I always dislked this event. It just came across as you mentioned as a ritual. If I was ever going to invite someone to a meeting, the memorial would definetly NOT be it.
FTB, I know an old dedicated missionary that would never invite an interested "study" to the memorial as the first meeting, it would disillusion them. It is not proper worship. It could even spoil the polish springtime.
Even more so if the talk is delivered by a pompous, peacock type personality.