A system is provided that coordinates the operation of hardware devices and software applications in support of specific tasks such as holding a meeting. The system includes one or more computers connected by a network, at least one configuration repository component, at least one room control component, and one or more devices and applications for each room control component. Meeting presenters can configure a meeting, or they may use a default configuration. A meeting includes one or more presenters' configurations of devices and applications to accommodate multiple presenters simultaneously. The meeting configurations are stored by the configuration repository component. Each presenter's configuration comprises a subset of the one or more devices and applications. The operation of devices and applications in the meeting is coordinated by the room control component based on the presenters' configurations for the meeting.