How To Create Breakout Rooms In Teams

Even during times when your virtual meeting seems small and manageable, there is always a moment when open discussions and effective brainstorming seem challenging. Microsoft Teams now has a helpful solution when smaller groups need to be divided from the larger meeting to facilitate better exchanges and discussions. This new tool is called breakout rooms. Breakout rooms allow meeting organizers to create separate breakout room sessions and assign attendees to those rooms. These participants are still part of the group session but can "breakout," to have meaningful exchanges, and then return to the group. For this tool to be valuable, you need to know how to create and manage these breakout room sessions. Let's take a step-by-step look at how to facilitate this in your office setting.

How to Create a Breakout Room In Microsoft Teams:

1. Begin by starting a "meeting." 
2. Within the meeting control bar, select "Breakout rooms."  
3. Next, determine how many rooms you need for your meeting. The maximum is fifty.
4. Select the number of rooms from the drop-down box.
5. Choose whether you want to assign participants to rooms manually or if you would like it done automatically. (Note: once you select how participants will be assigned, you can not change this later in the meeting.)
6. Finally, select "Create Rooms."

How to Assign Participants to Breakout Rooms: (Only if you selected to assign participants manually)

1. Select the "Assign Participants" button.
2. Select the box next to the name of the participants you would like in a room  together.  
3. Select the "Assign" button. 
4. Select the "room" you would like to assign those participants by selecting the circle next to the room name or number.
5. Continue following steps 2-4 until all participants are assigned.

 

 

Breakout rooms can make your virtual meetings significantly more productive. Giving your teams the private space to collaborate within meetings can be a significant game-changer. For more questions on Breakout rooms or how to make your virtual meeting as productive as possible, reach out to your Pendello Solutions team today.

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