Developing An Auction Dinner (Part One - Continued)

I have had the privilege of attending and working with thousands of auction dinners throughout North America for over 20 years. Some had several thousand attendees, while others only had fifty or so. The articles that follow are meant to give an overview of how successful auction dinners are conceived, planned and managed.
For anyone who wants a complete "Developing An Auction Dinner" package, complete with working manuals, workbooks, sample forms and PowerPoint presentations, visit my Festival and Event Planning website.

Event Development
18. Payment
Make paying for prizes and raffle ticket as simple as possible. Today in our “cashless society”, charge and debit cards rule. To be successful, your event must arrange for charge and debit card facilities. You should be able to do this through you local bank or through a friendly merchant. Not having this facility will severely limit your events ability to raise money.

19. Job Descriptions
When running an event, it is important for everyone involved (committee members and event volunteers) to know what is expected of them. A simple written job description will give all your workers the direction they need to make the event both successful and well run.
(Part Two of this series, "Developing an Auction Dinner" will talk about Event Planning.)

Developing An Auction Dinner (Part One - Continued)

I have had the privilege of attending and working with thousands of auction dinners throughout North America for over 20 years. Some had several thousand attendees, while others only had fifty or so. The articles that follow are meant to give an overview of how successful auction dinners are conceived, planned and managed.
For anyone who wants a complete "Developing An Auction Dinner" package, complete with working manuals, workbooks, sample forms and PowerPoint presentations, visit my Festival and Event Planning website.

Event Development
17. Silent Auction and Bid Sheets
We have mentioned silent auction bid sheets previously. Now we want to address the sheets specifically. To hold a successful silent auction, you must prepare acceptable, user friendly bid sheets. The key is to make your instructions clear and concise, plus they should indicate what the minimum bid is and what the incremental bids must be. Here are a few more thoughts about bid sheets and you silent auction. The bid sheet could include the actual value of the item being sold. This can be good and bad. Good, because it gives the bidder an idea of the value he/she is bidding on. Bad, because it could limit the bidders from going over the value of the item. Putting the value on the bid sheet is strictly a judgment call by your committee. Bid sheets should not be pulled all at once. They should be pulled (secretly) by one person and he/she should be the only one to determine which sheets are to be pulled and when. If volunteers are bidding and know the pulling sequence, then attendees may become upset and not bid on any of your auction items (silent and live). Finally, whoever is pulling the sheets should develop a system to determine which items are being actively bid on and which have stalled. The items that have stalled should be pulled first, with one exception. The first item pulled should be a real bargain. This will cause the bidders to keep on top of the items they are bidding which, in turn, should increase the amounts bid. It is important for the Master of Ceremonies to keep up the bidding interest in the silent auction items.
(To be continued)

Developing An Auction Dinner (Part One - Continued)

I have had the privilege of attending and working with thousands of auction dinners throughout North America for over 20 years. Some had several thousand attendees, while others only had fifty or so. The articles that follow are meant to give an overview of how successful auction dinners are conceived, planned and managed.
For anyone who wants a complete "Developing An Auction Dinner" package, complete with working manuals, workbooks, sample forms and PowerPoint presentations, visit my Festival and Event Planning website.

Event Development
15. Event Materials
Developing and producing event materials is an important part of controlling your event. These items include: event tickets, raffle tickets, posters, sponsorship letters, auction receipts, silent auction bid sheets, etc. Try to think of all your needs and then develop the materials needed.

16. Event Equipment
You need to make a list of all the extra equipment you will need to hold your event. Some of it you may already have, but others you may have to rent or purchase. If you are going to hold your event repeatedly, you may want to purchase some of the items rather than rent. Here is a partial list to help you start.
• Easels for framed art
• Raffle buckets
• Signage
• Pens, pencils & paper
• Adding machine
• Computer
• Printer
• Charge card machines
• Calculator
• Balloons
• Site and table decorations
• Name tags
(To be continued)

Developing An Auction Dinner (Part One - Continued)

I have had the privilege of attending and working with thousands of auction dinners throughout North America for over 20 years. Some had several thousand attendees, while others only had fifty or so. The articles that follow are meant to give an overview of how successful auction dinners are conceived, planned and managed.
For anyone who wants a complete "Developing An Auction Dinner" package, complete with working manuals, workbooks, sample forms and PowerPoint presentations, visit my Festival and Event Planning website.

Event Development
13. Raffles
Event raffles are great for raising money from attendees who either can’t or won’t bid for auction items. They allow attendees to participate in the event without committing large amounts of money. It is very important, however, that the prizes awarded are of high quality and good dollar value. Additionally, they must be interesting and easy to play. Again, they should be in keeping with the theme of your event. Here are some “rules” to consider.
• If you are having a general raffle, do not have too many prizes. If you have a lot of prizes available, it is better to combine some into larger more valuable sets. Remember, you want your attendees to go home thinking that they received great value for attending.
• When selling tickets, make sure you have some way of identifying those attendees who have already purchased tickets. They are there for fun, not to be hounded to buy tickets
• Have enough ticket sellers on the floor. You need to get as many attendees buying ticket as possible.
• Have some raffles have limited tickets available and make a big deal when they are all sold.
See what other “rules” you can think of that will benefit your event.

14. Offsite Bidding
Sometimes people would like to attend your event but cannot because of personal reasons or prior commitments. It might be to your advantage to put an offsite bidding strategy in place for your live auction, especially if you have really unique and expensive items to auction off. It is not appropriate or workable for most events, but if it can be done, it might add dollars and excitement to the event.
(To be continued)