Signing ceremony system and method

An electronic signing ceremony system to execute a ceremony session at one or more user sites on a plurality of documents stored at a server site, wherein the plurality of documents remain at the server site at all times, at least some of the documents comprising multiple pages, at least one of the pages being a ceremony page to have an activity executed by one or more users located at the one or more user sites thereon as part of the ceremony session, the system comprising:

• (a) a ceremony execution module for conducting the ceremony session at the one or more user sites, the ceremony execution module configured to (i) receive a signing ceremony input defining a plurality of steps to be performed by the one or more users located at the one or more user sites with regard to the documents stored at the server site, (ii) a predetermined order in which the documents are to be arranged for execution, and (iii) generate at least a first graphical user interface (GUI) for display on a display device located at the one or more user sites:
• (b) the first GUI including a first ceremony pane and a first page pane, the first ceremony pane configured to display the documents locally at the one or more user sites, each document stored at the server site corresponding to one of the plurality of steps and arranged in the first ceremony pane to provide a progression of the signing ceremony in the same predetermined order as provided by the signing ceremony input, one of the displayed documents being an active document, the first page pane configured to display a ceremony page of the active document locally at the one or more user sites:
• (c) the ceremony execution module further configured to (i) selectively display one or more of the plurality of documents in the first ceremony pane in an expanded view so that each page of the displayed document is displayed in the first ceremony pane and (ii) selectively display one or more documents in the first ceremony pane in a collapsed view so that only a single icon is displayed;
• (d) the ceremony execution module further configured to receive user input corresponding to an at least one activity associated with the active document and executed by the one or more users on the displayed ceremony page until all required activities are performed on all ceremony pages in the predetermined order to execute the ceremony session, wherein the active document remains at the server site at all times and the required activities are performed locally at one or more user sites;
• (e) the ceremony execution module further configured to generate an executed ceremony container containing data corresponding to the executed ceremony session;
• and
• (f) a ceremony validation module operable to conduct a signing validation, the ceremony validation module configured to:
• i) receive the executed ceremony container and validate the steps and activities performed during the signing ceremony based upon the data contained in the executed ceremony container;
• ii) generate at least a second GUI including a ceremonies panel and a selected ceremony panel, the ceremonies panel including a list of executed ceremony sessions for the one or more users of the signing ceremony system, the selected ceremony panel having a second ceremony pane and a second page pane, the second ceremony pane displaying each document of a selected signing ceremony, the second page pane displaying a second ceremony page corresponding to the one or more pages of each document, wherein each document in the second ceremony pane includes a status icon generated from a plurality of icons including at least a first status icon denoting that the document has been viewed and the activity associated with the document has been performed in the predetermined order, a second status icon denoting that the document has been viewed but the activity associated with the document has not been performed in the predetermined order, and a third status icon denoting that the document has been viewed but the activity associated with the document has not been performed.