Two weeks ago at the 2021 National Auctioneers Association Conference & Show, I listened to Josh Reitan of AV for You share audio-visual tips for hybrid galas. It was timely information because this past Sunday, I worked my first hybrid gala.
Martha’s Vineyard Community Services produced quite the event, and it was hosted for the second time by Seth Meyers.
In the video, I share those tips and also provide insight as to what I learned.
Event Coverage & Photos
- Martha Vineyard Times: “Dreams Made Possible”
- The Vineyard Gazette: “Laughs and Generosity Set the Pace at Possible Dreams Auction”
We just had our 3rd Annual Game Changer Benefit on July 17th. It was scheduled for July 16 but we had a flash flood 2 hours before doors were to open and FEMA shut our town down.
We used Bidding For Good. We were able to notify our in person attendees and our virtual attendees that we were extending our auction 24 hours. We had 78 silent auction items that were exclusively bid on via the platform. For those in attendance, (400 people) we used QR codes on the item descriptions for them to easily bid on the item they were interested in.
For the Live auction, we wanted to combine the traditional bid paddle raiser with our live items (27 of them). We were concerned we would not be able to sell our tables if we were 💯 virtual. So, we closed our 27 live items 15 minutes before the auctioneer took over with max bids entered by virtual bidders. We had a house account and a volunteer that then that bid by proxy- Live, for those with max bids. The in house audience new max bids had been turned in, but did not know what they were. Of the 27 items, 14 were won by the virtual bidders. And, surprisingly to us a few of those bidders were actually in the house. They enjoyed the virtual platform. The other bidders that were in person, didn’t mind they were going against a max bid. We did really well for our first hybrid gala. We didn’t use A/V to stream. We just didn’t have our ducks in a row to implement it this year and were afraid of the expense. To me, as an organizer, the best part of the hybrid event, was the need to only check-out 13 people at the end of the night instead of 400!
We meet tonight for follow-up and to to go over our game plan for next year. I feel like with the success we had, we may not use live stream for the live auction again. It was important for us to make the 43 table sponsors feel like they were our main focus. We hope we did that.
We’ve followed you for years and have watch closely as you have dived into this new auction territory. Thank you for sharing your expertise!
In gratitude,
Jana Kaye Kuhnert, Co-Founder NubAbility.org and Game Changer Chair
Oh my gosh! I can’t imagine how you folks were figuring it out on the fly just 2 hours pre-event. What a shuffle.
Congratulations on pulling it all off, Jana! Necessity is the mother of invention and you have a story for the history books. Thank you for sharing this; you’ll no doubt inspire those who read it.
Glad to have you along as a reader, too!
I’m still in awe that we had a packed house the next night. We had a our event in conjunction with our largest sports camp for limb-different youth. Many of their families bought seats at the last minute. We were able to plug them into some of the tables that couldn’t attend due to the change of date. God was definitely with us through it all. Catering was the biggest issue. Our cater was fabulous though and we had good group of volunteers to pick up the slack from their staffing challenges as well. I was so relieved when o found out the platform allowed us to extend our closing times and date. I’m not sure if you e recommended Bidding for Good or not. I have no experience to compare it to anything but a traditional pen and paper silent and paddle raising live auction. We found the backend and the close out reporting to be very efficient and helpful. Tip: Assign only one tech genius to the platform with a back-up knowledgeable of the operating of it. We collected our auction item descriptions and donor information on a JotForm link. Our tech found it easy to then upload that information into the auction platform. Happy to help anyone raising money for good causes.
The best software for a group depends on their budget and needs. I keep a list of auction software vendors for people to peruse.