.

Understanding The Goal of Your Breakouts.

Sometimes the goal of a breakout is to share information or initiatives that are specific to people in certain roles or located in a specific geographic area. Other times, it’s to offer hands-on training so that attendees may complete a certification. Perhaps the purpose of the breakout is to demonstrate the functionality of a new tool so that attendees get excited about using it. 

Before the breakout organizers even start to plan their session or create a list of speakers, it’s important that they define what the goal of the session is. This will allow us, as your production partner, to be proactive in crafting an experience and selecting elements that allow you to reach them.

Offer a Wider Variety of Breakout Formats.

Each breakout has a unique purpose to serve, and it only makes sense that a purely informational session will have different setup needs than a hands-on training demonstration.

Instead of trying to force the content of each breakout session to fit into one pre-determined room set-up, consider letting the planners of each breakout determine what will work best for their attendees. 

Are they hoping to foster networking and collaboration? If so, seating in rounds may be more effective than auditorium-style seating. Does the session rely heavily on visuals? If so, the setup should emphasize any visual displays. If not, maybe the space would be better utilized on physical items that are needed for a hands-on demonstration. Is there a workshop that requires specific equipment? Will ramps be needed to get the equipment onto a stage? Is the equipment big enough for everybody to see it, or would having space for multiple sets be beneficial?

By giving planners the option to stray from one set format, they’ll be able to figure out how to share their information in the best way possible – not the only way possible. 

We also highly recommend that clients plan to have at least one breakout room that is prepared to do live streaming, even if nobody has planned to use the feature. This is because, as much as everybody tries to mitagate challenges, the unfortunate reality is that sometimes attendance can be disrupted by things outside of anyone’s control. From weather concerns that keep large groups of attendees from traveling to illnesses that could keep a key guest speaker from being with us in-person, having the option to stream a breakout to remote attendees or bring in a speaker virtually is great to have.

*Pro Tip: If you are hoping to livestream a session to a virtual audience or make an archival recording, let your production partner know as soon as possible! Some adjustments may need to be made to the room design or setup approach to ensure that the space is maximized for cameras and recording.

Invest in More Breakout Technicians.

Because many organizations view their breakouts as an afterthought, they feel that one floating technician is sufficient to manage every single breakout room. However, when there is only one floating tech, their time and attention is split between several groups which limits their ability to provide necessary hands-on support.

In fact, the role of a floating technician is really just to get presenters set up, make sure everything is powered on and running properly, and troubleshoot any issues that arise. With only one floating technician, no single room is able to have dedicated attention, which limits what each group is able to do during their breakout session.

Additionally, when only one floating tech is used, they are responsible for mic’ing every single presenter and making sure they are ready to go. If the presenter (or several presenters) arrive later than their call time, which isn’t unusual with breakouts, the floating tech may not be able to get each person mic’d up before the sessions start, which can lead to late start times. Not to mention, some presenters may bring presentations in incompatible formats, not understand how to connect their computers to the visual displays, and require one-on-one assistance. This can delay start times even further and create a cascading ripple effect that impacts the schedule for the entire event.

When more breakout technicians are utilized, groups are able to design their sessions more thoughtfully, creating an experience that serves the needs of the attendees and prioritizes their goals. Individual presenters get more hands-on attention, allowing them to get assistance if they need it. The schedule stays on track, as the technician is available to assist late presenters as soon as they walk through the door.

Investing in more breakout technicians gives more flexibility, makes the event run smoother, and allows attendees to get more from the experience.

If you’re looking to take your breakouts to the next level and get the most out of your events, reach out to us by email at [email protected] or telephone at (204) 226-5565.