This article was written for virtual event admins to reference the functionality and capabilities of Boomset session breakouts
Sessions with Breakouts
In a virtual or hybrid event, event organizers may choose to include breakout functionality within a session. If that functionality has been made available it will be located in the session on the right-hand side column. The Breakout tab will appear for you after joining from either Audience or Speaker mode and when attendees have joined the session you will see a button called Create Rooms.
Creating & Editing Breakout Rooms
An event admin has the capability of creating and launching breakouts anytime during the session. As a best practice before the session or during the rehearsal, the admin should coordinate with speakers about when to cue the breakout, how many attendees they want in each breakout room, and the duration of the breakout. Admins can also use the backstage during the rehearsal or session time to communicate with speakers.
To create breakout, click on Breakout > Create Rooms and then choose how many attendees you would like per room.
Note: The system requires a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 10 attendees per room.
Room assignments will generate randomly according to the specified number chosen and the number of attendees in that session i.e. if there were 100 attendees watching and you selected 6 participants per room, there would be 16 rooms created, 15 with 6 participants and 1 with 7 participants.
After clicking Create the system will generate for you the rooms and the names of all participants assigned to each room. Prior to starting the breakout, you may choose to recreate all rooms or move specific participants to different rooms. If you choose to recreate, this will reshuffle the participants and your room names will change for organizers to be able to distinguish in reporting. To relocate or block a specific participant, simply click on the three vertical dots on the right-hand side of their name.
Starting a Breakout
After you've completed editing and the speakers are ready, simply click the Start Breakouts button located at the bottom of the room list. The participants will be notified and asked to join their breakout room. Due to security, Boomset can not automatically redirect a participant with their camera on and microphone on. Therefore, if an attendee doesn’t click Join they will remain in the same room as the speakers. Use the backstage to notify and remind speakers that attendees might not have gone to their breakout.
During a Breakout
During a breakout, an admin can still relocate participants, watch/join breakout rooms, assist breakout rooms, and make announcements.
When participants are in breakouts you will see a Watch Now button beside each breakout room. As an admin, you can watch how breakout rooms are going and while watching have the option to join as a participant.
Participants in a breakout who have a question or are having device/network-related technical difficulty may choose to click on a button titled Ask for Help. When that button is chosen you will receive this message indicating they need help. Clicking Watch Breakout Room will bring you to the room where you can message in the "Room Chat" or join the breakout for more in-depth support needs. If you choose Later a "!" will appear next to that breakout room in the list so that you can come back to it when you are ready.
There may be a time during a session where speakers or event organizers would like to communicate something to all participants at one time. In this case, you can make an announcement that will broadcast to all of the breakouts at the same time. Simply click, Send Announcement at the bottom of the breakout list and type in what you would like to send in the pop-up box.
Ending a Breakout
When it's time to end a breakout simply click End Breakouts at the bottom of the breakout list. The system will re-confirm that this is what you are intending to do with this pop-up. And after clicking End, the participants will receive a countdown. Participants have the option to come back to the main session before the countdown runs out.
Speakers can have as many breakouts as they would like during a session with the help of their Admin managing this feature. Again we encourage coordinating the detail of a breakout during a dry run prior to the event or during the rehearsal time of a session. Admins and Speakers can connect privately in the backstage chat.
Feel free to reach out to us at support@boomset.com in case you have questions or need assistance.