Breakout Speakers
A breakout is a one-hour interactive hands-on session that is a standard feature at GreenBiz events. Done well, they can be powerful opportunities for attendees to interact while learning new things and reframing problems to help overcome obstacles. Our best-rated sessions are those that feature new ideas, tangible knowledge, frameworks and actionable skills — in a highly interactive format.
Below you will find logistical details about your breakout session.
PowerPoint Presentations + AV
PowerPoint Presentations are not required, but you are welcome to create one. An optional slide template will be available soon. We do expect moderators to create a title slide for their session regardless of whether a presentation will be used. Details can be found on the moderator page.
AV: We will have a monitor or screen projector and HDMI chord in each breakout room. You must bring your own computer to run your presentation. If you have a Mac, please bring your own Mac HDMI adapter.
Sharing slides with attendees: Please use this form to submit your presentation to be shared with attendees post-event.
Other Logistics
Speaker seating: There will be stools at the front of the room for speakers to use.
Room setup: Your room will be set in either rounds or theater style.
Feedback: Our conference app contains a survey feature — please encourage your participants to provide feedback following your session! Just have them click into your session in the app and then click "Session Feedback." There are only two questions.
What Makes a Great Breakout?
Here are six tips intended to help you conceive and develop a successful breakout.
Engage your audience. The best breakouts are those that are interactive and participatory. Including a hands-on exercise in your breakout enables your breakout participants to meet one another and work collaboratively, and helps them get to know you. At the very least, include plenty of time for Q&A and feedback during the breakout.
Focus on tangible knowledge and skills. The most effective sessions are those that present data, metrics and case studies to help us ground an aspirational circular economy in the reality of what’s actually happening today, uplifting actionable insights and success stories (and failures we can learn from.)
Set a specific outcome. Participants appreciate knowing they’ve used their time well, especially when they have other options on how to spend it. Give them a specific goal or outcome — “Today, you will learn how to make smart choices in choosing energy-efficiency projects.” That will give everyone a clear vision of what success looks like for the hour.
Don’t sell. breakouts fail when they are preachy or sales-y. If you’re trying to promote something — yourself, your company, a product or service — you’ll lose the audience. Instead, share an idea, framework or set of tools. If you do it well, it will give you far more credibility, and will invite conversations that will allow you to make your pitch later on.
Use slides wisely. Slides can be very helpful in presenting your ideas to your audience, but it's important to keep them visual rather than text-based. Make sure you're not distracting attendees by using text-heavy slides that they'll try to read as you speak. Visual slides are a great way to support your presentation and guide the audience.
Have fun! Okay, it may seem hard to do after all these tips, but if you can make it happen, you're well on your way. Audiences appreciate breakout presenters who truly enjoy what they're talking about. It can be contagious.