Olivia McKay, Operations Manager, Arlington Chamber of Commerce
Mastering breakout rooms will give your events a professional feel and allow attendees to focus on their experience. Use this checklist to make sure you are set up for success.
Mastering breakout rooms will give your events a professional feel and allow attendees to focus on their experience. Use this checklist to make sure you are set up for success.
Enable breakout rooms
Before you start your meeting, you will need to make sure breakout rooms are enabled. When you login to the Zoom homepage, go to settings and turn on Breakout rooms. Breakout rooms cannot be enabled from the Zoom app – this feature is exclusive to the online settings.
Before you start your meeting, you will need to make sure breakout rooms are enabled. When you login to the Zoom homepage, go to settings and turn on Breakout rooms. Breakout rooms cannot be enabled from the Zoom app – this feature is exclusive to the online settings.
Starting Your Breakout Rooms
To start your breakout rooms, click the breakout room button on the actions bar at the bottom of your screen. This will only be available if you enabled breakout rooms in the first step.
To start your breakout rooms, click the breakout room button on the actions bar at the bottom of your screen. This will only be available if you enabled breakout rooms in the first step.
The first step is deciding how many rooms to create. Zoom will tell you how many people will go in each room as you increase the number of rooms. Depending on your event, increase the number of rooms until you have the right room size.
There are three options when starting your breakout rooms:
-Assign automatically: Attendees will be randomly sorted into rooms evenly
-Assign manually: You will have to choose where each attendee goes in each room
-Let participants choose room: This feature will only work if attendees have their Zoom updated to the latest version. This gives participants the ability to self-select which room they would like to join without needing intervention from the host.
Choose the option that works best for your event. Assigning automatically is the least time consuming, while letting participants choose their own rooms can take longer, if all attendees are not updated to the latest version of Zoom. If you decide you want to let attendees choose their own room after you’ve created the rooms, you can adjust in the breakout room settings (more details below).
There are three options when starting your breakout rooms:
-Assign automatically: Attendees will be randomly sorted into rooms evenly
-Assign manually: You will have to choose where each attendee goes in each room
-Let participants choose room: This feature will only work if attendees have their Zoom updated to the latest version. This gives participants the ability to self-select which room they would like to join without needing intervention from the host.
Choose the option that works best for your event. Assigning automatically is the least time consuming, while letting participants choose their own rooms can take longer, if all attendees are not updated to the latest version of Zoom. If you decide you want to let attendees choose their own room after you’ve created the rooms, you can adjust in the breakout room settings (more details below).
Setting breakout room options
Before opening your breakout rooms, be sure to review the breakout room options. The options will be automatically set to settings you last used for breakouts.
Before opening your breakout rooms, be sure to review the breakout room options. The options will be automatically set to settings you last used for breakouts.
-Allow participants to choose room – This option lets attendees pick which room they want without assistance from the host.
-Allow participants to return to the main session at any time – This option creates a “Leave Room” button during the breakouts. You should always check this if you allow participants to choose their own room, in case they have issues and need to return to the main session for help.
-Move all participants to Breakout Rooms – This option automatically moves all participants to a Breakout Room when you select the Open All Rooms option.
-Set a timer – You can put your Breakout Rooms on a timer that forces everyone to return to the main session when the timer expires.
-Countdown after closing Breakout Rooms – This option gives participants in Breakout Rooms a visible countdown to when they will return to the main session, giving participants the time they need to wrap up the discussion. The Broadcasting message feature only lasts for a short time, so attendees might not see your messages that time is almost up!
Managing Attendees In Rooms
-Allow participants to return to the main session at any time – This option creates a “Leave Room” button during the breakouts. You should always check this if you allow participants to choose their own room, in case they have issues and need to return to the main session for help.
-Move all participants to Breakout Rooms – This option automatically moves all participants to a Breakout Room when you select the Open All Rooms option.
-Set a timer – You can put your Breakout Rooms on a timer that forces everyone to return to the main session when the timer expires.
-Countdown after closing Breakout Rooms – This option gives participants in Breakout Rooms a visible countdown to when they will return to the main session, giving participants the time they need to wrap up the discussion. The Broadcasting message feature only lasts for a short time, so attendees might not see your messages that time is almost up!
Managing Attendees In Rooms
You can view how the attendees are broken out in the breakout room window. To move attendees to a new room, or exchange them for another attendee, hover over their name to reveal the options. Once you are satisfied with the room placement, click “Open All Rooms.” You cannot add more rooms while the breakouts are open.
If attendees join after you start the breakout rooms, they will appear on this screen as “Unassigned.” To assign them to a room, hover over their name and choose their room. As soon as you click their room assignment, they will be moved into that room.
If attendees join after you start the breakout rooms, they will appear on this screen as “Unassigned.” To assign them to a room, hover over their name and choose their room. As soon as you click their room assignment, they will be moved into that room.
Additionally, here are some limitations of Zoom meetings to keep in mind:
-While using breakout rooms are that the chat feature will only send/receive messages within the same room.
-The preloading breakout function can be tricky to use. Make sure you are using the Zoom template to create your rooms.
-After your rooms conclude, you can recreate the rooms using the automatic assignment tool as a randomizer. The more people you have in the meeting, the better it will work as a randomizer. With less people, you will have to do more manual exchanges to make unique rooms.
The more breakout rooms you have, the better you will get at it. This is a hard feature to practice by yourself. If you’re using breakout rooms for a work event, test the technology with your staff beforehand. You can find more information on breakout rooms, meetings, webinars, and more on Zoom’s comprehensive help center.
The Chamber is here as a resource and can assist with Zoom questions you may have. Send all Zoom questions to Operations Manager, Olivia McKay, at chamber@arlingtonchamber.org
-While using breakout rooms are that the chat feature will only send/receive messages within the same room.
-The preloading breakout function can be tricky to use. Make sure you are using the Zoom template to create your rooms.
-After your rooms conclude, you can recreate the rooms using the automatic assignment tool as a randomizer. The more people you have in the meeting, the better it will work as a randomizer. With less people, you will have to do more manual exchanges to make unique rooms.
The more breakout rooms you have, the better you will get at it. This is a hard feature to practice by yourself. If you’re using breakout rooms for a work event, test the technology with your staff beforehand. You can find more information on breakout rooms, meetings, webinars, and more on Zoom’s comprehensive help center.
The Chamber is here as a resource and can assist with Zoom questions you may have. Send all Zoom questions to Operations Manager, Olivia McKay, at chamber@arlingtonchamber.org
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