breakout session

Victor Steinbok aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM
Sat Jan 21 23:56:38 UTC 2012


"Breakout session" or any other "breakout" of this kind (with or without
a hyphen, or even split) does not appear to be in the OED.

The top three Google hits:

http://goo.gl/1Ly1m
> Relatively short session where a small group of attendees, drawn from
> a large conference or convention, discusses specific subjects or
> aspects of the broad theme of the main gathering. Also called a
> breakout meeting.

http://goo.gl/jc1nT
> A workshop or presentation on a specific topic that serves as a
> portion of the agenda of a larger program, seminar, conference or
> convention. Multiple sessions typically occur concurrently.

http://goo.gl/ekV6H
> A breakout session is a kind of session format that takes place in a
> conference. In a breakout session, participants are broken up into
> smaller groups for the purpose of discussing a specific topic.
> This kind of session may also be referred to as a workshop session. It
> serves as an opportunity for conference delegates to participate more
> actively, and for several discussions to take place at the same time.
> A facilitator may take charge of presenting the topic or question to
> be discussed, and a member of the team notes down the group’s ideas.
> The information gathered may be reported in front of the larger group
> later on.

VS-)

PS: I initially had to do a double-take on "break-up season", because a
quick glance gave me "break-up session". That resolved, I realized that
there is no dictionary entry.

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