There are a few lessons learned from our experiences.
1) Try to avoid the small certificates ($10 manicure, free appetizer, etc.) It takes too much effort to deal with a lot of these for what you get. We use them elsewhere (bingo prizes) or combine them into a bigger item. This year, we took an assortment of these smaller certificates for restaurants valuing about $100 and combined them into a "Dine Around" with a nice flyer listing the contents and donors. That worked really well.
2) Generally the bidders don't want a discount certificate that takes $40 off the price of a hotel room or gives a 20% discount on purchase. They want certificates that equate to a full purchase.
3) Really consider your traffic flow and any potential bottlenecks that will cause disruptions.
4) Consider your lighting. Ours is held in the school foyer, which is brightly lit - during the DAY! People don't realize that much of that light is from large windows and a huge skylight overhead. At night, certain areas are very shadowy and impossible to read (bid sheets). The first year, we were fine during planning and setup (in the afternoon), but as the night fell, we were scrambling to borrow lamps from teachers rooms. Now we place some floor lamps in the dark corners.
5) Have a well-thought out process for checkout and announce when, where, what that process wil be.
6) Make your rules very clear and have them posted.
Our live silent auction is MAy 14th and our online pre-auction is the 1-8 of May so time is getting short. This is my fisrt year doing this and I want it to be successful.
I have been so busy with collecting donations and setting up our website & online auction that I haven't given much thought to pulling off the actual event. I am very worried about others seeign the "holes" in my executuib if this event and attempt to take over. If I knew I could remain in charge without someone overstepping their jurisdiction, I would be fine.We have had probelms with that in the past.... :confused:
So, if you will answer these two questions, you will make my day...
1) What was the best thing you did at your silent auction to make it run smoothly?
2) What is one thing you would never do again or do differently?
