Have a plan. You may think you have a plan, but ensuring that your staff and volunteers are on the same page is key. Prior to the event, hold a meeting to discuss the checkout strategy, walk through the process to be sure you haven’t overlooked something, and then communicate the plan—it can make the difference between chaos and order.

Pre-swipe credit cards at registration. Taking care of this at the beginning of the evening, before fatigue sets in, allows guests to skip the checkout line at the end of the night. Ensuring that guests have paid for their items also reduces work for your staff in reconciling the silent auction.

Bundle auction winnings before checkout opens.  Pick up some large paper bags at your local grocer and organize silent auction winnings in paper bags by the guest’s last name.  When the guest arrives at the item pick up area, all they have to do is say their name and they’re finished. Having plenty of volunteers available to staff the area also makes this a smoother process.

Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. If you don’t tell guests what time checkout and item pick up open, they will tell you by forming an impromptu line. Steer clear of this stressful situation by making frequent announcements.

With a little planning and a lot of communication, you can ensure that the end of your event is as exciting and stress-free as the beginning.

Sheehan Hubbard, BidPal Consultant

BidPal has always had a “mobile auction”—guests take the silent auction with them anywhere during the event using BidPal handheld devices. Now they can choose to bid on their own smartphone and carry just one device.

What’s different about BidPal’s smartphone bidding is that we bring in our own wireless network. Every guest is on the same playing field—one guest’s service provider won’t register bids faster than another guest’s service provider, because everyone bids through our network.

Are you offering BidPal smartphone bidding at your charity event?  Here are a few tips:

• Print out BidPal’s smartphone instruction cards to give to your guests at registration.
• Let your guests log in by themselves.
• Refrain from letting your volunteers play with guests’ phones—guests know where their phone settings are better than anyone!
• Have a smartphone help area next to the registration tables for guests who would like help logging into their phone.

Get started today and let your guests enjoy the ease of bidding with their own phones!

Ann Govert, BidPal Consultant

One of my favorite examples is using the BidPal device to cast a “donation vote.” A simple voting contest is set up using BidPal’s make-a-donation buttons—one dollar equals one vote. At the end of the night, the person or item with the most donations wins!

Some of my favorite voting contests include:

Vote for Your Favorite Dancer – used for many “Dancing with the Stars” events

Vote for Your Favorite Teacher/Classroom – used for many school auctions to help a class win a fieldtrip, classroom supplies, classroom party, etc.

Vote for Your Favorite Chef – used for many tasting or famous chef events

Vote for Your Favorite Boxer/Fighter – used for many “Fight Night” events

Organizations also can integrate BidPal’s Scoreboard technology to display the real-time standings and results of the polling.

And the winner is… you!

Jodi Campbell, Event Consultant

I was recently inspired by some handcrafted “marbleized” ornaments made by sheltered, homeless children in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.  Each unique Christmas ball was filled with an array of acrylic paint colors and spun to create a wonderful masterpiece. Sold as fixed price items on the BidPal device, 120 ornaments were sold in the first hour, netting the organization more than $2,400!

Stumped for ideas on what your organization can sell?  Find some great fixed price ideas from Cameron Mahoney in his latest post.

Nathan Jeffery, BidPal Consultant

Centerpieces
Centerpieces add great flare to your décor and can round out the theme, but the cost can cut into your budget, not to mention the hassle of disposing of them after the party. Why not sell them as a fixed price item? You’ll recoup your cost, provide guests a wonderful memento, and give the centerpieces a second life.

Sign-up Parties
Ask a donor to host a party with a limited number of spots.  Then sell spots at the party as fixed price items.  As soon as the spots sell out, BidPal will automatically close the package.

Cameron Mahoney, BidPal Consultant

You’ll hear from BidPal experts in all departments. Want ideas from someone who has managed hundreds of events? Looking for product insight from an insider? Eager to learn from a consultant who works day in and day out with hundreds of organizations? We’ll share all of this and more.

How can we help you? As a consulting resource for our clients, we want to know what you want to know. Need ideas to streamline checkout? Hoping to raise more in your appeal this year but don’t know how? If you have a blog entry request, we’d love to hear from you.  Click here to contact us.

1. Hey, batter, batter! Contact your local sports teams for tickets to a game. Cross-town classics are a great way to create rivalry and excitement among guests. Even better, procure suite tickets or a post-game dinner to increase the bidding activity.
2. Sail the ocean blue. Talk to a travel agency or cruise line to include a luxury yacht cruise in your silent auction. The chance to get away from it all is always a hit.
3. Pamper the princess. A stay at a nice hotel or local bed & breakfast is sure to win over a wife for an approaching birthday, Valentine’s Day or anniversary. This silent auction package is great for couples who want to relax and take a mini vacation without actually leaving town.
4. Special outing with your idol. Always a popular item, guests enjoy unique experiences such as golfing with your organization’s executive director, the school principal or a local celebrity. Find something that the “celebrity” is interested in doing and go from there to create an outing that your guest will never forget.
5. Want my autograph? Include a piece of signed memorabilia from a big sports star (past or present), musician or other celebrity. Signed memorabilia is a sure-fire way to promote competition among guests.

After your first BidPal event, our reporting will allow you to easily identify the most popular and the most profitable items, making next year’s planning even easier!

Sheehan Hubbard, BidPal Consultant

After centuries of monopolizing the silent auction, old-fashioned paper bid sheets have finally met their match. BidPal handheld bidding devices have freed the silent auction from the issues that can make charitable events less enjoyable and less profitable—blank bid sheets, incorrect bid increments, auction abandonment, table hovering, and the checkout scramble, to name just a few. Welcome to the 21^st Century!

Guests can take the entire auction with them anywhere at the event, get alerts when they have been outbid, make donations to your organization, and even buy raffle tickets, all through their phone or BidPal’s handheld device!

BidPal also has an end-to-end solution to help plan and execute the silent auction–and more! myBidPal Planner Pro helps organize everything from pre-event preparations to reconciling payments and reports post-event. BidPal’s onsite bidding and donations makes event night a breeze!

myBidPal Payments ties everything together for a seamless checkout including Mobile Wallet, which allows guests to check out right on their handheld device or mobile phone! No transfer of data; no self-calculations.

BidPal seamlessly integrates with your event to make the whole evening more enjoyable for the event committee and most importantly, for your guests.

Ann Govert, BidPal Consultant