A significant problem that many businesses have to deal with when having large meetings is the difficulty of also having smaller group discussions at the same time. It can be challenging for every single meeting attendee to voice their own opinions or concerns efficiently without you being overwhelmed and overloaded by everyone else. This problem is made worse in a virtual setting, when there are countless things happening at once.
Consequently, team dynamics may suffer and important ideas and suggestions may go unheard in the chaos of the meetings, which could eventually impact your business productivity. With all of this in mind, Zoho Meeting have come up with the perfect solution to improve your brainstorming and collaboration: Breakout Rooms.
What are breakout rooms?
Breakout Rooms, as the name suggests, are virtual spaces within an online meeting where meeting attendees can be divided up into smaller groups - to "break out" from the large numbers. This means that everyone participating in your meeting can be heard and can brainstorm more effectively using Breakout Rooms, because the lower numbers mean discussions and sessions are more focused.
Breakout Rooms are designed to overcome the limitations of traditional large online meetings, and are created so multiple smaller groups each have a virtual room dedicated to effective collaboration, where they can fully engage themselves without their input being lost to louder members.
How do breakout rooms make your online meetings better?
Effective and revolutionary, Zoho Meeting's Breakout Rooms provide businesses with a chance for small group interactions. Here's how this simple solution will transform your online meetings:
- Enhanced focus: Because of the smaller groups, attendees can take part in discussions that focus on specific tasks or topics, meaning that your meetings can become more productive with each team working on a different task. This targeted approach ensures that each and every one of your meeting's participants can contribute meaningfully throughout.
- Improved collaboration: Collaboration effectiveness skyrockets when using Breakout Rooms - with participants working closely with a smaller subset of colleagues, teams can build their cooperation and teamwork skills in a quieter environment and learn to become more productive and efficient.
- Inclusive engagement: Creating smaller groups within a large meeting can increase and promote inclusivity, because all attendees are allowed to contribute and engage. Each participant is given equal oppurtunities and everyone's ideas can be heard. Team members may feel more comfortable and at ease with smaller groups, fostering a more inclusive environment.
Multiple rooms, multiple use cases
Breakout Rooms offer flexible solutions to various collaboration challenges that you may face in your online meetings. Here are some common cases where using them can noticeable improve team collaboration and productivity:
- Small group discussions: Breakout Rooms are ideal for dividing meeting members into smaller groups to focus on specific tasks or topics in more depth. With multiple groups each working on a different topic, your productivity will increase dramatically.
- Team building activities: To boost the morale of your meeting attendees, why not allow them to engage in icebreaker activities and interactive games at the start of each session? Because of the lower number of colleagues, it's important that your team members are comfortable working with each other.
- Student group work: Breakout Rooms not only increase collaboration effectiveness in the workplace - they can also be used in virtual classrooms and facilitate student group work, discussions and group learning activities.
- Networking events: When used in online conferences, Breakout Rooms can provide countless oppurtunities for networking by grouping participants based on common objectives or interests. By grouping people with similarities, new connections can be made and existing bonds strengthened, all within a controlled environment.
- Feedback and review sessions: Being able to give both positive feedback and constructive criticism is of the utmost importance - especially when everyone is working on something different. Allow your meeting participants to efficiently conduct feedback and review sessions with Zoho Meeting's Breakout Rooms.
Here at Zoho Meeting, we're taking online meetings to the next level. We're fully committed to providing businesses with the tools and features they need to improve collaboration efficiency, no matter where in the world they are. And so we've created Breakout Rooms, where your teams can build deeper connections, take part in meaningful discussions and make significant progress.
Sign up to try our Breakout Rooms feature today and experience the difference it can make in your team meeting's productivity and collaboration.