Breakout Rooms

For a Teams committee call, breakout rooms can be created before or during the meeting. They are designed for medium to large meetings and support meetings with up to 300 people, with up to 50 breakout rooms.

A practical tutorial:

1. Confirm permissions
   • Breakout rooms can be created by the meeting organizer.
   • They can also be created by a presenter in the organizer’s organization who has been appointed as a breakout room manager.
2. Create breakout rooms before the meeting
   • In Teams, select Calendar.
   • Select the meeting.
   • Select View event.
   • Select More options > Breakout rooms.
     • This option appears only after invites have been sent.
   • Select Create rooms.
   • Choose the number of rooms to create (up to 50) and select Add rooms.
   • Select Assign participants.
   • Choose how participants should be assigned, then select Next > Save.
3. Create breakout rooms during the meeting
   • In the meeting controls, select Rooms.
   • Choose the number of rooms to create (up to 50).
   • Choose how participants should be assigned.
   • Select Create rooms.
   • To add another room later, select Rooms > Add room.
   • People can’t be automatically assigned later in the meeting, so plan the initial assignment carefully.
4. Choose how to assign participants
   • Automatic assignment splits participants evenly across the selected rooms.
   • Manual assignment lets specific people be placed into specific rooms.
   • If attendees have already been assigned, participants can be shuffled:
     • Everyone
     • Only unassigned people
5. Facilitate the breakout sessions In the Breakout rooms pane, rooms can be managed by:
   • Assigning and reassigning participants
   • Opening and closing rooms
   • Renaming rooms
   • Deleting rooms
   • Sending an announcement to every room at once
   When rooms are opened, participants leave the main meeting and join their assigned room. Each room has its own chat. When rooms are closed, participants return to the main meeting.
6. Appoint breakout room managers if help is needed A presenter can be assigned to help manage rooms. Before the meeting:
   • Go to Calendar > select the meeting > View event > More options > Breakout rooms > Rooms settings.
   • Turn on Assign presenters to manage rooms.
   • Select Search for presenters and choose the room managers.
   • Select Save.
   During the meeting:
   • Select Rooms in the meeting controls.
   • Select Rooms settings.
   • Turn on Assign presenters to manage rooms.
   • Choose presenters from the dropdown.
   • Select Save.
   Breakout room managers can add and delete rooms, assign and reassign participants, open and close rooms, set time limits, send announcements, recreate rooms, and join any room. Only one breakout manager can control rooms at a time.
7. Use CSV import for structured committee sessions For workshops or committee meetings with planned groups, participants can be assigned in bulk:
   • In meeting controls, select Breakout rooms.
   • Select Import from CSV.
   • Choose or drag in the CSV file.
   • Select Import.
   Rooms are created from the room names in the CSV, and participants are assigned based on matching email addresses. If there is no match, they are not assigned automatically.
8. Accessibility option: create rooms with a screen reader If using a screen reader in Teams:
   • In a meeting, move to the meeting controls until Breakout rooms is selected.
   • Press Enter.
   • Choose the number of rooms.
   • Choose Automatic or Manually for participant assignment.
   • Tab to Create rooms and press Enter.

For a committee meeting, a strong setup is:

• Create rooms before the meeting
• Name rooms by topic or workstream
• Assign members manually if each room has a specific purpose
• Appoint a presenter as a breakout room manager if moderation help is needed
• Use announcements to give time checks or next-step instructions to all rooms at once

• Manage breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams
• Assign people to breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams
• Use a screen reader with breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams
• Manage breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams