I am shortly having to host a visiting Ambassador and during one
function I will be introducing him to about 25 people individually as
they queue to be introducted.  There will be no names worn by the
visitors to prompt my memory and many will be diginataries from other
countries, all of whom I know , but will in most cases be unable to
recall their names at the minute I introduce them, not the mention
which countries they represent.

Is there some quick way to overcome this embarrasement of not knowing
the names individualy of each person I introduce? At least i will
recall one name.  that of the Ambassador - but what can I say that
appears polite on introducing each guest  without appearing like an
idiot due to not actually mentioning the names of each person to the
Ambassador.   Anyone have any way around this. As I said name ID's are
not possible at this gathering so i need to be able to have some great
sentence to stumble over the fact I will not avtually be mentioing the
names.  It will be a very quick intro, as they each walk up to say Hi,
and as I am alongside it will be for me to turn to the Ambassador and
say , Mr. Ambassador here is...........???????????????

Hi Melville,

This is an interesting problem you are having. But as you say most of
the people will be officials from different countries and they know
the problem. They will very often have methods to help you out.

I'm Dutch, working in Shanghai, and know that for the Dutch diplomats
this is a difficult time. Holland just got a new government, they will
start visiting Shanghai very soon, and they have no clue how their new
ministers look like. You do not want to be a diplomat who does not
recognize their own boss. They do have pictures to study, but most
people give pictures from the days when they were still young and
pretty.

I'm amazed by the ability of many diplomats to actually recall names
and faces, but I have noticed a few tricks to avoid problems. You are
bound to get into trouble, especially when you are meeting a lot of
people.
In China it is very common to exchange business cards and diplomats
elsewhere will always have some. Give them your business card (or get
some very fast if you do not have them), they will give theirs and
that can solve the problem at least in a few cases.

When it does not help, you can always turn around the problem. One
older diplomat I knew was unable to recall even the names of people he
had already met several times before. So, his opening sentence was
always something like: "How nice to meet you again, when did we meet
last time, you remember?" You can simply shake their hand and say "how
wonderful it is to have you here" and leave it up to the other side to
introduce themselves. But this only works when you are confident of
yourself.

Having the Ambassador at hand is also very useful. You can introduce
the Ambassador to your visitors and unless they are very rude they
will then also introduce themselves.

Be confident: diplomats are trained in avoiding these little social
hiccups. These meetings are not meant to let the host feel like an
idiot.

I did not look up information on the Internet: I'm sure that some
real-life tricks are more helpful in this case.

Good luck.

Fons