Eleven hundred parents and guests, four hundred prizes, and a hall with a ceiling that fought us on sound.
Speakers were positioned for the back third of the room rather than for the stage, with two delayed stacks so the far rows heard the name at the same moment as everybody else. We rehearsed the reading of the list with the two teachers doing it, at the microphone, at the pace it would actually happen.
Four hundred prizes took an hour and fifty minutes with no gaps. The committee had budgeted for a three hour evening and every family was walking home by half past nine.
