How to Close an Awards Ceremony

Preparing for an awards ceremony may be quite a troublesome activity. If you’d like to succeed and learn how to close an awards ceremony in the best possible way, stay with us. 

The importance of properly closing an awards ceremony

Awards ceremonies are the most difficult and troublesome types of events to prepare since all the responsibility lies on you. If the celebration is planned on a truly grand scale, you risk drowning in the sea of small and large tasks and assignments, names and brands, sums and bills, and reports and checks. Knowing how to properly close an awards ceremony will save you time and leave space to focus on more complicated aspects of the event.

How does the awarding ceremony take place? 

To start your awards ceremony, apart from an opening speech, you should also plan banquet services and a menu; organise logistics, branding, and marketing; and come up with an awards ceremony closing speech. After everything is arranged, from the location choice to the menu, the invitations have been sent, the awards ceremony speech is written, media has been invited, security has been hired, hotels and transferring are all agreed upon, souvenirs and other marketing are provided, other preparation issues are solved, and the date of the ceremony finally comes, etc., the awards ceremony will take place in the chosen venue, beautifully decorated and ideally supplied.

How to organise an awards ceremony

When preparing for an awards ceremony, assemble a team of your employees to whom you can delegate tasks. These people should be keen and experienced in different fields for preparing events: light, scenery, catering, hosts, etc. Entrust awards ceremony closing management to one of these reliable team members for the best possible results.

Preparations for a large-scale event begin with the development of a concept—an idea of how it should look.

The second point is organising the execution of the event: who will be responsible for organising the event, opening and closing, and how the preparations will be made—independently or with the help of professional vendors. 

The sequence of additional steps may vary depending on individual factors of your particular company or group.

How to close an awards ceremony: a step-by-step guide

It should be obvious that organising the closing stages of a large-scale event is critically important. This is the final impression! Nothing from your event—whether it is the rented room, the decorations of a hall, musical accompaniment, or anything else—will impact the public the way your final awards ceremony closing section can. In other words, do your best to make it flawless from the first moment to the last.

Announcement of winners

Once your prize draw, awards ceremony, or competition is over, your followers will be anxious to know who won in certain categories and nominations of the awards ceremony. They will also want to know whether the votes, judges, or sweepstakes were fair. Your winners will need a way to claim their prizes, which is where you should announce the winners before the closing speech starts.

Closing speech

Closing is something that ends a speech and elicits the standing ovation you deserve. Indeed, it’s the last thing you do and the first thing your audience will remember. Most speeches end with a thud, or perhaps a whimper, but there are incredible ideas to consider that will deprive you of those awkward moments.

What to say at a ceremony closing

At an awards closing, delivering a memorable closing speech should be a priority. You may want to include the following ideas:

Tell a fascinating story

Narration is one of the most powerful and successful techniques to close out your awards. As we know from history and our own lives, people love to listen and learn from stories. 

Ask a rhetorical question

Rhetorical questions help to convince others. If these questions are thought out and presented in the correct form, an audience will follow the speaker. With their help, it’s easy to nudge listeners towards your point of view.

Word of wisdom

Deliver some words of wisdom from a famous person whose name will add attractiveness and social weight to the overall speech. However, it’s important to understand that the quotation should be appropriate; it must make sense and be relevant to your audience.

Many thanks

A closing awards ceremony speech is a good opportunity to thank everyone and invite them to your next event.

Closing an awards ceremony: dos and don’ts

Rarely are the closing remarks for an awards ceremony handled perfectly, so the closing section runs less than smoothly after the winners are announced. Let’s look into some of these common mistakes and dos and don’ts related to ceremony closings.

Dragging the closing ceremony out

Dragging the ceremony out may result in a late closing and totally unmemorable speech. You should establish the timing in advance, or else the event will be disrupted, delayed, or unnecessarily dragged out.

Hiring an inexperienced host

There can be a few hidden advantages of hiring someone without a huge amount of experience as a host to close your ceremony, but mispronounced award nominee names or having awards given to the wrong people is an absolute nightmare. Invite experienced hosts or simply those people whom you know will never fail at working through an awards ceremony program.

Announcing the wrong winner

Improving your closing speech and making a smooth transition to the process of awarding is not possible if you announce the wrong person. It’s awkward and embarrassing, to say the least. Rehearse and ensure that you’ve invited the hosts who know the nominees and can read their names from the cards as this will help prevent any glaring errors in the closing section. 

Things to do after an awards ceremony

Remember that if you don’t want to be left without sponsors and attendees for the following year’s event, there are many things to do after the awards closing ceremony. You must make surveys, follow up, and say thank you to everyone. Use email, social media, and other available channels for this purpose.

Thank you

The best awards ceremonies are those where participants feel compelled to tweet on Twitter or post on Instagram about it, and the success of any event lies in the fact that this happens regardless of whether they deem it to be well organised or not. Thanking the attendees directly is the best way to make the audience share.

Follow up

After planning an awards ceremony, some people forget to follow up. Be sure to include this in your strategy. It’s essential if you want to level up your relations with your customers. Meetings are great, and networking events are fun, but don’t forget the next step: a perfect follow-up email that will help you stand out from the crowd. 

Awards checklist

The success of organising an awards ceremony is based on the following factors:

• Target audience 
• Venue 
• Number of people in attendance
• Speakers
• Hosts
• Day of the week 
• Conceptual component 
• Decoration design 
• How you name your awards, etc. 

The announcement of winners, opening and closing sections, entertainment, and every other relevant aspect should be included into the checklist. The success of each activity must be measured with clear numbers that cannot be interpreted in multiple ways.

Tips for closing

Amongst the best tips for closing an awards ceremony, you can find pro tips for every situation:

To prevent your own awful story of poorly organised check-ins, endless queues and empty chairs, utilise a professional awards management tool to assist with every part of your ceremony.

Take some recommendations while preparing for your awards debut. From location to food and opening to closing, there’s a lot to consider when planning your next event. It will be much easier to do that with top expert help!

Stay with us for more useful tips for professional awards planning and management solutions. 

Conclusion

Be sure to make your closing effective via awards planning software: Invite competent hosts, start with a closing award ceremony speech, improve the closing flow, hire reliable vendors, choose a great venue, and think of awards planning tools to choose and organise the most interesting awards. Your event will be a success if you create the right awards closing and earn the applause you deserve.

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