How Harvard Kennedy School Hosted 300-Person Interactive Office Hours with SpatialChat

Riddhik Kochhar -

About Harvard Kennedy School

Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) regularly hosts community forums, virtual office hours, and academic engagement sessions that bring together students, faculty, and affiliates. These events often require everyone to convene together before transitioning into smaller discussions for deeper dialogue.

Balancing scale with meaningful interaction was central to the program’s success.

The Challenge: Combining Scale with Fluid Interaction

The team needed to support up to 300 participants in a single event while preserving the ability to shift naturally into smaller conversations. Traditional video conferencing platforms created friction when moving between plenary sessions and breakout rooms, often requiring manual reassignment or re-onboarding.

In addition, the institution had strict operational requirements. Events could not be recorded, and hosting needed to meet enterprise-grade standards aligned with university IT policies. The format had to be interactive, repeatable, and secure.

The Solution: Stage-to-Breakout Flow in a Flexible Virtual Space

SpatialChat enabled a structured yet adaptable event design. Organizers used a stage-based setup for large-group announcements and faculty remarks, then transitioned participants into smaller discussion rooms for interactive dialogue.

The platform allowed:

  • Up to ~300 participants in shared sessions
  • Smaller breakout rooms capped at ~50 participants for deeper exchange
  • Custom room design and reordering for multiple sessions
  • Repeated office-hour slots hosted from the same link
  • Privacy controls aligned with no-recording policies
  • AWS-based hosting compatible with institutional requirements

This configuration supported both event flow and administrative efficiency.

The Results: High Engagement at Scale

Harvard successfully ran multi-slot virtual office hours and community sessions with up to ~300 participants across events. Engagement remained strong in breakout rooms, where facilitators could manage discussions more effectively and maintain direct interaction with faculty and staff.

Compared to traditional webinar formats, organizers reported smoother transitions between plenary and discussion segments, higher-quality Q&A, and more consistent participation across sessions. The ability to reuse the same space throughout the day reduced logistical friction and improved the overall attendee experience.

SpatialChat enabled Harvard Kennedy School to scale interactive programming while maintaining the responsiveness and dialogue essential to academic community engagement.

Host Large-Scale Sessions Without Losing Interaction

For institutions balancing scale, structure, and privacy requirements, format matters. SpatialChat enables stage-style convening and dynamic breakout discussion within a single secure environment, making it easier to host repeat, high-engagement sessions at scale.