EP 39: Answering Questions from ChatGPT

Jeff: Welcome back to the Elevate Your Event podcast, where we talk about all the various ways you can make your next fundraising event better. We have a fun episode today, don't we?

Diana: We do.

Jeff: All right. But before we get into the episode itself, we have to welcome back our special guest. And due to a lot of criticism that's been thrown our way that Diana DuPlanche has not been on a recent podcast, we dragged her down here to the studio.

Diana: Yes, I had to block my calendar, y'all.

Jeff: So thank you, Diana, for joining us again.

Diana: It's my pleasure.

Jeff: And then we have Elise as well from our client services team.

Elise: Yes, we're excited to be here.

Jeff: We're excited to have Elise because we have a fun one. And Elise is a super creative person.

Elise: And I'm the fun one.

Jeff: You are the fun one. We dragged her in to talk about this topic. And Diana, why don't you go ahead and give us a little bit of background on where this one came from.

Diana: I can't wait. So for all you listeners out there, guess what? We have a new Handbid listener. She's with an existing client who's been with us for years, but she is new to the organization. She has listened to our podcast twice through -- every single episode. So, Angela, we love you. We're so glad you're with us and you're on board with Handbid and that you're thinking about ideas for podcasts, which is where this idea comes from. Angela, we loved your creative thinking.

Jeff: Her idea -- because she herself is obsessed with ChatGPT -- she plugged in a question: "What are some things that event planners need to know about as it relates to auctions? And these should be both fun, creative, and informative." So we have some answers, y'all. We plugged that question in and ChatGPT spits back a number of questions. We thought they were hilarious. Some of them are practical and you can get some good advice out of them. Some of them are probably not practical.

Diana: And some that were not safe for work.

Jeff: So we'll let your imagination work here. This is a PG podcast.

Diana: That's right.

Jeff: We're going to self-audit right now. We're not here to tell you who our clients were, but we've had a few clients that I would say have thrown some rated-R, rated-X items up on stage.

Diana: Well, you know what I say -- people like to imbibe.

Jeff: So let's go through a couple of these. There are a lot of good ones. One of my favorites -- we were doing an auction for this Christian school out of Atlanta, and we were doing remote support. I walk in the room and the auction manager had texted one of our support people and said, "What are the items that aren't getting any bids and what should we do with them?" So we write back and say, "Okay, well, the item that's getting the most bids is the bourbon and whiskey package." That makes sense. "And the item that's getting no bids is marriage counseling."

Diana: And he's like, "Well, gosh, I mean, that's one of our families. He does marriage counseling. I don't understand why no one's bidding on it." I'm thinking, all right, come on, Charles. Let's be honest here.

Jeff: I'm seeing a couple of these. Okay. I like this one -- Diana, why don't you tell the story of the shot from the 1942?

Diana: Oh, that's a good one.

Jeff: Yeah, for sure. 1942 Don Julio. For tequila connoisseurs out there, that's a fairly expensive bottle of tequila. Even if you go to Costco, you're still going to probably drop $130, $140 for the bottle.

Elise: Wow. I didn't know that.

Jeff: So it's not your margarita tequila. It's your sipping tequila.

Diana: Okay.

Jeff: So we were trying to figure out what the heck we were going to do with these two things. We were told, "Hey, just bundle these together, put them in there." We're like, "Why would we do that? Let's put them up against each other." So the question was: would you rather have a full bottle of 1942 Don Julio, or would you rather have a fairly empty bottle of Don Julio signed by Dan and Shay? And do you remember which one went for more money?

Diana: Oh, the empty one, totally.

Jeff: Yeah, the empty one. And that was a really interesting thing. I also loved what we called the items, if you recall.

Diana: Yep. "When I Taste Tequila" and "When I Tasted Tequila."

Elise: That's a good one.

Jeff: And nobody's lawyers came after us either, which was nice.

Diana: That's right. I guess we should have checked on that. Whoops.

Jeff: Okay, two more in this subject that are worth mentioning. And that is Larry the Cable Guy.

Diana: Oh, yeah. Tell us this one. This is a good one.

Jeff: Okay. So we're at this giant auction. I think there were probably 1,200 people in the room, and it was highly celebrity-based and really live auction only. A lot of the big-time celebrities were kind of trying to one-up each other.

Diana: So, Jeff, why don't you tell this since you're a long-time fan.

Jeff: Well, I still call them the Redskins. And it's going to take me a long time to get over that. It has nothing to do with their name, but I was a fan since I was a kid all through adulthood. So anyway -- the Commanders. Mark Rypien was one of the Super Bowl champion quarterbacks back around 1991. I think they won their last Super Bowl. And he was at this event that we were at. He gets up on stage and they're auctioning off a Mark Rypien experience -- a signed football and a jersey and some other stuff. One of the things they did, which was actually pretty cool, is as you became the winning bidder in the audience, he would throw you this football. And you got to hang on to it until you got outbid, and then you had to throw it back.

Elise: I think that would be a lot of stress.

Jeff: Well, it got a little dangerous. So we had people bidding to see Mark Rypien sing "Hail to the Redskins." And he did. And it was a fairly impressive rendition because that's not an easy song to sing -- no music, all a cappella, just on a microphone. It's a collector's item now. Think about it, because you can't sing "Hail to the Commanders." I mean, come on. That does not sound right. "Braves on the warpath, fight for old D.C." -- none of that makes any sense anymore. So if you have a recording of this, trust me, it's a prize.

Diana: Well, it was a great idea.

Jeff: It was. And that was his idea. It really did shoot the item up and made it really special for everybody there. It turned into this live auction experience for everyone in the room, which is really cool.

Diana: Okay, that's fun. All right, we're skipping around. Here we go. "Can you share a memorable moment when a silent or live auction item generated unexpected excitement or competition amongst the attendees?"

Jeff: All right, so are we going to talk about the first one on the list?

Diana: Yes, of course we are. This is a medical procedure.

Jeff: That's right. I think a couple of us have experienced seeing these in auctions, but the vasectomy is a popular one.

Diana: Yes. And at one event I was at, it was two women bidding against each other for it. I think their husbands left.

Jeff: So this one was -- John Daly had come to this event. John is known to be a bit of a party animal, right? And he's also the "Where's Waldo" of Handbid.

Diana: He is. He's been at a number of Handbid events where he appears.

Jeff: But in this case, he offered up a shot with him on stage. You could come up and do a shot of whiskey with John Daly. It was $1,000 to participate. And I think he was thinking this would just be a one-person thing. Well, 24 people signed up.

Diana: So did he do 24 shots?

Jeff: Well, so that's what I was wondering. 24 people went up there and everybody poured a shot, and they all got a shot together on camera.

Diana: Okay.

Jeff: Not sure which is better or worse, but we thought -- along those lines, you know, if we want to get dreamy here and realistic, there are some celebrities who'd make amazing auction experiences. I have a 16-year-old daughter, so we immediately thought of Taylor Swift -- just the hottest ticket all over the world, really. Our idea was to see if you could get Taylor Swift to agree to a two-city, two-night experience backstage. And of course, you would have to have a chance to ride on her jet.

Diana: I know. So that would be a pie-in-the-sky kind of item.

Elise: I'm on board with this. I am on the Taylor Swift bandwagon.

Jeff: When I found out that my daughter -- she's 18 -- could have sold her Taylor Swift tickets for nearly $10,000, I was trying to get her to do that, threatening her with college tuition.

Diana: Yeah, maybe. It could have been at least a semester, right?

Jeff: I mean, I would want to sit in a board meeting with Elon Musk. But if we want to get dreamy here and realistic, I want a ticket on his Mars expedition.

Diana: Love that. He's going to do it.

Elise: Is he going to go with you?

Jeff: I don't know. Maybe he'll watch you launch. No, those are the pie-in-the-sky ideas for sure.

Diana: Those were fun. That was a fun question for sure.

Jeff: Well, let's stay fun. Okay, so let's go with: "If you had to organize a silent auction in a completely unexpected location -- mountaintop, underwater, whatever -- where would it be and how would you make it work?"

Diana: So let's go backwards. Elise, why don't you start?

Elise: Don't take mine, Diana. Well, we really just did two big ones. The one that we came up with was: what if you were on an airplane? And you were at 40,000 feet and you had an auction. Well, first of all, we love the idea of making your passengers use an app because you wouldn't have access to the web.

Diana: That's right. And why on earth would you do a paper bid sheet? You would be like, "Excuse me, excuse me, I got to get through here." So no way.

Elise: And then what you would be bidding on is where the plane is going to land.

Diana: Yes. That is fun. And we're offering the mini bottles to all our guests.

Jeff: It would be really great -- they would not be thirsty at the end of your event. So yeah, we thought that was a fun idea and a different way of thinking about things.

Elise: I like that.

Diana: I like it too. That would be really fun.

Jeff: I'm bidding on Cabo. Better land in Cabo. If you're landing in the northern parts of Canada, I'm not sure I'm in.

Diana: Better bid higher is what you're telling me.

Jeff: We also talked about a James Bond-themed casino night.

Diana: She clearly is not going to share her opinion. I want to hear -- what's your number one James Bond?

Elise: Well, probably Daniel Craig, right?

Diana: He's a good one. He's the youngest. Are you saying you're too young to think that Sean Connery is the dreamiest James Bond out there?

Elise: Well...

Jeff: She's not holding back with her opinions today.

Diana: No, she's clearly not.

Elise: I don't know. Daniel Craig in a tux isn't a bad thing.

Jeff: As a guest, do you get a James Bond gadget?

Diana: Okay, so this would be a really fun idea. It would be very, very unique. We had a lot of fun with that one too.

Jeff: Very cool. Should we keep going? This is fun. All right, let's keep bouncing around here. So how about this one: "If you could turn any ordinary object into a highly coveted auction item, what would it be and how would you make it extraordinary?"

Diana: Okay, we had to stay PG with this one.

Jeff: I did visit Churchill Downs once, and I did -- I shouldn't say this in public -- I stole a little bit of dirt and put it in a ziplock bag.

Diana: We're going to get a phone call from the president of Churchill Downs.

Jeff: I was like, okay, these thoroughbreds just ran right over this dirt. So I have dirt from Churchill Downs.

Diana: That's really fun.

Jeff: Well, that's the spirit of this question -- what is an ordinary item and how do you take it to the next level?

Diana: I had a client hand me something, and of course I'm not really inspecting it. He goes, "This goes in the auction." And of course I'm thinking, what the heck is this thing? It's a piece of sheet metal, all bent and ragged. Well, what it was -- it was a piece of wreckage from a famous NASCAR driver's car that he had wrecked. They had taken it and signed it.

Elise: It's NASCAR country.

Diana: Oh yeah. I guess you would want to hang that on your wall?

Jeff: And then there's the sweaty memorabilia. Some of the people that really go after that stuff -- I'm thinking, do you want to wash that?

Diana: No, you can't wash it.

Jeff: All right, let's keep rolling here. "Describe the most successful fundraising tactic you have used during a silent or live auction that left everyone talking about it long after the event." That's a good question, ChatGPT.

Diana: Let's go through them. We had some good ones.

Jeff: Okay, I'll take the first one because this is a story I shared. This was at an event where there was a lot of music and golf memorabilia. One of the items was this famous Ben Hogan One Iron shot -- you guys have seen it, everybody has -- and I think it was a framed item, around three or four hundred bucks, and no one was bidding on it. The event manager came by and he had seen there was a collection of items not being bid on. He had something else he needed to go do. He looked at me and I said, "Do I have license to get these items sold?" And he goes, "Yes, I do not want to take anything home tonight." So I took this particular item -- it was at like $400 and I dropped it to $200. And I think its bid increment was like $50. I dropped the bid increment to $10.

Diana: He's like, "Unless it was paired with a pearl necklace or a nice purse." He was like, "You throw Disney in the live auction." He's like, "I would have thrown two grand, $2,500 down easily in the silent auction on that foursome."

Jeff: So crazy. In our experience, rounds of golf tend to do better in the silent auction. Unless you're at an event with all dudes and they don't care.

Diana: No wives allowed.

Jeff: We also love what some of our clients do with contests, whether you're in the hat contest or the seersucker contest. And then it's set up as a voting item -- a vote is a $5 donation. So we want to collect as much money as possible. You can flip through the people in the hat contest or the seersucker contest and you vote for the person you think wins. The person who raises the most money wins.

Diana: I love it.

Elise: I do too.

Jeff: It's like someone who could be an ancillary member of your donor base could emerge from the depths as the winner. If you make the prize meaningful, then you'll get people to participate.

Diana: I love that.

Elise: I do too. That's cool. The one contribution I have to this list -- I'm sorry, y'all -- is a new Handbid client was just telling me about this. It's a university alumni association, and y'all, they're doing beer pong. I'm not even making it up. They're charging $25 to participate in a beer pong contest. They're going to make a lot of money doing that, and they are going to have a blast.

Jeff: You know what I would do with beer pong? In your live auction, I'd make you have to play beer pong for your next bid increment. You better get it in the $5 cup, because if you get it in the $500 cup, you're upping your bid by $500.

Diana: Now that's a game of chance.

Jeff: Exactly. That would be fun. Here's one though -- you just brought up universities. There's a university doing a mini golf event. They were brainstorming with me on ideas. They wanted to do something kind of fun and asked if I had any ideas. I said, "I kind of do," because some of these mini golf events or even the golf events can get a little mundane -- you kind of do the same thing. So I said, "Have you ever seen Cutthroat Kitchen?" He's like, "Oh my God, that's my favorite show." And I was like, "I think you need to auction off sabotages for the other team."

Diana: What? You auction off sabotages?

Jeff: Have you seen Cutthroat Kitchen?

Elise: I have not.

Jeff: Okay, so Food Network people, look it up. It's a really fun concept for a mini golf fundraiser.

Diana: It's a really good idea, Jeff.

Jeff: I'll have to get the update on that one. If they ever pull that off, that'll be good. And then the last one on there -- this is one of my favorite events that I've gone to several times. They auction off a surprise trip. They have the private plane right there waiting for you. You come with your bags packed and they send you on your way.

Diana: And they've gone places.

Jeff: Unfortunately, because of how it works, you can't leave the country -- otherwise they'd have to fill out a lot more paperwork. So you're going to be in the U.S., you kind of know that. They used to be way more obscure about where you were going. They'd be like, "Dress warm" or "Dress for cold." So you're bringing a suitcase of warm or cold clothes. But now they kind of give you a better hint about where you're going. They pick great places. Again, you have to have access to a plane and a pilot and probably an airport. But it's super fun. And people get really excited. And then everybody waves goodbye.

Diana: So cool.

Jeff: That's awesome. All right, we've got a couple more, you guys. Home stretch. Think we can do them?

Diana: I think so. Let's do it.

Jeff: Okay, here we go. "What's the most creative way you've seen technology used to enhance the auction experience for both bidders and donors?"

Diana: Very cool. I'll take the first one. This one was actually inspired by a local organization that was auctioning off murals. The organizer's idea was to let people vote on their favorite, but he also used our app to give almost more live updates than usual because the murals were still in progress. He was going to do a "before" image when the artist was just starting, a "during," and then an "after" image. He was able to update the image of where it was being created in real time. And that was really special for the bidder because it was a two- or three-day event. So if they were coming on day one, they could follow the progress.

Jeff: You have your before picture and your after picture. People use it different ways. But one of my favorite ways I've seen it used is at a food bank. They have a "fill your fridge" campaign. You have an empty fridge, and as you're buying the pieces, you're starting to reveal the full fridge. And of course that money goes toward the food bank to fill people's fridges. I've seen people be so creative with that. It's one of my favorites. And it's fun and pretty easy to do. It's like a virtual pictorial thermometer.

Diana: And the pieces don't have to be all the same price. That's one of my favorite parts.

Jeff: And if you want to talk about how we listen to clients -- that feature came up at the AFP conference. We had one of our clients walk by and they were like, "Yeah, we love you guys. By the way, I need to change the price of puzzle pieces because I want them all to be a different price." And we did it. Six weeks later, we sent them a surprise email. Could be you next time. Let us know.

Diana: For sure.

Jeff: Another one on this list -- and this is one we actually did. We hosted a Kentucky Derby watch party where everyone could bid against each other. And that actually extended into other parts of the country as well, with people who had joined us for our derby party. So that was kind of fun.

Diana: So cute. Yes.

Jeff: Love that idea. It was like a fundraising conference call -- with alcohol.

Diana: Exactly.

Jeff: All right, I've got a couple left. "What's your secret sauce for encouraging competitive bidding in a live auction without making it feel too intense or causing a divorce?"

Diana: Well, you have to have a skillful live auctioneer. I'll share one story. It was a conservative and non-energetic crowd. And I'm not saying conservative people are non-energetic -- it was just a very low-key group. And the very first item up for auction was this ginormous, gorgeous Viking grill. And the auctioneer gets on stage and she says, "Well, you know, they measure a man by the size of his grill." And it was not met with the response she was hoping for.

Jeff: Okay. Here we go. "Imagine you're hosting a live auction with historical figures bidding. Who would be your top historical bidders and what would they bid on?"

Diana: Oh my God. We have five. We had too much fun with this one.

Jeff: Okay, we were being a little snarky with this one. But let's go ahead and run through it. We put Napoleon Bonaparte as the first one. And we said he would be bidding on growth hormone therapy.

Diana: I mean...

Jeff: All right. Okay, last fun one. The fantasy question. "If you could auction off any fictional item or experience from a movie, book, or video game, what would it be and how would you make it a captivating auction item?"

Diana: Oh, yes.

Jeff: I'm going to start with this one just because I actually went to this place -- so it's fantasy and also super cool. A visit to Hobbiton from Lord of the Rings. When I was in New Zealand working, we did drive down to Hobbiton and walked around. It was pretty cool.

Diana: I bet it was amazing. I forgot -- you used to go to New Zealand all the time.

Jeff: I did. And I think there are tons of people who would bid on that. And it's actually real -- you could go do it. The one that we thought of, because we're 80s kids, is from Star Wars. Wouldn't you want to go to the Ewok Village? Just spend a day up there?

Diana: With your little pals?

Elise: As long as I wasn't being carried in on a spit, I would want to go.

Jeff: That's right. And then I thought maybe a Harry Potter Quidditch match -- center seat tickets. How fun would that be? That Harry Potter Quidditch ride at Universal is so much fun.

Elise: The ride?

Jeff: Yeah, super fun. You feel like you're flying around on a broom. Very cool. What else have we got on this list? We went to the Barbie Dreamhouse.

Diana: I haven't seen the movie. I cannot picture this.

Elise: You have to see it. You get to take the slide out of the house.

Diana: Oh, yes. This is fun. We would be in the Barbie Dreamhouse.

Jeff: I feel like I'm going to have to turn in my man card to see the Barbie movie.

Diana: Change is good. He agrees.

Jeff: And then the last one -- we kind of wanted to think about Disney World and something that would be a good nod to a movie I love. This is Coco, and going to visit your dead relatives and just hanging out with them.

Diana: Very cool idea.

Jeff: And bringing it back to real-life events, I remember we went to a very special event where the live auction was taking place, and it was something like skiing in Switzerland, and it started snowing in the room.

Diana: Oh, you can definitely create these experiences.

Jeff: This was at one of our clients. We still work with them, but I don't think they've taken it to this level in a while. There was a skiing experience in Canada and they made the room snow. And then there was an African experience where they had an entire African drum band come in. Every single experience had some sort of theatrical skit that came with it.

Diana: What about a trip to Oktoberfest where you bring out the beers? Pass out beers to everybody. I mean, that would get me in the mood.

Jeff: I feel like that's very doable. I would want to see -- because I've seen this in Munich -- I want to see the German women come in, each carrying a bunch of steins.

Diana: There you go. This has been fun. I think that's a great way to end our podcast.

Jeff: Well, thank you all for having me back. Thank you, Diana and Elise, for joining. This was a great idea. Thanks, Angela.

Diana: Thank you, Angela. We'll have to ask ChatGPT some more questions.

Jeff: I love this. This is a great idea. Or you guys can ask us questions and we're happy to answer those as well. Angela, thank you for making this a fun experience for us. Be sure to subscribe and be notified the next time we have an episode coming out. And until then, we wish you guys all the best in your fundraising.

Diana: Thank you.

Elise: Bye. See ya.