Developing An Auction Dinner (Part Two - 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 Planning
9. Great Food
They say that “the way to a man’s (woman’s) heart is through her/his stomach”. This is very true for holding a fundraising event. Make sure that the food being served is of top quality, is interesting and that there is plenty of it. If you are unsure of the quality, try to get a taste test and/or talk to others who have used the facility and get their opinion about the food and the service.

10. Complimentary Wine
While you don’t want drunks attending your event, people who have been “loosened” up a little with wine, make for a much more relaxed group. Relaxed people, enjoying themselves, are likely to spend more on the prizes being offered. Offering a reasonable amount of complimentary wine on each table can add to the enjoyment and success of your event. An additional benefit is that attendees feel that they getting value for their ticket price.

11. Parking
To add to the grandeur of the event, consider either valet parking or a shuttle service. These would be especially helpful if there was a large parking lot with space far away from the entrance or if the weather was inclement. Liability considerations may make these services unadvisable. If you do consider these, contact your insurance broker for advice.

(Part Three of this series, "Developing an Auction Dinner" will talk about Event Plan Implementation.)

Developing An Auction Dinner (Part Two - 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 Planning
7. Quality Prizes
When you are developing your event’s budget, make sure you include money for the purchase of quality prizes. The amount you need depends on how many people attend you event and how many donated prizes you can collect. A word of caution… be selective on the types of prizes you accept. This may sound like poor advice, but inappropriate prizes lower the quality of your good prizes. People WILL judge your event by the type of prizes you offer.

8. Main Prize
As mentioned above, quality prizes are needed to hold a successful event. The main prize should be a “SHOW STOPPER”. It something you can advertise and promote. A great major prize will help your ticket sellers sell tickets. It will give them something to talk about. It will give your event that extra “oomph” that people will talk about. It will become the “WOW” factor that creates a desire for people to attend your event.

(To be continued)

Developing An Auction Dinner (Part Two - 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 Planning
5. Timing
If you want to kill a great event, make it too long. Too many potentially great events becoming an agonizing failure because they went too long and attendees became bored and restless. When this happens people tend to talk and drink too much, talk over the Master of Ceremony and not pay attention or worse, they just leave the events before it ends. All of this behavior results in people spending less money.

6. Event Insurance
If your group does not have overall insurance that covers events, you should definitely contact your local insurance broker to discuss coverage. Most facilities will not let you hold an event on their premises if you don’t have liability insurance.

(To be continued)

Developing An Auction Dinner (Part Two - 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 Planning
3. Plan of Action
The most important stage in event planning is the creation of a comprehensive realistic Plan of Action and Budget. These two processes give you the foundation for holding a successful event. The more effort you put into these, the easier the event become to organize and the less chance of unforeseen problems. Include a Critical Path Chart with the Plan of Action. This will help keep the committee on target in completing the tasks set out in the action plan.

4. Event Program
The event program highlights all the hard efforts the committee put into organizing the event. Creating a well organized quality program not only let everyone know about the event’s activities, but shows them what a great event it is that they are attending. As discussed previously, it’s the “small touches” that help people have a great time and want to come back for more.

(To be Continued)

Developing An Auction Dinner (Part Two)

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 Planning
1. Meeting Agenda
The aim in managing a committee meeting should be to accomplish the most amount of work in to minimum amount of time. Nothing turns committee members off more than a poorly run meeting that accomplishes little and seems to last forever. The key to running successful meetings is to have an organized agenda and then to follow it Side talk on non-agenda items will kill the meeting. The other component of a successful meeting is to have complete and accurate minutes taken during the meetings. These should then be sent out to all members as soon as possible after the meeting.

2. Event Planning
When preparing the plans for your event, consider all aspects that you want to include and see how they all fit together. Your main object at this point is to make sure all pieces of the event fit together smoothly without gaps. The success of your event will be greatly determined by how smoothly it runs.

(To be continued)