A speaker ready room is a quiet room near the session rooms where speakers check their slides and make last changes before they present. An AV technician runs it. It is also called a speaker prep room or, at many European congresses, a speaker preview room.
How a speaker ready room works today
Many conferences now collect slides before the event, so fewer speakers visit the ready room. Many check their deck at the tech table in their own session room instead. Where there is a ready room, its computers match the ones in the session rooms, so each deck looks the way the audience will see it.
Once the speaker approves the final version, the technician sends it to the session room, usually over the venue network. An operator in the room starts each deck on cue from the run of show. Many events take no changes after that point. Personal laptops are often not allowed at the lectern either.
What the room has and who staffs it
A typical room has a few computers, a printer for speaker notes, and water or coffee. Larger venues add a rehearsal room with a lectern. The technicians come from your AV company or the venue's in-house team. A small meeting may need only one. Speakers sign in when they arrive, which also tells session chairs who is in the building.
When a smaller event can skip it
A single-room event with a handful of speakers rarely needs one. Load the slides you collected onto the room laptop in running order. Each speaker then checks their deck with the technician at the break before their session. Once you run parallel sessions, plan a ready room.
What it means for the organizer
Decks loaded in advance mean short queues at the ready room, so collect speaker decks well ahead. With Submitto, speakers upload slides through one link and a newer upload becomes the current version. Your AV team opens one link, no account needed, and finds every file sorted by day and session. If a deck needs a fix, they flag it with a note and you get an email, so you hear about it before the event, not at the tech table.
