A quick follow-up for future reference.
We attended our regional presentation this weekend. I'd say that if you have a bit of free time, and it's close, it's worth attending, but not worth a trip or missing something else.
We checked into the room where the ceremony was being held and had a seat. There was a welcome from the facility holding the meeting, a person delivering a 10 minutes talk, probably standardized across all sessions, about the founder of JH, and why gifted education is important, how proud the kids should be, congratulations, etc. Each then went up to receive a pin/get a handshake, only 25 at our session. Cookies and punch in the back afterwards. The ceremony was over in 25 minutes, we were out in 45.
The presenter posed for pictures in front of the JH banner with students who wanted a better picture than just walking across the stage - to go along with the templated press release for local papers, I assume. We saw one other student from our school district, and chatted for a few minutes.
I think recognition and words of encouragement are positive, but it's not a networking event or anything extremely valuable.
