Breakout Sessions

Most online conferences split into breakouts after the keynote: a product track, a customer track, a hands-on workshop. Each breakout session belongs to an approved event and records its name, track, start time, participant capacity and host. The Program Manager attaches the supporting evidence, such as the speaker confirmation and the session outline.

A breakout starts as Draft, is Submitted for review, and is Approved or Rejected by the Event Reviewer with the decision date recorded. Approval opens the breakout. Once the event has run, approved breakouts are marked Completed.

• Tracks group the program. The track name lets attendees and moderators see which breakouts run side by side.
• Capacity per breakout. Each breakout has its own participant capacity, set for the room or meeting tool it runs in.
• Evidence before review. The track, start time, capacity and host are checked against the attached evidence before the reviewer decides.

Agree your track names and how hosts are recorded. Decide what evidence a breakout needs before review: a speaker confirmation, an outline, a recording consent. Agree the capacity rules for interactive workshops versus presentation sessions. Decide who reviews breakouts when the main reviewer is busy in the days before the event.

For the user conference, the Program Manager prepares a breakout called “Migrating to the new API” on the developer track, starting at 13:30 with a participant capacity of 300 and a named solutions engineer as host. He attaches the host’s confirmation and the session outline and submits it.

The Event Reviewer compares the submitted details with the evidence and sees that the outline lists a different start time. She rejects the breakout with that reason. The Program Manager confirms 13:30 with the host, attaches the corrected outline and submits a new breakout version, which the reviewer approves. The approval opens the breakout and leaves an operation receipt.

• Breakout Sessions Pending Review — Submitted breakouts with track, start time, capacity, host and version.
• Breakout Track Board — Every breakout grouped by status, with track, host and capacity.

• Breakout session approval: Prepare, review and open a breakout.
• Event approval to close: See where breakouts sit in the event lifecycle.

Check who may approve breakouts before inviting program managers.