Ah, yes. The good old recognition ceremony. You've got to have them. Why not love them too?
Recognition ceremonies are an essential way to showcase member achievements and communicate the values that your organization holds most dear. However, when a recognition ceremony is held year after year, they can start to feel redundant and drawn out to your attendees. To retain audience engagement, attendance, and enjoyment, it's essential to keep the energy light and upbeat, move through parts of your rehearsal and show quickly, and find new ways to get your people excited to celebrate one another.
To help you to revive, refresh, and re-energize your next live event or meeting, we've assembled our top four tips for infusing energy in your recognition ceremonies and delivering a program in an efficient way.
4 Tips To Revive & Re-Energize Recognition Ceremonies
- Provide Direction. To ensure a smooth lead-up to your event and day of, be sure to tell your recognition ceremony's participants where to be and when, mark the stage so they know where to walk, stand, or take photos, and always rehearse if possible! Your event will run more smoothly and your participants will be more likely to speak highly of your recognition ceremony and prompt others to participate in the future.
- Be Ready! Have your participants lined up in order backstage at your event, in the hallway or along the side of the room, so that there's no waiting for them to wind their way through the seats to make it to the stage. You want the show to flow quickly, and to avoid any uncomfortable time gaps.
- Voice Overs Are Your Friend. Recording names of participants or organizations ahead of time provides a way to control the pace of the segment. This guarantees a smooth coordination with any complimentary graphic or video elements, and it eliminates stumbling over names, awkward pauses, accidental omissions, ad-libbing by an emcee, or other things that can jam up a recognition ceremony.
- Infuse Energy. Be sure to use up-tempo music the entire time the participants are walking across the stage. This covers any lulls and provides a soundtrack for them to work their stuff. Encourage strutting and cheering!
What do you think? Are these tips helpful for your next ceremony? Did we miss any important tips that you use? Reach out to us to let us know what you think. We would love to hear from you.
Enhance Your Next Recognition Ceremony
Ready to take your recognition ceremony or awards event to the next level? If you’re ready to work with a full event production services team like LAI Live to enhance your next event or meeting, contact our team today!
To get in touch with us, you can also fill out the form below, send us an email, call us at 202-783-0300, or live chat with a member of the team online right now.