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Breakout Rooms: Creative Breakout Session Ideas

Breakout sessions. They’re something we are all familiar with, from the first day back at school icebreakers to team building workshops in the office. In the world of events, a breakout session can be a great way for you to procure vital information. By allowing attendees to interact and gain knowledge, you can provide them with the optimal take away – which is your key to success! But what is it that separates an effective and stimulating session from the dreaded awkward experience? Creativity.

An effective breakout session can be the key to an event’s success. Right from your breakout room, you too can turn the dullest of events into the most rewarding and memorable one. By shifting the focus to the attendees, they are stimulated through engagement, collaboration, and imagination. It is from these conversations and moments where innovation is sparked and confidence bolstered. Below, we break down some of our favorite creative breakout session ideas to bring your attendees that positive experience we are hoping for.

Breakout Rooms: Creative Breakout Session Ideas

your experience – your experience – their experience

1. Huddle Space

A Huddle Space is a term used to describe a breakout room that mimics the familiarity of a conference room. It is simply a small room or designated space that utilizes tables, whiteboards, and soft furniture that is orientated in a way to promote discussion in small group settings. 

This relaxed environment will help foster deeper and quicker connections. While ensuring that your breakout room is set up for success, it is also in your best interest to employ consistent technologies and simple user interfaces to streamline collaboration. Work with your AV provider to make sure you have easy-to-use AV systems that aid in delivering your industry knowledge, instead of frustrating your attendees and presenters. As an added bonus, there is also an excellent opportunity for sponsorship for the host or its partners.

your experience – your experience – their experience

2. Silent Conference Systems

The future is now! Gone are the days where your event breakout sessions require dozens of breakout rooms. Now, imagine your breakout room being able to transfix all your guests simultaneously on different topics from various speakers. Through the art of silent conferences, guests can be transported from your breakout room to somewhere else entirely. This can be a useful method for an event breakout session as it provides a unique experience for all participants. 

There are many technologies you can utilize to produce a silent conference. The latest means is through smart phones, instead of cumbersome radio packs. You can simply download an app on your phone, connect to the meeting, pop on your headphones, and engage. 

Through the utilization of headphones, you will be able to provide multiple workshops that can be in the same space without causing sound interference or distraction. This can also broaden the horizon for new sponsorship opportunities. It is wise to keep groups smaller in number to allow for more one on one interaction. This method can be specifically beneficial in exhibit halls as it increases traffic to the area without causing disturbance from ambient noise. 

If you’re curious about how you can bring a silent conference into your breakout room, we’re glad to hop on the phone and talk it over with you to get you on the right track.

your experience – your experience – their experience

3. Let’s Build Something

Let’s get hands-on! Everyone has their own style of retention, for many, building something can be an excellent method of engagement during your event’s breakout sessions. Equipping your breakout room with tools such as K’NEX, Pipe cleaners, LEGO Serious Play, Plus-Plus blocks, or Brickyard Building Blocks all can allow your guests to interact in groups of any size, with various experience levels and backgrounds. With this in mind, you can tailor your breakout room across a broader spectrum of learning styles. 

This physical construction approach to teamwork can foster imagination and innovation while also instilling confidence. As conversation is stimulated, your attendees can be provided with a fun and engaging environment. The task of physical creation is unique is its ability to improve memory and focus. It incentivizes open and genuine conversation that can allow attendees to truly delve deep to the core of a topic. 

Additionally, this can be a great opportunity for friendly competition among participants and can even be extra memorable if guests are able to take their creations home!

our experience – your experience – their experience

4. Live Polling App Session

Whether being used as a game, or simply to procure true and honest analytics, a Live Polling app can add an interactive flair to your event breakout session. You can leverage the answers to your live poll queries to tailor the experience to participant’s interests. 

You may choose to bookend your event with a live poll, or make it take place during the event in your breakout rooms. Applying this method before your event is a great way to gain insight that will aid you in curating your content to your attendee’s specific interests. Utilizing this during your event can appear as a fun game while actively giving voice to each individual which provides for genuine and honest response, leaving you a real time understanding of your attendees level of interest and engagement. 

Once your event is over, it can be wise to issue a follow up poll to gage attendees interest in continuing the conversation or see who is worth sending follow up materials to. A follow up poll can also be a great method to obtain a wide range of information, which can provide important data that can be later leveraged for future events and various other marketing uses.

Hey there!

So in closing, we hope this helped get your gears turning for how to fill your breakout rooms with engaging sessions. If you are interested in how to setup live polling or presentation technology or just want to wrap about breakout sessions, just give us a call. Filling your breakout rooms with engaging breakout sessions is tremendous undertaking and truly takes a village. We are happy to help if you have any questions in your journey to that engaging event we all strive for. Our team is always available, even if you just have questions, we are passionate about creating high quality events and want to bring that quality to as many people as we can. Thanks for reading!

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Why AV Design Agreements Are Important For Everyone

Protecting Both Parties

In the rare instances where disagreements arise, AV Design Agreements stand as unbiased arbitrators.

  • Scope Creep: If a client requests additional features not included in the original agreement, the design agreement can be referred to to clarify the scope.
  • Payment Disputes: When there's a disagreement over payment for certain services, the detailed financial breakdown in the agreement offers clarity.
  • Timeline Conflicts: In the event of delays, the agreement clearly states the consequences of penalties or allowances.

Regarding AV projects, it's essential to have a comprehensive design agreement in place to ensure everything runs smoothly. The agreement should cover the following aspects:

  1. Detailed Scope of Work: This should clearly outline all the tasks, milestones, and deliverables involved in the project.
  2. Financial Breakdown: It's essential to have a transparent list of all the costs involved, including equipment, labor, licensing, and any other fees associated with the project.
  3. Timeline with Milestones: It is vital to have a project calendar that clearly outlines all the essential delivery dates.
  4. Equipment Specifications: A comprehensive list of all the hardware and software involved should be included, along with the model numbers and manufacturers.
  5. Conflict Resolution Mechanism: A dispute resolution process, such as mediation or arbitration, should be specified in the agreement.

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