One of my projects in my last year of working at GE was planning the annual senior management meeting. That’s when all of the senior team convene in an upscale hotel and spend 3 or 4-days in executive-level strategy and training sessions.
Although we had internal speakers, we also hired outside facilitators and motivational speakers.
The vetting process was aggressive. I spent hours selecting contractors, watching their promo videos, reading articles, studying websites, and calling referrals.
Why did I bother with such intense vetting of a contractor who would be working with us for just a few hours?
It’s a big deal when you hand someone a microphone and put him in front of your logo.
I could not risk putting a buffoon on stage. My C-level superiors and I wanted to know what each speaker was going to say, and how he was going to say it.
When you give someone a microphone and let them grace your stage, it gives the impression you endorse them.
A contractor who was inappropriate or unprofessional could have cost me my job.
At the least it would have resulted in a performance discussion to help me understand company priorities.
GE annual management meetings were important, motivational and strategic affairs.
It wouldn’t have been a good time to experiment with the cheapest option when it came to delivering the message.
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Similarly, your annual gala is also an important, motivational and strategic affair.
Consider these similarities:
At GE, I was concerned about getting it right. I wasn’t concerned with, “Who’s the cheapest facilitator I can hire?”
Contractors had to meet GE standards.
If a contractor said something off-topic or off-color, it could have started a chain of events I shudder to consider.
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Being steeped in this corporate think, it stuns me how many nonprofits fail to understand how critical their benefit auctioneer is.
Your planning your largest annual fundraiser.
- You’ve spent thousands of hours planning the gala.
- You’ve poured enormous money into it.
- You’ve got your biggest donors sitting there, listening.
Is your gala a good time to give the microphone to the CHEAPEST vendor you can find, so he can run the MOST IMPORTANT part of your event (the fundraising)?
I don’t think so.
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Here’s the crux of the matter.
Your benefit auctioneer is the most critical hiring decision you’ll make for your gala.
Not your caterer. Not your production company. Not your florist. Not the band. Not the printer.
Whatever you do, get the auctioneer right.
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