Breakouts split your session into smaller rooms. Each room gets its own board, its own conversation, and optionally its own agenda, while you watch every room from a control room and jump in wherever you're needed.
Quick links: Set one up | Run it | Design each room | What participants see | Good to know
How Breakouts Work
A breakout is a tool, like a timer or a card deck. You add it to your agenda once, then open it when it's time to split up.
- Each room is its own space within your session. People only see and hear the others in their room.
- Each room gets its own board. It starts blank, or you can give a room a copy of any board in your space.
- You run things from the control room. It shows every room at once: who's in it, how lively it is, and where it is in its agenda.
- Closing the breakout brings everyone back to the main space.
Only hosts and facilitators can create and run breakouts.
Set Up a Breakout
- Open the Agenda sidebar and find the section where the breakout belongs
- Click + Add item, then Add tool
- Choose Breakouts
- Fill in the options below, then click Add breakouts
You can also add it from the Library tab with Add tool, or ask Kola to set one up for you. Tell Kola how people should get into rooms (mixed up, placed by you, or their own choice) and it sets the breakout up that way; otherwise it mixes people up.
Options
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name | What the breakout is called in your agenda |
| Number of Rooms | How many rooms to create, up to 20. Leave it blank for 4 |
| How people get into rooms | Mix people up, You place people, or People choose (see below) |
| Room Names (Optional) | A comma-separated list, like "Ideation Space, Analysis Hub". Leave it blank for Breakout #1, Breakout #2, and so on |
| Put a timer on it | A countdown everyone sees while the breakout is open. Tick Start counting as soon as it opens to start it automatically |
How People Get Into Rooms
| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| Mix people up | Everyone who's in the space when you start is shuffled and spread evenly across the rooms |
| You place people | Everyone waits in a lobby while you sort them into rooms |
| People choose | Everyone waits in a lobby, then picks the room they want. They can switch rooms later |
Tip: Mix people up is the default. Choose You place people when groups matter, like mixing departments or keeping a team together.
Run the Breakout
Start It
Click the breakout in your agenda to open it. If you've set it as the section's default tool, it opens on its own when the section starts.
With Mix people up, everyone is placed straight away, except you: the facilitator who started the breakout stays in the control room. Any other hosts or facilitators are placed into rooms like everyone else.
The Control Room
While the breakout is running, you see the control room. Its header shows how many people are in rooms and how many are waiting in the lobby.
Each room card shows:
- Who's there, with video previews, or "Nobody here yet"
- How lively it is: Buzzing, Steady, Quiet, or Empty
- Agenda progress, if the room has its own agenda, with Start agenda and Push next to move it along
- Jump in, to visit the room yourself
Click a room's title to rename it.
Place People From the Lobby
People land in the lobby when you've chosen You place people, when they join after the breakout started, or when they leave their room. They appear under Waiting in the lobby on the left of the control room.
Click a name and choose a room from Move to.
To move someone who's already in a room: ask them to click Leave in their title bar. They'll land in the lobby, and you can place them in the new room from there.
Visit a Room
Click Jump in on a room card. You'll see the room's board and hear its conversation. Click Leave in the title bar to return to the control room.
Talk to Every Room at Once
Use Announce or broadcast in the video control bar to send a quick text announcement or speak to everyone. See Host Audio Broadcast.
Bring Everyone Back
Click Close Breakout Tool in the control room. Everyone returns to the main space straight away, so give a heads-up first; there's no confirmation step.
Note: The timer doesn't close the breakout. When it reaches zero it stays at zero until you close the breakout yourself.
Design Each Room
Click Design all rooms in the control room, or the design icon on a single room card. Use This room / All rooms at the top to choose what your changes apply to.
| Section | What you can do |
|---|---|
| Agenda | Start a blank agenda for the room, copy one of your space's agendas into it, or copy one room's agenda to every room |
| Boards | Use a copy of any board in your space. The original stays untouched |
| Tools | Activate a timer, card deck, embed, or other tool inside the room. One tool can be active per room at a time |
| How this room runs | Let them drive lets the group move through its own agenda. Take the wheel keeps you in control |
Click Done when you're finished.
Tip: Giving every room a copy of the same worksheet board, with an agenda the group drives, is a quick way to run a structured activity across many groups at once.
What Participants See
In the Lobby
Participants waiting in the lobby see Breakouts are running, the faces of everyone else waiting, and the list of rooms. They can see and hear the others in the lobby, and you can hear them from the control room.
- With People choose, each room has a Join button, and people can switch rooms later
- Otherwise, they see that their facilitator will bring them into a room shortly
In a Room
The title bar shows Breakouts: and the room name, the room's agenda (if it has one), and Leave.
Inside a room, the group can change their own view and audio, such as switching to Spatial mode or Zone Audio. Audio zones work inside rooms too: people need to be in the same room and the same zone to hear each other.
Note: Joining or leaving a room stops any screen share that's running.
Good to Know
Starting another space-wide tool ends the breakout. Only one tool is open for the whole space at a time, so opening a different one in the main space closes the breakout and brings everyone back.
Rooms keep their work. Closing a breakout doesn't delete the rooms or their boards. Open the same breakout again and the rooms, boards, and agendas are right where you left them; people are placed into rooms again as they were the first time.
Transcription pauses during breakouts. Live transcription stops while rooms are open and picks up again when everyone returns.
Some things only work in the main space. Inside a room, the room doesn't follow a facilitator's focus or maximize view of a tool, and you can't place an interactive on a board from inside a room.
Recordings follow along. If you're recording, the recording follows the person it's set to follow into their room.
Breakout Rooms vs. Audio Zones
Both give groups their own conversations. Pick by what you want people to see, not by how many people you have.
| Breakout Rooms | Audio Zones | |
|---|---|---|
| Separation | Separate rooms, each with its own board | One shared canvas, audio-only separation |
| Getting there | Shuffled, placed by you, or chosen by participants | People move their avatar into a zone |
| What people see | Only their own room | Everyone on the canvas |
| What you see | Every room from the control room | Everything at once on the canvas |
| Best when | Groups need their own space, materials, or agenda | Groups should see each other's work or drift between conversations |
See Audio Zones Explained to set up zones.
Ideas to Try
Think, pair, share. Open a breakout with small rooms and a short timer, then close it and debrief with everyone.
Jigsaw. Give each room a different part of a problem using Use a copy with a different board per room, then bring everyone back to share.
Stations. Turn on People choose, name the rooms after topics, and let people go where their interest is. They can switch rooms during the activity.
Common Issues
"Someone is in the wrong room"
Ask them to click Leave, then place them from Waiting in the lobby.
"Someone joined late and isn't in a room"
Late arrivals land in the lobby. Place them from Waiting in the lobby, or with People choose they can pick a room themselves.
"I can't reduce the number of rooms"
You can't remove a room while people are still in it. Move them out first, then lower Number of Rooms in Settings.
"The breakout closed unexpectedly"
Opening another tool in the main space closes the breakout. Open it again: the rooms and their boards are still there, and people are placed into rooms again.
Related Guides
- Audio Zones Explained - Separate conversations on one shared canvas
- Agenda - Plan your run-of-show, including room agendas
- Timer Tool - Countdowns for any activity
- Host Audio Broadcast - Reach everyone at once
- Workshop Use Case - Breakouts in a full workshop flow