The Power of Offline Rehearsals

There are countless ways to practice and review presentations with your speakers. But to us, one of them endures the pressure test. Can you guess which one? Did we give it away in the title? 🙄

📖 Table read: an early review/read of your talk track. Prior or during graphics development, this helps capture feedback on how the content is coming to life in written form. It provides a critical eye for content that is aligned to the audience objective, balanced, and timed for agenda.

💻 Virtual rehearsal: a virtual meeting where presenters read their 90% final scripts and review 90% final visuals, often on prompter. It's supposed to be a last call for updates, and an overview of what to expect onsite - staging, timing, schedules, wardrobe.

📝 Speaker ready room: a room onsite where presenters review their content for final details and small tweaks. If your event is external-facing, it's likely where breakout presentations go for final brand/marketing/event team approval.

📺 Offline rehearsal: an onsite pseudo-rehearsal, in another space while the stage is being set and prepped. Doing this makes stage rehearsals efficient and gets ahead of small tweaks or surprise quick-turn updates.

🎤 Stage rehearsal: a run-through of content on the stage with all production cues. With presenters mic'd, the entire segment is practiced with the event crew: from intro or VOG, to walk-up song, to talk track and content, to Q&A review, to transition cues and walk off.

We know what you're thinking. WHAT A DREAM TO BE ABLE TO DO ALL OF THESE. And when we do all these with presenters, it's 🧑‍🍳 chef's kiss. 🧑‍🍳

But perhaps... *and don't feel triggered*...just perhaps... your leaders no-showed every presenter prep, re-wrote their talk track on the plane, revised the slides before they even landed, and now you have a totally new presentation on your hands.

Don't panic. Your offline rehearsal plan is ready to play ball.

Offline rehearsal can vary in setup/format, but the only requirement is having your content on display for review.

A fully built-out offline rehearsal room: This is in a dedicated space, with dedicated crew such as graphics/prompter/video. It replicates the stage set in small format, specifically the confidence monitor & prompter set. These are highly structured and highly scheduled, but mimic the environment best.

A portable offline rehearsal kit: Even without a dedicated rehearsal space, there are still options! A few portable monitors and laptops are all it takes to create a rehearsal setup with confidence monitors, giving presenters the opportunity to practice their segment with their content in front of them. The plus side is you can set up anywhere with power and a small table. Check out Destin's portable rehearsal kit here.

Four times an offline rehearsal is beneficial:

1. Your speakers aren't able to dedicate time for a virtual rehearsal before you're onsite

2. The onstage rehearsal time is limited due to space contracting, travel schedules, etc

3. You know the speaker needs significant content or script updates

4. Or simply put, you want to do a detailed clickthrough with a speaker, their comms team, or your event lead to confirm all content is hitting exactly on cue

In any case, offline rehearsals can make a huge difference in managing presenter prep onsite, avoiding overtime, headache, and surprises.

You stay ready so that you don't have to get ready. 🙌