Webinar: Benefit Auction Technology and Trends: Tools That Get Guests to Give

Planning an auction?

Give me 75 minutes and you’ll know the best auction technology to use at your event without wasting your time, your charity’s money, or your committee’s effort.

Get valuable insight on “what’s worth it” from an industry insider.

Lots of charities are searching online this month for new tools that will make running their benefit auction easier or more profitable.

They’re participating in demos, calling vendors, and reading marketing lingo. It will take them days – if not weeks – to do the research. It will be complicated to understand.

I know this because of feedback I heard this fall.

When I spoke at the Annual Convention of the Virginia Chapter of Meeting Planners International, event planners and hoteliers wanted to hear all about the new tools available in the charity auction industry, with one pertinent request.

“No marketing hype. Give us the INSIDE SCOOP.”

They wanted to know what I — as a benefit auctioneer – privately discuss with my clients about new technologies. They wanted to understand the ins and outs. The advantages and potholes. What was worth it.

In short, they wanted the truth.

The talk was called Benefit Auction Technology & Trends: Tools that Get Guests to Give.
We had outstanding participation, thoughtful questions, and great feedback!

It went over so well that I’m offering it again, for you. Even if you didn’t attend the Virginia MPI Convention, you can get up to speed on all the technology hitting the benefit auction market. Use this new information to find the best tool for your gala, better negotiate with an existing vendor, or spark an idea to use next year.

(Knowledge is power!)

This Webinar is a recording from a live September 2011 event. The price is $47.

Here’s the short form of what you’ll get:

1. Participate in the live ~75-minute Webinar.
2. Get a downloadable MP4 digital recording  to save to your computer.
3. Bonus! Enjoy an incredibly helpful Resource Guide listing over 30 vendors. (The MPI attendees loved this. No more Web searching.)

Now let’s talk specifics.

Here’s why this webinar is so valuable.

1. AVOID COSTLY MISTAKES like selecting the WRONG technology for your auction.

My Dad is fond of saying, “You need to use the right tool for the job.”

In your auction, what “job” are you working on? What are you fixing?

Whatever it is, it’s not identical to everybody else’s. Your auction committee faces different challenges than the nonprofit next door. Gosh, you might even be facing a different problem THIS YEAR than you did last year.

Maybe …

• … a weak acquisitions team means that procurement is giving you fits.
• … complicated manual bid sheets are a thorn in your side.
• … you’re launching a large event with a small live auction, so registering guests is paramount.
• … your silent auction is stale. You’re contemplating electronic bidding to fix the doldrums, but how do you know if it’s COOL to have but not a NEED to have?
• … there’s another scenario and you seek fresh ideas.
  

Rather than spend too much on a tool — or under-invest and realize you need to buy something else to address the problem — you’ll learn the primary processes these tech tools were designed to fix. Get the RIGHT tool to AVOID SPENDING MONEY needlessly.

2. EASILY NAVIGATE through the sea of 30+ vendors.

It’s not hard to become overwhelmed. A quick search on Google for “auction software” delivers 6+ million leads. Yikes!

In the webinar, we’ll look at benefit auction technology vendors as they affect specific processes in your gala such as:

• Procurement: Some tech vendors help you acquire donations. A couple of vendors I’ll share are “bleeding edge” current. We’ll also cover a newer model in consignment. You’ll learn about the two primary payment models offered, and how one plan is much better if you’re a smaller auction raising less than $50,000.

• Packaging/Production: What helps with registration to check-out … and the bid sheets in-between? Many vendors crowd this space, and each has an angle.

• Online auctions: From fee-based to free-based, vendors specializing in this area are building out their technology.

• Volunteer Management: Got headaches with volunteers? These tech tools will organize your confusion.

• Event Registration: If you simply need a basic registration system, several vendors have good ones … and many nonprofits already use one of these vendors for a completely other purpose

• Spur / Encourage Giving: Mobile and e-bidding using text messages or electronic devices for your silent auction and cash appeal are the rage. A whopping 9 vendors have crowded into the space. These tools certainly have perks, but not every story has a happy ending. (I’ve seen it hurt your emotional appeal unless you change the format of your “ask.”) Let’s talk.

• Cashiering (Money collection): You just need an easy way to capture all the dollars. Is that too much to ask? Nope. Cool new tools are on the market.

Isn’t it good to know that there are a lot of vendors? Even NONPROFITS ON A BUDGET will be excited to find tools that will work for them.



3. SAVE LOADS OF TIME! Instead of spending hours calling other nonprofits for advice or researching on the internet (forcing you to wade through dozens of websites), you’ll be able to zero in on a few select few vendors.

If you’ve just started your research, you’ll learn about competitive products you didn’t know existed.

If you’ve been slogging through demos trying to get an understanding of providers, you’ll quickly understand the vendor landscape. You can then focus on the best solution for you.

4. QUESTIONS ANSWERED.

Here the live Q and A segment.  Hear about goals before you make a technology purchase.

5. BONUS! Receive your own resource guide listing 30+ providers’ names, organized by the auction process they were built to help.

It’s taken me five years, dozens of phone calls, and hours of research to craft an easy-to-understand document that clearly identifies who competes against whom. You’ll get it in an instant. You’ll immediately know other products to evaluate before you buy.

I know you are going to find a lot of useful info in this presentation – past recipients have loved the content!

Sherry Truhlar, CMP, BAS, CAI

P.S.  Remember that this $47 course is what you buy BEFORE you spend $1000, $3000, or $10,000 on other auction technology.

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