Let’s talk about breakout sessions. More and more corporate events and New York event planners are tapping into the engagement power a breakout session can bring to any conference or meeting. If you’re not yet incorporating breakout sessions into your events, here’s what you’re missing. Get inspired by these key advantages and start changing your corporate event experiences in a big way.
What Is a Breakout Session?
Breakout sessions are micro-engagements that take place during the big event or conference. The audience is invited or assigned to smaller groups of people, separating into more intimate conversation settings. There, an event leader might inspire discussions and networking among those smaller groups for a short period of time before returning to the larger group audience setting.
Participants in a breakout session might:
- Complete a specific activity
- Discuss a relevant topic
- Meet and interact with new attendees
Breakout Sessions Encourage Audience Participation
For some corporate events or New York conferences, breakout sessions can encourage attendee participation. Because guests are in a smaller group, they can more easily share ideas and ask questions. It can be less intimidating to share with a fewer number of people than with a larger group of attendees.
Allow for More In-Depth Discussions
If your event is intended to provide a learning experience, breakout sessions can allow for more in-depth conversations among participants. Here they can learn new perspectives, dig deeper into complex topics, and explore further into learning materials. Overall, guests leave your event feeling as though they’ve absorbed more and learned more because of these in-depth breakout session discussions.
Breakout Sessions Breakup the Event Monotony
If your event is scheduled to last several hours or over more than one day, breakout sessions are great mechanisms to prevent boredom and audience burnout. After some time in a conference room chair, people can grow tired, restless, and tuned out altogether. Incorporating a few breakout sessions will allow for a change in the itinerary. Guests can get up and relocate to a new spot, mingling and socializing along the way. Even if your breakout session is only intended to provide a quick 15-20 minute break for guests to talk about what they’ve learned so far, it’s worth it.
Get Creative with Your Breakout Sessions
There’s more than one way to incorporate a breakout session. Explore some of these insights to create great micro-conversation opportunities with your upcoming events.
- Lighting Talks - Brief breaks and precise topics to discuss
- FAQ Sessions - Collaborate to address guest questions about what they’ve learned so far
- Networking - Brief breaks to encourage guests to introduce themselves to new colleagues
- Activity Sessions - Breaks to assign tasks to enforce or apply what they’ve learned
- Games & Fun - Breaks to do something fun to re-engage an otherwise passive audience
So how will breakout sessions improve your corporate event experience? Start exploring these ideas and start improving your attendee experiences in a big way!
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