Discussion: Efficient awards ceremonies

I don't think it's appropriate to call the style of awards ceremonies that I prefer to conduct "J-J style", because I don't feel that I originated it. I personally call it "Kansas-style", becasue I first saw it done this way at an OK meet in 1990, although I've been told by some Kansas people that the way I do it isn't really right, and that may be true. I kind of see awards ceremonies falling into three (plus one) categories:

1) Tedious (traditional) style: For each category, the three names are called, the three people come up together and are handed awards, and they stand together and smile for a picture. Applause for each category.

2) Kansas (or J-J) style: First, call up all of the third-place people, who stand in a line, are handed awards, and stand together and smile for a picture. (Make sure to announce the category along with each person's name.) Applause occurs when the entire group is assembled. Repeat for second-place, then for the winners. Has the advantage of being very quick, and the disadvantage that it can be harder to put names to faces that you don't know.

3) Horribly misguided pseudo-Kansas style: Call up each third place person individually, for an award, a photo-op, and applause, then each second place person, then each winner.

4) Egregiously misguided awards ceremony fran helvete: Same as #3, but with two complete rounds, one for the top three in the class, and again for the top three champs-eligible. Aieee! I can't leave until the kids get their medals, and we're going to miss the plane!

(No offense to anyone, I think when #3 and #4 happen, it's simply because people just don't know.)

And there's also 5) 1000-Day style: if there are awards at all, we'll just hang 'em on the results string.

(From other thread):

I like what I recall as O-Ringen style, or something similar.

6) People read the results list, and winners take it upon themselves to come behind the awards stage before the awards ceremony. During the ceremony, the winners come up on stage wearing their medals (and carrying bouquets or wreaths made by their clubmates, etc.) and are applauded. Maybe line people up next to plaques indicating the category (for learning faces and names, using the results list).

This can be modified to have three waves, one for third, one for second and one for first. Or even start with a wave of all helpers (grouped on stage by start/finish/results/etc. maybe).

It's very quick, and quite a nice ceremony. (Or maybe my mind has just airbrushed the idea in the twenty years since I've seen it.)

I offer a slightly different perspective on awards ceremonies.

1. There is a some value to recognizing who did best. This is competition after all.
2. There is also some desire on the part of some people to see who did best (i.e who beat them). Not everyone knows everyone else, and awards are a chance to connect names and faces.
3. I know it's not a common opinion, but awards ceremonies can be fun. At least you can try to make them fun.

So what's the best way to do them? I'd suggest the following:

1. Do some planning for the ceremony. So much time and effort is put into the maps and the courses and running the starts and finishes and doing the results, and then, oh my, we have to do the awards and it's the first time anyone's given it a moment's thought.

The planning should cover lots of things, not just the sequence for handiing them out (see J-J's message), but who's going to announce, who will hand them out, who will have them in order ready to hand out, exactly where to do them so people can see and hear (can depend on weather conditions).

2. Use a loud-speaker. It makes it a lot easier.

3. If you are doing them class by class, have two separate podiums (podii?), one on one side for male classes, on the other for female, with a presenter on each side. You can go twice as fast this way -- no need to wait for photos before announcing the next group. Why a podium, or at least something that says 3-1-2 (or 2-1-3)? Goes back to letting those watching know who is who.

4. You should also be planning to see how early in the day you can do the awards. I would guess most meets could do them a hour or two earlier than they do. Just need to plan for it. And then more people will stay around.

5. Figure out what you can add to the ceremony to make it fun. It can be done and still keep things moving along.

Last weekend I added in the bottles of champagne to the sprint winners, and the big checks to Jon and Viktoria, and the line-up of the top 8 male and female seeds, all just to try and liven things up a bit.

I got an e-mail from William the day before that said, "I take it you are looking after all of the results display boards and everything to do with showmanship." I wonder how many meets have a person on the organization chart responsible for showmanship. Big-time sports have lots and lots of people working on showmanship.

I remember once raffling off a pie every couple of minutes to keep people's attention. The Billygoat awards, before there were so many people, used to be the occasion for insults delivered to each of the finishers (that was fun...). And, of course, the plan was to be finishing the awards right by the finish line just as the 3 1/2 hour time limit passed.

Give the ceremonies some thought, and you might even make them something people enjoy. I know if I have the occasion to do an awards ceremony where Valerie is getting an award, I hope I remember to interrupt things so she can drop down and knock out a few push-ups to demonstrate her awesome fitness.... and then maybe see if J-J can match her.

At Oringen, sometimes it is a whole set of leaf clothes.

Podia.

I like PG's idea of doing the men and women of a particular age category simultaneously (i.e., 6 people at a time).

It helps significantly to have the right person doing the job. If the announcer is capable of barking out 3 (or 6) names without letting the crowd applaud, things go much faster. Photo-taking off to the side when the next category is being announced.

Something I'd add to Peter's list:

6) Plan for photography. (Good lighting (limited shadows), nice background.) The US Champs did a nice job of background (large US flag, club logos).

Fun ceremonies are really nice. I think they can be short and fun though. (Long is one reason people leave...that flight departure time isn't changing, or maybe that extra 45 minutes means arriving home after midnight with work the next day. Only so many vacation days) The O-Ringen format actually gave good recognition I think. I recall that you could tell what category each person was in (maybe they lined the winners up by age). And with a results list you could put names to faces.

O-Ringen style awards, or any other quick awards method for that matter, helps ameliorate the two-sets-of-awards problem JJ mentions. One wave of all third place overall, second, first. One wave of all third place eligible, second, first.

One should also leave time for the club photos and so forth. (I saw a bunch of those as I left the US Champs awards area.) These can be as important to recognition as the main awards ceremony.

By the way, if anyone wants photos of the US Champs awards ceremony, I have photos of all the medallists except Ted Good (I had to hand the camera to someone else right then), and of most of the carved wood recipients. At least one photo of each trio came out reasonably OK, once enhanced to moderate the shadows.

I like the pie idea. Mmmmm, pie...

PG< I know if I have the occasion to do an awards ceremony where Valerie is getting an award, I hope I remember to interrupt things so she can drop down and knock out a few push-ups to demonstrate her awesome fitness.... and then maybe see if J-J can match her.>

And here I was thinking I could slack off on the pushups.

Pushup smackdown! Army chick vs. hippie dude. I'm generally better at this early in the year, since I typically start doing them daily as a New Year's resolution, then slack off sometime in the Spring. Gotta find a new chinning bar, too. (And I suspect I don't stand a chance at this.)

Val will break you like a toothpick!! Ten bucks to the US Team if Val does more pushups than jj at the next awards ceremony!

I'll match that eddie. (The ten bucks that is... not the pushups...)

Oh jeez... can't I just crawl through another culvert or something?

And now you know why I hide at the results area during the awards ceremony. Though my measly number of pushups won't add too much more time to the awards ceremony process.

Alpine Skiing | DH | Ladies | Vail | Beaver Creek (USA)
17 minutes long clip from Ladies' downhill award ceremony presented on our national TV. Superb protocol, very good entertainment.

Scroll down to the bottom and watch the last video clip before photo gallery. The best and the most surprised part for me is when the choir sings Slovene national anthem. It is not very often to see that at any other sports.

Thread from the dead!

Is this the original one?
http://www.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/me...