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You are here: Home / Administration / [Video] Model this sound system for a silent auction
Mar 15

[Video] Model this sound system for a silent auction

Sherry Truhlar 2 Comments

Silent_auction_sound_system_Bullis_2016

The arrows point to three of the eight speakers stationed in this silent auction area.

One of the most difficult venues to hold an auction is in a gym.  Though the venue often offers adequate space, it is a difficult place to control audio.

By design, gyms are noisy venues.  No one wants to sit through a quiet basketball game, so gyms are designed to deflect the slightest utterance.  The shape of the building and the hard surfaces reverberate the sound, bouncing it around the room to make the noise louder and less clear.

This presents a problem for fundraising auctions.

We don’t just want *loud* sound.  We want *clear* sound. 

As Kip Toner, a renowned Seattle auctioneer, said years ago when I sat in on one of his benefit auction classes:  “We want guests to hear with clarity and distinction.” 

Without a proper sound system, auctioneers sound like adults in Peanuts cartoon strips.  Remember how Charlie Brown’s teacher talked? “Mwah, wha, wha, wawwww.”  There is no clarity nor distinction in that!  You can hear it, but you can’t understand it.

Guests must understand what they hear.  If they cannot clearly understand, they tune out and often start talking (louder) to their neighbor.  It isn’t long before their boisterous conversation is contributing to the overall noise level. 

At an auction this past weekend, the school used two gyms.  One gym housed the silent auction.  The other gym housed the live auction. 

Both gyms had good sound systems, especially when one considers the challenges of each room.  In particular, the silent auction gym is a struggle to control, in part because non-seated, cocktail-strolling guests are louder and more distracted than seated guests eating a dinner. 

Even so, this is one of the best attempts at making the silent auction space good for promoting ticket sales, bidding, and other announcements.

Check out the silent auction sound system layout in the video below, which was provided by All Stage & Sound in the D.C. area.

It’s also worth noting that this was a mobile bidding silent auction. 

Even though guests are alerted with messages sent via their phones, we’ve found that a sound system is still the best way to draw attention to activities and certain items.  Guests may or may not use their eyes to look at their phones, but they hear regardless of what they are doing.

 

Want to learn more about silent auctions? 

Silent Auction Success by Sherry TruhlarI’ve got a popular master class, Silent Auction Marketing Savvy, that covers everything you need to know about selling your silent auction items for strong returns.

In the class, you’ll learn the tricks — the marketing, the psychology, and the science — behind a top-performing silent auction.   A sound system is just the beginning!  We explore bid sheets, set-ups, analyzing results to understand your audience better, and more.

Check out the course on this page.

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Copyright © 2016 Red Apple Auctions Co. All Rights Reserved

About Sherry Truhlar

Fundraising auctioneer and educator, helping schools and nonprofits plan more profitable benefit auctions. A prolific writer for her own blog and other fundraising sites, she’s been covered in The Beacon-News, Town & Country Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, Northern Virginia Magazine, Wiley's Special Events Galore!, AUCTIONEER, and other publications.

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Comments

  1. Theresa Hearn says

    March 17, 2016 at 11:12 AM

    Sherry: The Derby Community Foundation has incorporated many of your ideas over the past few years into our gala fundraising event, Uncorked, with good results (raising more money each year). This past February, we tried a Fund A Need auction for the first time–we called it Fund the Future because we didn’t have one particular need per se, we award grants to various non-profits in our community that serve a wide variety of needs. Anyway, for our first attempt at Fund A Need, we were very pleased with the results. We followed your suggestions for securing a couple of “heroes” who would start off the Fund A Need bids and, just like you said, once the ball was rolling others made bids as well. Additionally, I’ve received many comments from people who thought it was a brilliant idea and believe that it will only grow as folks catch on to it! I even received a couple of checks after the event from folks who didn’t bid at the event but wanted to make a contribution to our efforts.

    Your recent article about sound in a gym is also timely–the new event venue that we used this year for our Uncorked is a remodeled school gym. We did have some issues with sound, but are hopeful that next year we’ll have better luck with the new sound system that has been installed in the building.

    We always look forward to your emails which are full of great ideas.

    Reply
    • Sherry Truhlar says

      March 17, 2016 at 11:22 AM

      Wow — it’s so nice to hear from you, Theresa! Thank you for following up and sharing information on your success, too. I love hearing that. 🙂

      Stay tuned — I’m working on new projects/classes that would be of interest to you, too.

      Sherry

      Reply

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Sherry, oh, Sherry! You were an invaluable asset to this year’s gala. With your assistance we were able to add so many new elements that truly made a difference in taking our event to another level. This year was the most successful yet! Everyone loved you and the amazing energy that you brought to the event. We look forward to having you again in 2018!

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Thank you so much for the outstanding job you did for us on April 1! I have received so much positive feedback from so many who attended. You even earned Sister Suzan’s (our Vice-Principal) seal of approval! Safe travels to all your many events and thank you for making our biggest fundraiser of the year our best ever!

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St. Joseph Academy Catholic High School (St. Augustine, FL)

Sherry is flexible and easy to work with. She gives honest feedback and advice throughout the planning and implementation process. Without a doubt, Sherry and Red Apple Auctions has helped take our annual fundraising event to the next level.

Beckie Middendorf, Development Director and Janet Gulla, Development Coordinator
St. Henry District High School (Erlanger, KY)

Sherry is “on board” from day one of auction planning, works closely with our steering committee and is only just a phone call away. The night of the auction, we toss her the keys and let her drive the event! We are never disappointed!

Charly Ryan, Director of Institutional Advancement
The Academy of the Holy Cross (Kensington, MD)

I was very fortunate to have Red Apple on board for my first auction. Working with Sherry was invaluable. She provided guidance at every phase of planning, from procurement on forward – and she challenged us to make our event more ambitious and more successful at every stage. Thank you, Sherry!

Pete Goldlust, Director of Development
Oak Hill School (Eugene, OR)

If your auction needs to upgrade, call any auctioneer you find on Google. But if you want your auction to be impressive, meaningful, and profitable, you need to call Sherry.

Erin Banda
2016 NYUMBANI Board member

The auction was entertaining .. proactive … the crowd was involved and felt a part of it,” he said, emphasizing, “The entertainment value was huge.

Darrell, a long-time attendee

We plan on booking Red Apple Auctions much earlier for our next event so we can take advantage of more of the pre-event offerings.

Nicole Carr, Director of Grants and Special Events
The Ivymount School (Rockville, MD)

2012 Oakcrest Anne and CarolinaSherry, personally, I can’t even begin to tell you the immense amount of positive feedback that I received having YOU (and Darby) there with is this year!… Read The Rest “Anne Livaudais Knudsen, 5th year gala co-chair”

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Irene attended one of my New Hampshire auctions and assumed I must be a radio personality — until I started to chant that fast talk. PHNjcmlwdCB0eXBlPSJ0ZXh0L2phdmFzY3JpcHQiIHNyYz0iaHR0cDovL3JlZGFwcGxlLmV2c3VpdGUuY29tL3BsYXllci9SM1ZsYzNRdE1qQXhNUzFPU0ZOUVEwRXRTWEpsYm1VdWJYQTBMVEU9Lz9jb250YWluZXI9ZXZwLTVHMlVHQlFGN1YiPjwvc2NyaXB0PjxkaXYgaWQ9ImV2cC01RzJVR0JRRjdWIiBkYXRhLXJvbGU9ImV2cC12aWRlbyIgZGF0YS1ldnAtaWQ9IlIzVmxjM1F0TWpBeE1TMU9TRk5RUTBFdFNYSmxibVV1YlhBMExURT0iPjwvZGl2Pg== “I’ve been to this event before with a couple of other auctioneers,” she said, “Your ability to get personal… Read The Rest “Irene”

Most product & consulting remarks are found on their respective webpages, but I’ve listed two below so you’re assured my products are as spot-on as my auctioneering.   Not only was our 2013 auction a blast, but our Washington, D.C. public school raised $67,000 — that’s $25,000 more than last year! The evening went… Read The Rest “Carolyn Kahn-Hall and Andrea Del Vecchio”

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