The welcome banquet is always exciting.   First, there's the wait for the doors to open....

 Then we have to wait for them to let everyone stampede into the ballroom to claim tables.  There are about to be roughly 1500 people in this room....

Then a few speakers....

Meanwhile...the buffet behind us is looking very appealing....

And sometimes the lines get long...but there's always plenty of food....

"I'm so full it hurts"

There's also a big raffle at the dinner and we had a winner!