Developing An Auction Dinner (Part Three - Continued)

 I have had the privilege of attending and working with thousands of auction dinners throughout North America for over 20 years. Some had several thousand attendees, while others only had fifty or so. The articles that follow are meant to give an overview of how successful auction dinners are conceived, planned and managed.

For anyone who wants a complete "Developing An Auction Dinner" package, complete with working manuals, workbooks, sample forms and PowerPoint presentations, visit my Festival and Event Planning website.

Event Plan Implementation

2. Facility

Finding the right facility is difficult even in large population centres. Finding the right facility in smaller population centres is nearly impossible. With this in mind here are a few points to consider.

• Including sufficient space for your raffle tables and display areas for your silent and live auction items, how many people will the facility hold at a sit-down dinner? The seating capacity determines how many tickets you can sell. The optimum number of attendees is between 200 and 300+. Your gross revenues will increase in relationship to the number of quality attendees.
• Is there sufficient lighting in the prize display areas? If not, you will have to make arrangements to supplement the existing lighting. This is very important if you are to maximize the amount of money people will bid on your prizes.
• Are the facilities clean and well organized? If not, you and your committee many have to pitch in to make the facilities acceptable. Nothing turns attendees off more then a dirty disorganized facility.
• How are the food facilities? Does the venue have on-site cooking facilities? Does the venue provide the food? If they don’t, what local caterer is available? All of these are questions that need to be answered before you finalize a contract with the facility.
• Is the facility easy to reach? Is it in an acceptable part of town? People will not attend your event if they are not comfortable with the facility chosen.
• Is there adequate parking available at or around the facility? If not, what alternative options are feasible? This may not seem like a big deal, but people don’t like to walk a long distance, especially if they formally dress or if the weather is inclement.

All of these points must be considered and answered to your satisfaction. If they can’t be answered satisfactorily, you might consider facilities in neighboring areas. If this is not possible and you still want to proceed with your event, consider all of the challenges and correct them as best as you can.

(To be continued)