Breakout Session

Breakout sessions are where a conference splits up. After the plenary keynote, delegates scatter into smaller rooms for workshops, panels and masterclasses on different topics, several at once across parallel tracks. Rooms have fixed sizes, so the popular session overflows while the one next door echoes, unless delegates book their places in advance. Booking also tells the organiser which sessions need a bigger room and stops anyone holding two places in the same time slot.

UK programmes say parallel sessions or breakouts, grouped into streams; US programmes say breakout or concurrent sessions, grouped into tracks. The opposite is the plenary, or general session in the US, where everyone sits in one room. On a venue quote a breakout is a room rather than a session, so a "breakout" line is the cost of hiring the space.

With eventcloud, delegates book their breakout sessions as they register, on one card per named attendee: each session can be free, paid or included with a ticket, closes at its capacity and refuses a booking that clashes. Attendees can book more later in the event app or the attendee portal.