EP 95: Kickstart Your Cause with Confidence

Positioning review: Minor adjustments made throughout. Reframed a few prescriptive statements into experiential/descriptive language. "You should download this app" reframed to describe what the flow looks like rather than direct the listener. "That is not how we're going to do it" kept as internal team perspective. No outcome guarantees or statements interpretable as professional advice found. Overall, the conversation is naturally experiential, describing how Handbid approaches the arrival experience and app technology.

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. So let's welcome back into the studio. We've got Elise Druckenmiller, also known as Elise D, because no one knows how to spell her last name. And Shania Hallock -- not Shania Twain, but Shania Hallock. I'm Jeff Porter, CEO of Handbid. And we want to welcome back our producer, James. It is so good to have you back in here. This podcast runs so smoothly when you're involved.

Elise: And all of the edits, all the really bad things that we do -- he edits all of them out, which is really nice. I'm sure he's got a stash of them somewhere where he's going to use them against us one of these days.

Jeff: But I think we're good. Is our hair good, ladies? I know that's always important.

Elise: Well, no, I didn't have time to brush it, but that's okay.

Jeff: If you're on YouTube, Elise apologizes. My hair is always bad when I walk out of here because these headphones mess it up. We've got an event to go to tonight. We're excited. It's raining here in Colorado -- just one of those gloomy days. But we're here to lighten it up. We were talking about all the cool things that your phones do. And Elise was asking me, why is my phone showing lightning strikes? Well, because it's lightning outside. And isn't that cool that the phone knows where I'm located and it also knows what the weather is? So it can create a personalized weather experience on my home screen.

Elise: It's giving you a personalized weather update.

Jeff: So let's talk about the power of a mobile device. For -- gosh, we've been doing this 14 years now -- mobile devices have been around the entire time in the smartphone format. Someone asked me the other day what iPhone was out when Handbid was launched. I believe it was the five, right around that time frame.

Shania: Yeah, I think it was right around that time, 2011.

Jeff: I don't even think I had an iPhone then.

Elise: I think you were like in third grade or something.

Jeff: I totally appreciate that. I certainly was not, but I'm going to be 40 this year, so I'm going to take that as a compliment.

Elise: Compliments coming to Elise.

Jeff: I didn't give my kids an iPhone until they were at least 15 years old.

Elise: I was a mother by then. I was buying my own phones. It just wasn't an iPhone.

Jeff: So the iPhone 5 -- I remember it because it came with a uniquely different screen dimension. Back in the days when we were building apps for iPhone, specifically the Handbid app, you had to kind of manipulate that. Then Apple got enough grief, as has Google, about all the different phone sizes out there, so they've normalized how you build apps. But let's talk about apps, because back in 2011-2012, when we launched, I believe the stat was 17% of mobile phone subscribers had a smartphone. That's not very many people.

Shania: Well, it's not many mobile subscribers for sure, and it's definitely not very many people in general.

Jeff: You like to push the envelope a little. We did, but we were a mobile app development company. So going mobile web was really not a direction we wanted to take because we felt like we wanted to create a certain experience that we weren't going to be able to replicate on the web. Back then there was a big push from Facebook and LinkedIn -- specifically Facebook, because they were kind of the originators of some technology called React, which is still around -- to go after this mobile web approach. We can do everything in a mobile web browser, and it's insanely easier. One of the very first frameworks we messed around with for the Handbid app was one of those web-based frameworks that turns into a native app you can put on your phone.

Jeff: So there's still React Native, and some companies will build their app natively -- meaning the app they actually download on your phone. Some people call websites apps, but the app you download on your phone, when you've written it natively and submitted it through the App Store or the Play Store -- there's a framework called React Native you could do that with today. Back in the day, we used something called Titanium Appcelerator. You code everything in web technology -- JavaScript -- but you compile it and it shows up as an app. We didn't love those, and we actually struggled with Titanium Appcelerator quite a bit because there's a framework sitting between your code and the phone itself, and those become really difficult to debug.

Jeff: So there was a big push to do that back then, and we said no, we're going to stick with native. We're going to actually write these apps in the language that Apple or Google intends you to write it in. Back then that was Objective-C for Apple and Java for Android. And Facebook, in another sense, was deciding we're going to go all web. So this is 14 years ago. If you look at what you see with Facebook today -- what do you see Facebook doing?

Elise: Updating me. I get push notifications on my phone constantly.

Jeff: Is everything on the web? When you go to Facebook, are you using only the web on your phone? Or do they have--

Elise: An app. They have more than one app. They have Messenger, Pages, Business Manager, Facebook. They're all different apps.

Jeff: Instagram, WhatsApp. So what happened -- and I saw the same thing with LinkedIn -- was they went down the web route, and then they realized they couldn't provide the experience their users needed on the web route. They made an about-face not long after and just started building apps. The reason is, I have a lot more control over the experience for the user in an app. And that's what we're going to talk about as it relates to events today. That was a long intro, wasn't it, James?

Shania: It really was, Jeff. He's over there falling asleep.

Jeff: So we've evolved a little bit better than Siri's evolved, to be honest with you.

Elise: Absolutely better. Oh, for sure.

Jeff: ChatGPT is trying to save Siri. Anyway, we're going to talk about why a website on my phone versus an app on my phone is a different experience. You use the web on your phone and you use apps as well, right? So you know the difference. Even today, I had to log into my HOA's website to figure out if today was recycle day or not, and they came back and said you've got to download this app -- there's no more website. So I have to download some neighborhood HOA app in order to get my trash and recycling day, which is just a PDF anyway. But people are used to doing this now.

Jeff: So what is it about a native app? First of all, when I build a native app, I have a presence on the user's desktop. Always. Unless they delete the app, but most of them don't. Especially today when these phones have an insane amount of space on them.

Shania: Most people even forget.

Jeff: The iPhones now archive apps themselves. It will archive off apps you don't typically use, but they're there. If you need them, it'll ask if you want to bring it back to life. So that's kind of nice as well.

Jeff: When we think about the experience -- and we do this internally -- what kind of experience do we want our guests to have at an event? What type of experience do we want our customers' guests to have? And what's it going to take to do that? From an innovation standpoint, where is that going? That's when we always come back and say apps -- or even a really cool technology Apple came out with a few years ago that we absolutely want to dive into and invest in, which are called App Clips.

Jeff: But let's go through the experience first, because when we talk to clients or prospects on the phone, I'd say 90% of the conversation is around ticketing, registration, check-in, getting people in the door.

Elise: Getting people in the door. They don't want the technology to interfere. They want it to help but not become the forefront of the event. They don't want to stop the line, but rather help the line and just not be in your face.

Jeff: And then they come up with these schemes -- we call them schemes -- to speed up the process. Not to circumvent anything, but everybody who comes to us wanting to do certain things like pre-register guests with placeholder data -- they all have the intention of just speeding the process up.

Elise: No one's saying, hey, you know what we should do today? We should just put bad data in our CRM. Because that sounds like a fun idea.

Jeff: Our accounting department's going to love it. Anyway, it's about how do we get people prepared. We had a conversation a couple weeks ago with a very large nonprofit event -- 2,500 people coming -- and their whole point was how to get 2,500 people in the door.

Jeff: So let's talk about the real problem. What are people trying to do?

Shania: Speed the process up. Make it streamlined.

Jeff: Avoid having to get 24 volunteers with 24 laptops in a row of 24 people doing a mass check-in. Long lines. So when we start to think about innovations that can drive a better arrival experience -- what's the status quo today, especially on a web-based solution? I have no idea where you are on a web-based solution. I can pull a location from your browser on the phone while you're on a website, but you have to be actively in that website.

Jeff: People walk up at registration. Let's say they're not pre-registered. They're waiting in line. Then you get them to the front and now we have a variety of things -- name, email, phone number, credit card. We have tap to pay now, which is really cool. But all of this takes a little bit of time, especially if I'm not a great typist.

Shania: The guest experience can suffer.

Jeff: So what are ways to streamline that without creating placeholder data? How would you do it if you were the world's best programmer?

Elise: Well, you still need to know who they are. They know who they are.

Jeff: So how is Handbid going to know who you are?

Elise: You would have to download the app to begin with.

Jeff: What we can do is get people to register in advance, providing their own information. But they didn't do that -- we just established that. In most cases today, because there's no process or experience prior to the event, people just show up and we don't know who they are. So what's one way to get them prepared before they arrive? They can register in advance. And then how do we connect that to their arrival?

Jeff: A lot of platforms will do this -- at least fill out your guest list. You send Shania an invite. She fills in her information. Now Shania is in the guest list. But is Shania ready to bid? Probably not. Maybe she put a credit card on file, maybe she didn't. Because we don't know, when Shania shows up, she's still going to wait in line on a web system.

Jeff: One of the things we want to do is say, okay, Shania, you've pre-registered. Next step is to download this app. You've registered -- let's get you prepped. Step one, two, three. We've got your name, your email, your phone. We've asked you to put a card on file in advance. You've done all of those things. Now download the app. It auto-logs you in and says, wait for further instructions.

Jeff: So now you've got this Handbid app on your phone. It's connected to the event. You log in and the app takes you right to the home page of this event. Maybe that's on a Monday or Tuesday prior to the event. A message comes out -- can't wait to see you tonight, here's where you need to park, here's how you get in. It might ask interactive questions like, we don't have your meal choice -- can you fill that in?

Jeff: Then you head to the event. You might be in the car while your spouse is driving, filling this in. And all of a sudden, you arrive. Because you're in an app and the app knows where the event is and where you are, it pops up and says, welcome to the gala. Reminder -- here's where the parking is. Thank you for coming. Here's where the entrance is. And now you walk up to check in. Why would you have to wait in line? The only reason would be to maybe get your paddle.

Elise: Does it seem insensitive? Like, I want to greet every guest.

Jeff: Fine, greet every guest. But do you really need to wait in line and go up to someone holding a laptop or an iPad to check in? You shouldn't have to. In our world, if you look at hotels these days, airlines, even sporting events -- you check yourself in. I'd love for you to have greeters at the door saying thank you for coming. But we envision there's a fast track -- you get to pass go and collect $200. You know what that means?

Elise: I don't know.

Jeff: That's Monopoly. The game was from the '30s, so it might be old school for you. But anyway, you get the fast track through. Maybe you're scanning a code. Maybe you're not. The system knows you're there, so it can auto-check you in. If you need to authenticate who that person is or give them a paddle number, they can walk up to a kiosk, scan a QR code, and it comes back with instructions. Grab the paddle number off the stack, type it in, and go in.

Jeff: Or even better -- we don't need paddle numbers anymore. This is my greatest idea. With our app, you could literally turn the app sideways and your paddle number would pop up. But I can actually record a donation if you turn your phone sideways and hold it over your head. The app would recognize that it's rotated and moved, and that would be the gesture of a donation. When you hold it back down, it would say, do you still want to confirm that you wanted to donate $250? You say yes. Period. So no more paddles, because as soon as you did this and held it over your head, we'd show it on the screen.

Elise: I love that. And then the auctioneer reads the screen. Bidder 250, thank you. Bidder 261, thank you. And then you don't need to write them all down and input them all.

Jeff: If you want to, you can. I don't want to displace anybody's job if it's important to them. But everybody always asks us -- if you're going to do self-check-in, how do you handle custom paddle numbers? That's how we would do it, because of an app. If you're using a mobile bidding platform that's a web page, that's not happening. So remember, we're just talking about all the cool ways you could use app technology to make the event experience better.

Jeff: Let's stick with arrivals, because we have some events where it does matter who you are. They're not going to let anybody who stole Shania's phone in. So what's another thing we could add?

Shania: Facial recognition.

Jeff: Think about sporting events. Think about Clear. To me, Clear has gotten better. The new ones put a border around your face -- it's like, I know you. It seems a little creepy, but we do have some clients who say, no, I need to know who is really here.

Jeff: So what would happen is, Shania is registering in advance at home, and it says you can do speedy check-in -- whatever you want to call it, some cool marketing term like super check-in. You can go through that line if you pre-register with facial recognition. It pops up, takes a photo of your face, sends it off to a third-party company. It's only used for authentication and it's tossed when it's over. When you walk in the door, you stand in front of an iPad camera, it recognizes you, and it says, welcome Shania -- you're at table 12. Pick your number, type it in, whatever.

Jeff: Another option could be facial recognition using the app for paddles. The facial recognition could tie you to certain things in the app -- like, thank you for using speedy check-in, we just downloaded a drink coupon to your account, or gave you a $50 credit or something like that.

Jeff: All of these things we're talking about are things that can't be done on the web.

Elise: That's correct.

Jeff: So what can you tell me about the apps that are not actually apps?

Elise: App Clips! These are so cool.

Jeff: What Apple realized was there are certain types of very quick actions that people need to do that still require app technology or app code, but not the full app. If your guests aren't going to download an app -- they probably will, but that's another podcast. If it's very transactional -- like, I just want to place a donation, I didn't download this app, I'm literally just at this event and the speech moved me and I want to donate $500.

Jeff: What happens today? We throw a QR code up on the screen, or a text goes out, they click on the link, it takes them to a web page, they donate on the web page. If they're not registered, they have to fill in all their information -- email, phone, credit card. It's a lot of steps.

Jeff: What App Clips could do is you show the QR code, they scan the App Clip, and we can auto-register them with their Apple or Google information. They don't have to fill in a registration form. It pulls up, they donate, done. Apple Pay.

Shania: That would be huge.

Jeff: You're not doing that on the web. Coffee shops do this a lot -- you just want to come in and order a cup of coffee. They put QR codes out. You scan the QR code, pick your coffee from the list, hit submit, it pulls your iCloud Apple ID, asks if you want to share your information, you say yes, it pops up with Apple Pay, and you pay.

Elise: There's all kinds of companies that do this. I use this all the time and I don't actually create accounts. It's the greatest thing on earth.

Jeff: That's the app-less app. They're called App Clips. These are the types of things in our roadmap. To us, this is about leveraging technology to make the guest experience better. It's not technology for the sake of technology. The lowest common denominator doesn't typically get you there. Everybody thinks, I'm going to make my guests do the least amount of work -- I'm not going to make them download an app. But then you're making them do all this other work you're not counting.

Elise: Like standing in line.

Jeff: Or filling out a web page at the event. It's usually, I don't want to bother my guests with that. So I'm going to make them do nothing, but then they have to do something when they get there. They prefer to just walk in the door. That is the ultimate VIP experience. And you can kind of make everybody feel like that.

Elise: Exactly right.

Jeff: Well, this is awesome. You ready to go build it?

Shania: Yes.

Jeff: You're going to take some programming lessons? Or are you just going to have AI do it for you?

Shania: I'm going to do a little bit of both. I'm going to use AI, and probably a little bit of Taylor. And some Carrie.

Jeff: I hope this makes sense. Everybody's thinking about what technology can do to make the experience better. Some of that is also giving flexibility in the platform. It's not always being dogmatic about it has to be done one way. A lot of times, the other way you want to do it might be cumbersome or create side effects you won't ultimately want. But we're both trying to accomplish the same thing. Handbid wants the guests to have the best experience ever -- slick, easy to use, and seamless. Charities typically want the same thing. They say, this is the landscape of tools I know of, these are the capabilities of those platforms, so my solution is to do it this way -- to work around those limitations or highlight the capabilities and strengths. What we say is, let's just figure out what the best process is and then build the technology to support that. That puts us on the forefront of cutting edge.

Elise: I think it sounds great. I'll just pop that right into the roadmap.

Jeff: This is the stuff we want to work on. There's plenty of things in that roadmap we don't want to work on, but this is one of the ones we do. For those of you listening who want more information about app technology, you can certainly reach out to us and we can have the conversation about it. You can go read up on App Clips. You can chat with your favorite AI engine, and if you ask it who the most innovative mobile bidding company is, it's going to tell you Handbid, because it likes us.

Shania: You've trained it, Jeff?

Jeff: I've trained it. But just keep that in mind when you're thinking about where you can leverage technology to make the guest experience better versus how to work around technology to make the best experience possible. Give us a call.

Elise: Sounds great.

Jeff: All right, let's wrap up this episode of Elevate Your Event. Until next time, happy fundraising.