Event professionals in 2026 are hoping to organize events that not only pull in crowds but also keep them engaged throughout. Event managers are realizing that events and conferences wherein attendees conveniently zone out or never pay attention in the first place are only superficial. In a way, such events invalidate the larger efforts of everyone involved, including you, your team, your speakers and even your technical staff.
Upon looking at these fragmented components of organizing an event, we see that, as a whole, the end goal is an event that attendees have something meaningful to take away. Therefore, when that is missing, event organizers are forced to confront a disappointing reality. This year, it is not enough to schedule rooms, send calendar invites and just hope for the best. It is time for event professionals to take charge and steer events toward effectiveness and attendee engagement. And an incredible way to do so is to experiment with what are referred to as ‘breakout rooms.’
Breakout rooms are a term that you have probably already heard of. However, do you really understand its purpose, its structure and effectiveness? If you are still stuck on believing that breakout rooms are merely segregating individuals into smaller groups and waiting for conversation to happen, you are unfortunately mistaken. Breakout rooms need to be well-conceived and later executed with proper measures when things do not go as planned.
But do not fret, whether you are a beginner or have organized unsatisfactory breakout room sessions before, we’re giving you an exhaustive rundown of all that it takes to make your next breakout room truly count.
What Makes Breakout Sessions Worth the Effort?
The name itself is quite telling of their purpose. Attendees ‘break out’ of large auditorium settings into smaller groups. The term ‘session’, in this context, refers to focused time dedicated to specific topics. A major denominator in most unsuccessful university events today is that event planners are taking the dreaded one-size-fits-all route.
Event organizers, in order to accommodate everyone in a single venue, default to large presentations that leave little room for interaction. Organizers, who often cannot dedicate resources to multiple concurrent sessions, resort to simplified programming. This is hardly sustainable when you look at the bigger picture and the goal of your conference. But these challenges are certainly what we intend to help you resolve with this guide, teaching you how to plan effective breakout sessions.
How Breakout Sessions Actually Work
In practice, organizing breakout sessions is similar to creating multiple mini-events within your larger conference. Each session becomes its own contained experience with distinct objectives, facilitators and participant groups. These are, in effect, focused gatherings capable of establishing general interest in deep learning, thereby cutting down the passive lecture format that dominates so many university events.
Well-designed breakout sessions are ones that will help academic communities grow more mindful and become more present. It is notable that events that previously struggled to create interactive programming, largely owing to it being time-consuming and complex to coordinate, can achieve better attendee engagement by using breakout rooms and sessions.
Understanding Different Breakout Session Formats
Breakout sessions come in several varieties, each serving different purposes. Some of the most popular formats in academic and scholarly gatherings include the following:
-
- Discussion-based sessions work best for exploring controversial topics or sharing diverse perspectives.
- Skill-building workshops allow participants to practice new competencies in real-time.
- Panel discussions bring together multiple experts who can address complex questions.
It is important to note that the format you choose depends almost entirely on your event’s objectives. One form is not necessarily better than the other. And no one format is guaranteed to work for all of your events.
It is on the event planner and the managerial team to collectively decide what breakout session format will best suit your big day. There are some general directions that can assist in this segmentation, but the final call is best when taken based on human intuition and insight. Afterall, it is humans that we are working with and whom we hope to engage to the fullest.
For example, a session about research methods calls for hands-on practice, whereas something to do with policymaking or diplomacy will benefit more when dialogue happens openly in your breakout rooms, leaning more toward panel discussions. Knowing how to differentiate and when to go over these distinctions is important when you want to avoid the common mistake of forcing every topic into the same presentation template.
Planning Your Breakout Session Structure
The planning phase determines everything. Start out by identifying your overarching event theme, then brainstorm subtopics that warrant deeper exploration. Survey your expected attendees beforehand. This data will help you create sessions that address real needs rather than assumed ones.
Consider the number of concurrent sessions carefully. Running too many sessions confuses your audience and leaves some rooms sparsely attended. Running too few forces attendees to skip topics they care about. A good rule of thumb is offering between three and five concurrent sessions for every 100 attendees, though this varies based on interest diversity.
The length of your breakout sessions also matters significantly. Students and faculty usually have fairly limited attention spans, particularly during multi-day events. Sessions running 45 to 75 minutes typically work best. You will also benefit from building in 15-minute breaks between each of your sessions. This allows for a breather and for some movement in and between rooms, cutting down on the cardinal event management sin of schedule congestion.
Selecting Facilitators Who Can Actually Facilitate Breakout Rooms
The person leading each breakout session can make or break the experience. Look for facilitators who combine subject matter expertise with strong communication skills. A brilliant researcher who cannot explain concepts clearly will struggle in this format. Conversely, an engaging speaker without sufficient knowledge depth won’t satisfy attendees seeking substantive content. Also consider diversity when you are assembling your facilitation team.
Include voices across different departments, career stages and backgrounds. Graduate students offer fresh perspectives and relatability. Senior faculty bring authority and breadth of experience. External speakers provide industry know-how that complements academic viewpoints. Provide facilitators with clear guidelines about session objectives, expected outcomes and time management. Share demographic information about likely attendees. Encourage them to prepare interactive elements rather than defaulting to lecture-style presentations.
Choosing Venues That Support Your Goals
Room selection significantly impacts the breakout session experience. Each space should accommodate your expected group size comfortably. Not so cramped that people feel uncomfortable, not so large that the room feels empty.
-
- For discussion-based sessions, rooms with movable furniture allow for circle or small-group arrangements that facilitate conversation.
- Technical requirements vary by session type, so make sure that each room has reliable WiFi, particularly for workshops that involve digital tools.
- Acoustic considerations also matter more than many organizers realize. A room that echoes sound is a terrible turn-off for attendees. And just as frustrating is a mic that screeches when the speaker moves around. Rooms with poor sound insulation add on to your breakout room woes. When you are letting multiple loud sessions run simultaneously in adjacent spaces, you are immediately pulling the room’s energy down. If your venue has thin walls, try to avoid scheduling high-energy workshops next to discussion groups that prefer quiet, introspective discussions.
- Sticking and placing clear signage will help you save some very perplexed attendees who attempt to find the right hallway. Attendees may run late despite being well ahead of time for the session. To avoid this, post room numbers, session titles and facilitator names prominently outside each venue.
Solutions Are Available
When you can execute a breakout session well, the ROI is plenty. You have attendees who are more engaged than ever. And they actually seem to have connected with the core purpose of your event or conference. This keeps them coming back to your host spaces out of trust and belief in your events.
But managing all these moving parts and several different breakout sessions manually can quickly become very overwhelming. This is where your event team can benefit from software and automated assistance. Dryfta, for instance, is our event management software and works diligently to simplify the entire process for you.
We also have specific tools to help make your breakout room experience much more appealing for attendees. If you want your attendees to have as much impact and resonance with your event objectives as much as you do, work with them today. See how Dryfta can make your breakout sessions run smoother than ever before. See us in action every Friday on a live demo.