How to: Set-up smooth breakout sessions

Although breakout sessions and sub-sessions are an important element in organising B2B events, they can also make visitor registration a lot more complex. In many cases, seats are limited - and you want to fill all time slots evenly. This can be tricky if you don’t work with flexible registration software for your event.

Smooth breakout sessions

In case you’re not working with flexible registration software, you run the risk of spending a lot of time managing the registrations of your event in Excel. Using Momice, you can fully automate all breakout session registration, from simple to complex. When setting up the registration, you can add a specific ‘breakout session field’ to the form. For each breakout session, you can indicate the maximum number of participants - and you as organiser will be informed when this number is almost reached. The registration overview will show you how the registrations are spread over the breakout sessions.

Managing breakout sessions

When a session is fully booked, you receive a notification via email. Your visitors can no longer see nor select this specific breakout session. If a spot opens up, the session will be visible to next person to register. It is also possible to hide a breakout session from the overview by (temporarily) deactivating it.

It might be a good idea to send all registered guests an email when the event date approaches - and include the breakout sessions overview in this email. It is possible to select a specific target group based on their breakout session choice.

Smooth session registration for your invitees

Momice makes it easy for your invitees to register for a breakout session: from the invitation email, your contact clicks on the registration link, chooses a specific session in the registration form and receives a confirmation email when registration is complete. In this email, the registration details are listed, including the breakout session(s). Your contact can use the link in this email to return to the personal registration page. A clear process, both for you and your visitor.

Due to a clear interface in Momice, you can easily organise all your sessions on your event website. 

This is how it works

Organising a breakout session with Momice is easy - and can be adjusted to all your needs. 

• Step 1. Determine the breakout session specifics: choose the spaces, time slots and decide how much time you need in between.
  
  
• Step 2. Decide how you want to handle multiple rounds for the breakout sessions. Per round, add a specific field to the registration form. This helps you keep the overview on all visitor registrations.
  
  
• Step 3. Is there a maximum number of participants for a breakout session? Indicate this number in your settings. Doing this helps you spread the participants over all sessions, and over-crowded (or empty) rooms are avoided.
  
  
• Step 4. Design the complete registration process and make sure it matches the rest of the program. Take the time to test it from start to end.
  
  
• Step 5. Can you host more people than expected? You can always change the maximum number of participants per session at any time.
  
  
• Step 6. By using personal registration tags you can include the list of breakout sessions in each personal confirmation email.
  
  
• Step 7. Do you plan to send a final email to your visitors, shortly before the event? Include the personal breakout sessions overview in this email one more time.
  
  

Conclusion

Breakout sessions and sub-sessions can complicate your event registration, both for you and for your visitor. Using flexible event software can make the organisation of a breakout a lot easier. If you design the process upfront, (and take time to test it!) visitor registration will go smooth - and you’ll have one less thing to worry about!

NB: Organising breakout sessions is part of visitor registration. Want to know more? Download our white paper on event registration here.