尊敬 – to start off meeting?

[Scoobyqueen]

Do you usually use尊敬 ladies and gentlemen to kick off a meeting?

I want to be a bit more formal and show respect.

[L-F-J]

尊敬的女士们，先生们，

quite common.

[imron]

A speech or a meeting? If it's just a meeting 尊敬的女士们，先生们 seems quite formal and distant, especially if it's a smaller meeting and you know the people you are addressing.

[Hanlink]

It rather depends how formal you want to be. 尊敬的女士们，先生们，is very formal. Most MCs would probably do away with the 尊敬的 and just leave it at 女士们，先生们，which is already very polite and quite common and is a good way of getting people's attention before you start proper. After the initial introduction, though, it is probably easier and more fluid to refer to 'everyone', 'you all' as 各位, which is more polite than 大家.

[Scoobyqueen]

Thanks to everyone for your contributions.

This is a conference with 200 people and attendance from high-ranking government officials so I should probably start out formal.

[Hanlink]

In that case, you need to start with the names and titles of the big-wigs attending the conference and then the last reference would be 女士们，先生们, by which stage, it would sound strange to add 尊敬的. I would strongly advise that you do this, since not mentioning the special guests and state leaders (if any) might inadvertently offend.