Zoom are the best technology available to fulfill our training, distance learning and meeting needs for good reasons. One of them is the way the service allows us to split the main meeting into separate sessions or sub-meetings, known as Breakout Rooms.

This option is so helpful, especially used for academic or workshop purposes; when we want to create smaller groups during the meeting for more interaction between participants. Let’s see how it works in detail.

We need to follow these steps carefully:

• Log into your Zoom portal.

• Then, go to Meeting Settings, the option right under Profile.

• In Meeting (Advanced) we will select the option Breakout Room.

• This way, every time we log into the Zoom system, we will see the Breakout Room option at the bottom of the panel.

• Every time we host a conference, we can get access to this option. We can see the option by clicking the More menu.

• When we first access Breakout Room, the system gives us some options, like to assign participants to a room whether automatically or manually. We can create up to 50 rooms with a maximum of 200 participants each.

• After creating our rooms, the user interface will show each one of them in detail and we can rename them for perfect control. Also, we are able to delete any number of rooms under our consideration.

• We will assign participants to every room by clicking on their names. Also, we can move every participant to another room and even exchange them, if this benefits our meeting. When we are finished doing this, we can click Open All Rooms below. Next, we will see each one of them. Additionally, we can see a green dot beside every participant’s name, which means they are successfully connected.

• It is important to remember that every participant has full control of audio and video regardless of what room they are in. Of course, this means they can share their screen, speak out or have any kind of interaction with the other participants.

Even though the Zoom platform is an incredibly intuitive technology, some of the participants might get lost when first using it. So, here are some important advantages of using this feature:

• Provide assistance at any time to any participant: with full access to any room from the main menu, we can solve any issues during our meetings, like questions, general doubts, technical problems or any other question might come up along the way.

• Have full control of the meeting: by attending every user’s needs, we will get the best out of every conference; making sure that every participant fully gets involved during the meeting.

The secret to hosting successful conference meetings is making feel everyone like a valuable individual. This is another Breakout Rooms advantage, as each participant will appreciate personalized attention and a quick answers to any questions.

Let’s list those advantages:

• The participants will get the best out of their time: by getting quicker assistance from the host or any other of the participants in charge (as mentioned in the example above), they will be able to move fast to the next topic.

• They have control of their own Zoom space: every one of them is free to leave the breakout room whenever they want to join the main meeting. Also, they can share their screen or participate in the discussion freely.

Let’s check the following list in order to get the best benefits possible:

• We must know every one of the participants: this way we can add them to different rooms according to their needs, level of knowledge and personality. Or the other way around: we can mix different types of users in every room if that benefits our general plan.

• We must gather all the information we need before hosting the meeting: Zoom Breakout Rooms allow us a full high-level interaction, of course. However, we must collect and organize the best information related to every topic to handle the meeting to the best of our knowledge.

Breakout Rooms in Zoom are one of the most beneficial features of the platform. Before hosting a conference through Zoom, we must get familiar with each one of its functions. Our main goal will always be a perfect audience segmentation to achieve the best cooperation possible.