Breakout rooms work best when attendees know when a room is open, what happens there, and who runs it. Use this guide to plan the room and brief its host. The call controls belong to Whereby.
When to use this guide
Use it when you have several rooms, a hosted discussion or a help desk. Create the rooms with Create, order, hide and delete breakout rooms.
Planning choices
Plan the rooms
One room per purpose. Examples: speaker Q&A after a keynote, a help desk open all day, a sponsor lounge, a workshop with limited seats, a coffee break room at set times, a hot-topic discussion.
To reuse a room for several sessions on one day, give it a wide time window. Announce the sessions in its Description (optional) (up to 100 characters) or in the schedule.
Put the essentials in the Room name (up to 75 characters): topic, and the host's name if attendees look for a person.
Use All day for rooms that stay reachable all day, such as a help desk or a lounge. Use Start time and End time for sessions.
Set the hours in the event's time zone. In-person attendees see them in the event's time zone; virtual and hybrid attendees see them in their own.
Set the hours with margins
Attendees can enter a room from Brella only between its start and end time. The card shows Starts … before, Open during and Closed after.
Brella does not end the call at the end time. People already in the room stay until they leave. Give the host 15 minutes before the start to join through the Host URL and set up, and tell the host to close the call at the end.
Add 10 to 15 minutes after the planned end so late joiners can still enter. Otherwise, a session that runs over leaves newcomers at "This room is closed."
The Speaker URL and Host URL work outside the hours and until the Whereby room expires. Hosts can prepare early; keep the URLs private.
Assign hosts and set room rules
One moderator per room, with the Host URL. Share it in a private message. If the room needs helpers, send them the Speaker URL and tell them to join early.
Attendees joining from Brella arrive with camera and microphone off, with the in-call chat on and the participant list hidden. Tell them at the start how to ask for the floor: for example, keep cameras and microphones off, ask to speak in the chat, and turn the microphone on only when the host invites you.
Decide whether the host should leave entry open or lock the room and admit guests who knock. A locked room needs someone to monitor admission throughout the session.
Agree who checks chat, who admits guests and who ends the call. Use Host and join breakout rooms for the controls.
Confirm the provider's current participant limits and recording availability before planning a large session.
Worked example: speaker Q&A
Use the room name Keynote Q&A with [Speaker name]. Link it from the keynote's session description. Give the host the private Host URL and tell attendees to enter through Brella.
Before starting, the host checks their camera, microphone and presentation, then welcomes attendees and explains how to ask questions. If the room is locked, the host checks each knock while a helper watches chat. At the end, the host announces the finish and ends the meeting for everyone.
Link rooms from the schedule and sponsor booths
Rooms open from the Breakout Rooms page. To send attendees there from a session or a booth, link the room's address in a description.
Find the room id: open the room's edit page in Content > Breakout rooms; the address ends in
/breakout-rooms/<room id>. Or open the room in the web app and copy the address.The room's address in the web app is
https://next.brella.io/events/<event slug>/breakout-rooms/<room id>. For a white-label app, replacenext.brella.iowith your organization's domain. See Deep link reference.In Content > Schedule, open the session, select the text in the description to turn into a link, and add the address with the editor's link control. The booth Description under Sponsors > Edit Details has the same control.
Save, then test the link in the web app and the mobile app.
Do not add the Speaker URL as a session's Stream/Video Url or as a stream. It is the live Whereby room, not a recording, and it bypasses the room's hours and Brella's presets.
Record and reuse sessions
When local recording is available, hosts must check that the file has downloaded before leaving the room. For the steps and how to share the file, see Record and share a breakout room session.
To show a recording later, upload it to a video host and add its embed URL as a stream or in a booth.
Before launch
Create every room a few days early and keep the switch on the card off until the schedule is final. Switched-off rooms are not shown to attendees. Saving the room's edit page switches the room on again, so turn the switch off after each edit.
Test each room from the web app and the mobile app with an attendee account, and once through the Host URL. Check camera and microphone permissions on the devices your hosts will use.
Put the room hours and the link in the session description and in an announcement, so attendees do not search for the room.