How to create breakout rooms in online meetings

Online meetings are one of the easiest ways to bring your teams together, whether they’re in the office, hybrid, or fully remote. But when the group grows with multiple voices filling up the space, it gets harder to keep conversations focused and truly productive.
Let's say you host a meeting to discuss an upcoming event or training different teams about new product. Multiple teams have joined. After your briefing, it’s time for questions and idea-sharing. As soon as you open the floor for discussion, things quickly get out of hand. Questions and ideas flood in simultaneously. The chat box fills up with multiple messages and conversations become overwhelming.
As the host, you're juggling through the messages, trying to respond quickly but your teams still remain unclear. When the meeting wraps up, you’re left wondering, was this conversation of any use with so many voices at once? But it’s not just team meetings; situations like this happen in trainings, product demos, feedback sessions, and even casual ice-breaking meetings. 

Table of Contents

• What are breakout rooms?
• Why do online meetings work better with breakout rooms?
• How do breakout rooms enhance team collaboration?
• Create breakout rooms that work your way
• Breakout sessions: What really happens in breakout rooms
• Tips for hosting a successful breakout session
• Breakout rooms in Zoho Meeting
• How do you create break out rooms in Zoho Meeting?
• Frequently asked questions
• Wrapping up

What are breakout room

Breakout rooms are designed to make your large online meetings more engaging and productive. Think of them as virtual mini rooms that you create right inside your main meeting, where you can split a large group into smaller, more focused teams. These smaller groups can brainstorm and discuss specific topics while staying in the main meeting. No one has to juggle multiple messages or discuss things outside the meeting. Now your meetings have clarity, enhanced collaboration, and better participant engagement.

Why do online meetings work better with breakout rooms?

Breakout rooms create collaborative spaces where selected participants can focus, share ideas, and work through assigned tasks. They bring order and purpose to your online meetings and ensure that everyone gets a chance to contribute.

Here’s how breakout rooms can transform your virtual meetings:

• They make meetings more engaging. Smaller group discussions give everyone a chance to contribute instead of just listening.
• You can say goodbye to overwhelm. When teams are working with multiple agenda items, breakout rooms help them organize their conversation.
• They can boost the team's creativity. Different groups can brainstorm the topic simultaneously, leading to more innovative ideas or solutions.
• They can speed up collaboration. When groups discuss certain items separately, the main meeting becomes a place to share results and collaborate, not to get stuck in endless chats.

How do breakout rooms enhance team collaboration

Breakout rooms help you achieve what happens naturally in physical meetings. They transform your large meetings into a more coordinated and productive experience.

Here’s how breakout rooms make teamwork smoother and more effective:

They encourage participation. Small group discussions make it easier for everyone to participate without any distractions or side chatter.

Collaboration is inclusive. These rooms allow everyone to contribute, whether it’s an intern from another office or a senior manager across the hall.

Problem-solving goes faster. When teams get specific topics to discuss together, they focus better and return with clear and fast answers.

Time is better utilized. When discussions happen in small and focused groups, it takes less time to reach a decision or consensus because everyone has more clarity.

Their flexibility works in any scenario. From training sessions and workshops to brainstorming sessions or team-building activities, breakout rooms fit into almost every online meeting for better outcomes.

Create breakout rooms that work your way

Not all breakout rooms are created for the same purpose. You can customize them to fit your meeting goals and make your sessions more effective.

Here are some common types of breakout rooms and how they can help your teams:

• Brainstorming rooms: Perfect for bringing out creativity, these rooms encourage teams to generate fresh ideas. Whether you’re planning a new campaign or creating a design layout, smaller groups offer more inclusive brainstorming.
• Skill-building rooms: Use these for training or workshop sessions where participants can learn new skills. In smaller groups, participants get more interaction with trainers, making learning engaging, practical, and fun.
• Feedback rooms: These are ideal for gathering insights. These rooms allow your team members to work on a new project or plan and share their feedback.
• Networking rooms: These casual breakout rooms help remote or hybrid teams build connections beyond work talk. Use them for icebreakers, informal chats, or team-building activities that help teams connect better.
• Problem-solving rooms: When your team faces specific challenges, such a technical issue or a product-related glitch, you can break the members into smaller groups based on their expertise for an in-depth discussion.

Breakout sessions: What really happens in breakout rooms

The breakout session is the activity or focused discussion that happens inside the breakout room. Together, breakout rooms and sessions transform your virtual meetings into organized, meaningful conversations.
 If you've created a breakout room for your design team, their breakout session may include exploring new ideas, experimenting with visual concepts, or deciding on the theme for your upcoming event. During this time, team members will discuss ideas and share feedback, allowing everyone to participate and contribute. Once the session wraps up, the team can bring their final ideas back to the larger group, ensuring overall smoother meeting progress.

Tips for hosting a successful breakout session

Want your breakout sessions to be truly productive and enjoyable? Here are some tips to help you get the most out of those breakout rooms:

• Keep smaller groups in a room. Aim for four to six people per breakout room. Small groups create a comfortable space where everyone can share their ideas without feeling lost in the crowd.
• Make the focus clear. Your teams should know what specific questions or tasks to focus on. When everyone knows the goal, conversations stay sharp and meaningful.
• Use collaborative tools. Use tools such as digital whiteboards inside breakout rooms to capture ideas in real time.
• Encourage team to keep cameras on. Seeing faces builds connection and trust, making interactions feel more personal and engaging, even when people are working remotely.
• Rotate groups for longer meetings. If your meeting runs long, mix up the groups occasionally to help people meet new colleagues and hear fresh ideas.
• Collect feedback after sessions. Ask participants what worked and what could improve. Continuous feedback helps you work on your breakout sessions for better outputs.

Breakout rooms in Zoho Meeting

Zoho Meeting makes it easy to create breakout rooms during an ongoing meeting. You can easily split participants into smaller groups for discussions and better engagement. Once rooms are created, the participants are automatically assigned. As the host, you can adjust and manage rooms at any time.

Here’s what hosts can do with breakout rooms in Zoho Meeting:

• Search for participants or co-hosts easily and move them between rooms.
• Add new rooms from the main room if the limit isn't reached.
• Rename rooms, view participant counts, or delete rooms.
• Shuffle participants across different breakout rooms to balance group sizes.
• Join any breakout room to monitor and contribute to ongoing discussions.

How do you create break out rooms in Zoho Meeting?

1. Log into your Zoho Workplace account.
2. Select Zoho Meeting from the top pane.
3. Click Meet Now to start a meeting.
4. Choose Audio conferencing or Video conferencing based on your preference.
5. During an active meeting, click More on the meeting toolbar and select Breakout Rooms.
6. Enter how many breakout rooms you want to create within the session.
7. Click Open Room(s) to start the breakout sessions with the auto-assigned participants. You can shuffle participants and join any room of their choice.

Frequently asked questions

How many breakout rooms can I create in Zoho Meeting? 
You can create up to 20 breakout rooms, accommodating a total of 250 participants.

Do participants need to leave the meeting to join breakout rooms?
No, breakout rooms happen inside the ongoing main meeting.

Can hosts monitor breakout rooms? 
Absolutely.Hosts can go in and out of breakout rooms to check progress and bring everyone back to the main meeting when ready.

Wrapping up

Online meetings with too many people, too many ideas, and too little time can be tricky. But with breakout rooms, you can give your participants the right space to connect, share, and collaborate without leaving the main meeting. In Zoho Workplace, you can easily create breakout rooms using Zoho Meetings. So don't wait, transform your meetings into focused, productive sessions that give real results. Choose the plan that fits your business best, and make your team work more engaging and effective.