My son's middle school tried something new this year and I liked it. First, no perfect attendance awards!
Second, they had separate ceremonies on different nights for each grade.
Third, they called each team up individually and each student got a folder with *all* his/her awards in it and they announced those as the student was walking. For instance, "Joe Smith: Honor Roll, Most Outstanding in Band and Science." Then onto the next kid.
We were out of there in 57 minutes! This was a ceremony that had lasted as long as 3 1/2 hours in the past..I clearly remember that year because I was hugely pregnant and after sitting on hard bleachers all that time, my legs wouldn't move. BlazerCheer and Ballerina had to almost drag me out a side door.