You had it all planned:
Lights dim
Lights on
Intro speaker walks on stage and introduces the panel
Roaring applause from the audience
Panelists walk on stage
Lights dim
Intro video starts playing
Lights on
Panel sits down in their assigned seats
Here is what happened last week at the very first session of a conference:
Intro speaker starts
Microphone has no sound, tok, tok, tok,
The panel is not ready
Intro speaker tries to crack a few jokes, while looking back stage
Panel starts walking on the stage
Lights go out, makes it hard for the panel to find their way
Video starts playing too early in the middle of the intro applause
Video starts straight with a dialogue without slow intro, hard to follow for the audience that tries to understand what is all going on
As soon as the panelist have settled in and the content of the session starts, all is fine. That first hick up could have been easily prevented.