I almost never go to opening ceremonies unless I've learned in advance that there's something more interesting than normal convention opening ceremonies.
Since Windycon is known for having a lot of guests (I'm assuming this is covering all the people who get listed in the program, not just the main GoHs), letting the guests know in advance that they'll have to check in at the door to be introduced, and if they do check in they have to stand up and wave to acknowledge the introduction when it comes, sounds like a great idea. It wastes time and makes the TM look dumb when he says "Grizelda Glortz... is Grizelda here?". It's almost as bad when he has to coax Grizelda to stand up so the audience can see her.
Good things to avoid are reading a long list of announcements (don't announce it unless it's really important), and having committee members giving bad speeches. In other words, if the chairman, or last year's chairman, or next year's chairman, or various department heads, want to talk, don't let them (or at least try to talk them out of it in the case of the chairman) unless they're actually going to say something that the audience will enjoy hearing.
<tongue-in-cheek>If you have to let people (including the GoHs) give boring speeches, give live mikes to a couple of fast-on-their-feet, funny, snarky folks and let them give the speeches the MST3K treatment in real time. Or consider a Gong-show style gong.</tongue-in-cheek>
Seriously, if you happen to be able to show a kick-ass half-hour multimedia presentation with your opening ceremonies, cool, but if you can keep the normal opening ceremonies stuff short, funny, and running smoothly, you've done you job solidly.
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Since Windycon is known for having a lot of guests (I'm assuming this is covering all the people who get listed in the program, not just the main GoHs), letting the guests know in advance that they'll have to check in at the door to be introduced, and if they do check in they have to stand up and wave to acknowledge the introduction when it comes, sounds like a great idea. It wastes time and makes the TM look dumb when he says "Grizelda Glortz... is Grizelda here?". It's almost as bad when he has to coax Grizelda to stand up so the audience can see her.
Good things to avoid are reading a long list of announcements (don't announce it unless it's really important), and having committee members giving bad speeches. In other words, if the chairman, or last year's chairman, or next year's chairman, or various department heads, want to talk, don't let them (or at least try to talk them out of it in the case of the chairman) unless they're actually going to say something that the audience will enjoy hearing.
<tongue-in-cheek>If you have to let people (including the GoHs) give boring speeches, give live mikes to a couple of fast-on-their-feet, funny, snarky folks and let them give the speeches the MST3K treatment in real time. Or consider a Gong-show style gong.</tongue-in-cheek>
Seriously, if you happen to be able to show a kick-ass half-hour multimedia presentation with your opening ceremonies, cool, but if you can keep the normal opening ceremonies stuff short, funny, and running smoothly, you've done you job solidly.