EP 23: The Bottom Half of Your Event Budget -- Understanding Your Cost Structure

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Intro: Welcome to the Elevate Your Event Podcast, where we talk about how to plan and execute an unforgettable event that will dazzle your guests and generate more income for your organization. From fundraising and securing trendy auction items to event production and logistics, get the best tips and advice from seasoned fundraising and event professionals who have been in your shoes.

Jeff Porter: Welcome back to the Elevate Your Event Podcast, where we talk about all the many ways that you can make your fundraising event better. Today, we're going to actually talk about the bottom half of an event budget called the cost structure. We put together a budget. Everybody talks about how to make more money. Well, there are some things on the cost side that will make you more money, but there are also some things you can consider on the cost side that will just increase profitability. They may not have a direct impact on revenue, but they will definitely have a direct impact on what you take to the bottom line and contribute to the organization. We've got a packed studio here today, and I'm super excited to introduce Kari Porter. Hello.

Jeff Porter: It was not an easy task to get her to join us, but she is an event budget expert. It took a little persuading. It's going to cost me a lot. If you guys are married, you understand what that means. I will have to pay for it later. But we're happy to have Kari on the podcast with us. And we've got Elise Druckenmiller. Say hello, Elise.

Elise Druckenmiller: Hello, Elise.

Jeff Porter: Elise manages our client services division, but she also runs a number of fundraisers. And along with Elise, and one of the fundraisers she runs, we brought in another special guest. He's a return guest. He's the one, if you're looking at ways that you can blow your budget, this is the guy. We talked about this. We're like, hey, we're going to do one on event budgeting. She's like, well, we need to bring in Mike Papi if we're going to talk about ways to blow your event budget. No, we're just picking on you. You got to spend money to make money. That's right. So Mike Papi is back. Mike is the founder and he definitely runs the show at the OneGo Foundation. OneGo does an annual golf tournament and gala. We've attended it for several years, and we've always had conversations with Mike about how to take things to the next level and where to spend money. Your golf tournament, in terms of swag and sponsorship and everything else, is just one of the best that we attend on a yearly basis.

Mike Papi: Thank you.

Jeff Porter: So I know you have a lot to contribute -- not just about how to spend too much money, but also how to be smart about it as well. So let's break this down. We're talking about event budgets. Let's start with the basics, like the venue. Obviously you're picking a venue based on a number of factors. What's available. How big it is. What their terms are. What else would be a factor in how to pick a venue?

Kari Porter: Location. Timing. Time of the year. Weather. Services they provide.

Jeff Porter: So you're looking at all those factors and that's all going to come down to a price. But there's more than just the rental cost, and that's what we were just talking about. Let's talk about picking a venue that allows you to bring in donated alcohol. What's the process for getting the alcohol donated? How hard is it? And what are the challenges and the benefits of doing that? We're going to turn this one over to Kari, because this is her area of expertise.

Kari Porter: Yeah, we ran a Kentucky Derby fundraiser and we've been to many different venues here locally in Colorado. Obviously some are more willing to work with you and easier to work with when it comes to donated alcohol. Some make it really hard for you to get that alcohol. But a lot of it comes down to looking at the local laws and what they require. A lot of them require it come from a distributor with a zero-dollar invoice. It has to be delivered directly. So there are some hoops you have to jump through. Some will charge you a small corkage fee. That's kind of how they get their money back. But in the end, if you can get alcohol donated, it definitely makes your ability to have alcohol included in your ticket prices affordable. And when people drink, they often spend more money, so that's the goal.

Kari Porter: If you're going to a hotel, it's very unlikely that you're going to bring in donated alcohol. So those per-drink costs can get high, especially if you're going to do an open bar. These are all the considerations you take into account. For us, for our Derby fundraiser, when we moved it out of our house -- and we allowed donated alcohol at our home, by the way, we were that generous to ourselves -- but when we moved it out, that was a factor. Do they have a liquor license? Are they going to let us bring in donated alcohol? Because we want to have an open bar.

Jeff Porter: We don't want guests at this type of event -- and I think you would agree with this, Mike, because you're kind of a high-end guy -- paying $7 for a beer after they just spent $500 or $2,000.

Mike Papi: Right. Well, when you set your ticket prices that way too, they know that they're buying a ticket and they're going to get the meal. We can talk about food in a minute. But when they come there and they expect an open bar, that's a huge selling point when they're coming in. They don't want to have to worry about another thing they're paying for because you want them focusing on the fundraiser.

Jeff Porter: So we would look for places that had the ability to let the alcohol be donated.

Kari Porter: Yeah. And there are a few places -- probably becoming fewer -- but some places don't even have a liquor license and they'll let you get your own special events permit. I've applied for those. That makes getting the donated alcohol easier, but most places have some sort of liquor license or they require you to work with one of their vendors.

Mike Papi: And that said, we hold ours at the Hilton Inverness right here in Englewood, and they work with a lot of the vendors that we work with that donate the alcohol. So that makes it easy. When you just say it's at the Inverness, oh, that's easy enough. They've worked with them before. They're probably your second delivery that week for a different event or a wedding or something to that effect. So if you're working on a venue and they allow you to bring in your own alcohol or donated alcohol, and you don't know of somebody that will donate it, you can simply ask their event coordinator who they've worked with in the past, reach out, tell them about your charity, and see if you can get the alcohol donated.

Jeff Porter: That's great, for sure, because the distributors go to certain locations. So the zero-dollar invoice -- what does that mean? They just want to make sure you haven't bought the alcohol at wholesale cost and then had it delivered to the venue.

Kari Porter: So a zero-dollar invoice means that the distributor -- or it can also be the manufacturer, like Coors could donate it -- but then the distributor is the one that has to bring it to the venue. And when they bring it to the venue, they have to show that they are giving this at zero dollars to this organization at your venue.

Jeff Porter: I can't just put on a Coors shirt and hat and show up with it?

Kari Porter: No.

Jeff Porter: Well, we tried that one.

Kari Porter: That's what you do when you're picking up the extra alcohol after the event.

Jeff Porter: Here's the downside though. At venues where you've had the zero-dollar invoice, in some cases, they keep whatever you don't drink. And what a nice bonus to them. Let me get into a side topic here because I'm still bothered by this. When they water down your guests' drinks -- it made me upset because I'm thinking, wait a second, you have plenty of bourbon for mint juleps. Why are you pouring these really weak mint juleps? In my opinion, it's because they want to keep the rest of this bourbon that I got donated, which is really nice.

Kari Porter: That's not everywhere, by the way. Inverness doesn't keep it. They're not allowed to keep it or resell it with that zero-dollar invoice. They need the distributor to come pick it up.

Jeff Porter: Plug for the Hilton Inverness. So anyway, that is important. And again, if you're running a dry event, then just ignore everything we just said. But we always get this question about alcohol, and it's an important one. If you're going to do a cash bar, just decide what kind of event you're having. If you're having a concert and everybody paid $50 to $75 for a ticket with a cash bar, people aren't expecting open bar at that point. But if you're going to have a higher-end event and you're having people buy $1,000 or $2,000 tables -- at our event, we had $5,000 tables -- they're not going to love the idea of paying per drink.

Elise Druckenmiller: Totally. And if you need to compromise, you can do a two-hour happy hour and then it becomes cash bar. Figure out a happy medium where you're not losing money. Or use drink tickets to cap what you're paying out. Or just beer and wine is free and then pay for liquor.

Jeff Porter: Okay, so we've talked about alcohol. Let's dive into food, since it's connected to the venue. And guess what else is connected to the venue? Catering. Because in most cases, the venue either is their own caterer if it's a hotel, or they have a list of approved caterers that they'll work with. Would you say they only work with those, or just recommend them?

Kari Porter: I think it depends. A lot of times it's ones they recommend. If you really had somebody else you wanted to use, some venues might entertain that. But they like working with companies they know have the insurance, know the kitchen, and know how they operate. Usually those lists are pretty extensive though, so there's kind of a price range for everybody.

Jeff Porter: And then it comes down to interviewing caterers and deciding which one -- obviously are they available, and then what do they cost? Maybe what kind of service are you getting? We've been through a variety of these at our own event. We've gone the full-service catering route. Those people come in and bring everything. It depends on the venue, but sometimes the caterers bring in the tables and chairs. Sometimes the venue has them. But between the two of them, they've worked out who's doing what. In those cases, what are the factors that really drive catering costs, besides the menu? Obviously steak is more expensive than chicken. But what else?

Kari Porter: Staff. The staff for them to come and serve it. A lot of full-service catering requires their staff. That's usually one of the bigger costs.

Jeff Porter: And I guess Mike, I'd ask you, when we've done outside caterings, I feel like the menu -- the food -- is pretty reasonable. You're like, oh yeah, $15 or $19 a person for this great meal, that's awesome. Then you get your bill. Oh, but you need six staff at $25 an hour, and the staff becomes more than your food. Hotels, a lot of time they just bundle that all in, so you have a higher food cost but the staff is included. Is that true?

Mike Papi: Yeah, that's all part of it. When we use a venue that does the services of the staff and the catering all in there, they give you a minimum budget. For example, for our Flip-Flop Gala, it's a $65 food plate, but we are guaranteeing them to pay $25,000. It's on a Saturday night in June, so we're competing with weddings. We have a minimum that we have to spend.

Mike Papi: And for the food truck, I just tell those guys a minimum or maximum of $11 a plate. You're going to serve maybe 200 people at the golf tournament. So I know what my budget's going to be at that point.

Jeff Porter: And does Inverness care that you have a food truck?

Mike Papi: No, and part of the reason is, like you said, they want to make their money somehow. But because we do the gala the night before and use their catering, we satisfy all of that food and beverage budget that you have to have if you're going to run an event. So that opens up flexibility for the second event on the following day.

Jeff Porter: So that's one way to do it. We were able to bring in burritos cheaper than the Inverness can do it. We bring in the food truck cheaper than the Inverness could provide lunch. And that helps keep our costs down. But as you guys know from your events, when you run a food truck, that food is exceptional. And especially for the price you're paying per person.

Mike Papi: And again, this goes back to the time of year because food trucks obviously lend themselves very well to outdoor events. Inside, it's not going to work.

Jeff Porter: For an event we did that was outdoors, we had several different food trucks and even had them do a limited menu. We guaranteed the food trucks a minimum as well. We said have it pretty much prepared so that when people come, it can be quick and they're not waiting in line a long time, and there's some variety. That worked out so well. The cost was a lot cheaper than even a full-service catering for the same amount of food. Food trucks, if you have an outdoor venue or a place you can do it -- people really like it, the food is great, and the cost is cheaper.

Jeff Porter: Let's talk order of magnitude here. I'm not going to put you on the spot for exact numbers. Say our 300-person gala that we used to do catering-wise, how much was that roughly?

Kari Porter: $15,000. $15,000 to $18,000 with a full-service caterer. I think you could do food trucks for $5,000 to $7,000.

Jeff Porter: And I would also say the thing about food trucks is their food is really good. That's how they make their living.

Mike Papi: We do a plated dinner at our event, but it's been expressed to me that that's not why people are at the event -- not for the food. So that is one of the areas where I don't go top shelf. We can get by with chicken, chocolate cake, and enjoy the meal, but you're not there for the meal.

Jeff Porter: Except for the food at your golf tournament, which is awesome.

Mike Papi: Well, but again, that's the food truck.

Jeff Porter: And no offense, but I don't even remember what you serve at your plated dinner, so that kind of tells you you're going right down the middle of the fairway with that one.

Mike Papi: I didn't remember what we served last year either.

Jeff Porter: Which is funny because at our Derby events, I always did. And then that became an auction item for us. One year I'm sitting there saying, I don't really like this food. It's no offense to the caterer -- we picked it out and it was well prepared, I just didn't like it. Then I come to find out that my wife and her sister were making all the decisions on catering. So me and another guy decided we were going to join this tasting. Mike, this thing is like a five-course meal. You show up, they hand you a drink. No wonder it's $18,000. These chefs just come out with plates and you're tasting them all. Within five minutes, I knew exactly what the problem was, as my sister-in-law kept saying, "Oh, I don't like goat cheese. Oh, I don't like that." I'm like, no, absolutely not. So then I thought, this should be an auction item -- two people get to come and sit here and get a five-course tasting. It was fun. But I do think if you have a more casual outdoor event, the food trucks save you a lot of money. Any other things on food?

Jeff Porter: All right, let's move on. We're going to save the best for last. Let's move on to the entertainment. Depending on what you're doing -- are you having live entertainment? Audiovisual either way? Are you throwing something up on screens? These are all things you have to factor in. For us, we ran a Kentucky Derby event, so audiovisual was kind of important because we had to show a live horse race that only lasts two minutes. You don't have a lot of time to mess that up. Everything had to work in a certain way. And then when we moved outside, the type of screens we used became critical. When you're inside, it's more expensive but way cooler for sure.

Jeff Porter: In terms of AV, if you're not a technical person, it can be overwhelming to see a quote and ask yourself, am I getting a good deal here? Do I really need all of these things? You're going to need to get a couple of quotes and leverage input from other charities. If you're in Denver, we can certainly give you advice. There are some really good players out there. And this stuff does add up quickly. You're looking at all this equipment on a list and saying, I don't even know what that thing is. Microphone and splitter and whatever.

Kari Porter: At one venue we used, we were at the Cable Center. The AV was included, but the technician wasn't. We had to pay to have someone run it. Same at Infinity Park -- you had to pay for an AV technician. And that team was probably the best. When we went to Infinity Park, their entire venue was built around their AV system.

Jeff Porter: We had to pay for certain things, and this is where we get into blowing the budget, because I would be the one that would go to do the review with the AV team. And then she's like, wow, what are all those cool lights all around the edge? They're like, oh, we just had a prom. Those are uplights. That's like a $500 charge. I'm like, yeah, we want those.

Kari Porter: No, we don't need those. I didn't invite you. I did not invite you to this meeting.

Mike Papi: Speaking from our event, we have to use what the hotel gives us and it's their cost. It's a necessary expense even though it's the one expense I look at every year and just shake my head. But you have to do it. You need it. You don't have a choice. We did this year though -- we're bringing in a DJ this year, so we're going to be able to use their sound. We kind of negotiated them knocking some of the cost off. But for the screens and the projectors, we've got to use theirs.

Jeff Porter: I think hotels' costs get outrageous with AV and it's not even that good of equipment. I see the pickle you're in with that one. For us, we ended up moving out of Infinity Park to another venue in town and we had to provide our own. And I will tell you, that was probably our first bad AV experience. It was expensive. The screens were dark because they were rear projection and we were in this really bright facility. The guys just didn't do much. Oh, they did one thing -- they stole one of our tables to put their AV equipment on. So we were short a table that someone paid for that I had to go replace. Other than that, it just didn't blow me away. And the bill was $12,000 or something.

Jeff Porter: That is the problem. When it comes to AV, it comes down to who shows up to run it that day, how much do they know, and is the equipment good? You don't really know until you're there and there's not a lot you can do. You're kind of at their mercy. Even if your venue recommends them, it's worth vetting them out and getting opinions from others.

Elise Druckenmiller: I think one of the challenges is people like the four of us that are looking at these budgets and hiring these companies -- a lot of times, we don't know what we don't know. We are not AV experts. When you look at the breakdown and they say you need it, I guess you have to have it. And sometimes it's like, okay, the screens -- we needed the screens. But had those screens even been tested in the venue? Clearly not.

Jeff Porter: Having somebody who's familiar with the venue is important. There is value in knowing that this company knows what this room is like. I'm not going to go back through PTSD. If you've been listening to this podcast, you know about all the problems we had at our last event with audio. And that company was recommended by the venue. So I'm still highly encouraging you guys to ask around, or ask for references. Just try to get a feel for how good this company is. Because this cost gets expensive. For us, this was a significant increase offset by our significant decrease in catering, which was nice. That's how you balance things out.

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Jeff Porter: It is important though, because if you're showing a video or talking about your event or you have a live auctioneer, you do want your AV to be solid. If it's not good, this is one area where you can actually lose money. People aren't going to be engaged with your organization. They're not going to be listening to your live auction because they can't hear. You can't play your video right before your ask.

Mike Papi: 100% agree. Things are always going to happen and people are still there just to support your charity. But it is an important part of an event that you need to make sure you have the right equipment.

Jeff Porter: Related to AV is Wi-Fi. And yes, hotels gouge you on Wi-Fi. It's a necessary evil. You need Wi-Fi, especially if you're doing mobile bidding, and obviously we recommend that. But your guests will go find internet connections if they don't have them. You don't want them leaving the room to go find it. And it's absolutely true -- if your fundraising is heavily on mobile bidding, you need good internet. You need good Wi-Fi for that. Otherwise, they're only going to go back to the app so many times before they just stop bidding.

Mike Papi: It's critical. And that's one of those things where it's important to make sure that's working before the event starts, and to have a number to call if it goes down. The venue providing that internet better have somebody there and ready to fix it.

Jeff Porter: And we always get asked how much internet is needed because the hotel is asking. We do help with some of this. A lot of it comes down to how many people are coming and trying to understand how good is the cellular service in the room. If the cellular data service is good, honestly, there may be no need to advertise any Wi-Fi access. Just have a dedicated network for what your team needs to do. Maybe you have a guest network for those carriers that have bad service, but just encourage the others not to get on it. It really does come down to that. We've got some network testing guides that will help with that.

Jeff Porter: The internet cost in a lot of cases can be frustrating. You're looking at it and it's like $1,000 for 100 connections. What is it if you get 200 connections? $1,900. Okay. You're going to have to ask yourself, do I want to do this or not? One event we did every year -- they refused to pay for Wi-Fi. It was four floors below the street. 1,300 people came to it. It was just a mess. So what ended up happening is they started selling a Wi-Fi ticket. People wanted Wi-Fi so badly that they were buying this ticket, and then we would give them a code.

Mike Papi: I think you kind of want people to be able to bid.

Jeff Porter: I agree. But the hotel only charged them for activated codes, so the hotel gave them 500 or 1,000 tickets with codes on it. And if I'm the hotel, I'm not even going to be that nice. I'm just going to say it's five grand for internet. There's no cost to the hotel, and that's why Wi-Fi pricing bothers me. In most other venues, we don't see an upcharge usually. It's just included in whatever venue price. But not always good.

Kari Porter: A lot of places don't have good internet though. So that's something to definitely look at when you're picking your venue.

Jeff Porter: And we just had a client recently finish their event at their own venue, and they spent five grand upgrading their internet. But it works. No Office Depot routers, okay? If you have a lot of people in there bidding, you need professional equipment. And it's not even that much money. A high-density access point is probably $150 or $200, and you can connect them into a router that costs $300 to $400. So for a venue that needs to service 300 people, you could spend $800 to $1,000 and have perfectly good equipment. But anyway, in terms of Wi-Fi, it's usually just a hotel thing we see.

Jeff Porter: Okay, moving on. Technology. Some people view it as a cost. When we're talking about tech, we're talking about the technology you're using to sell your tickets, check people in, get them into the event, let them bid, let them pay, and walk out the door. And everything in between. Now we have interactive polling, so you could ask them questions online, or you could play games through there. They can buy raffle tickets or drawing tickets or whatever you're legally allowed to sell -- different podcast, go watch it. We like to say it's an investment. Would you agree?

Mike Papi: Absolutely. Technology's important and it's an investment that we've made every year. We're three years in and it's been night and day of immediately bringing us to a legitimate fundraiser. It's easy for people to bid. More people are bidding. The items are right there in front of them. Without technology, you've got paper and pencil. People are leaving. They're disengaging. Check-in -- I don't even know what check-in would look like without technology.

Jeff Porter: Let's not try it.

Mike Papi: No, we won't. I think there's a board member that might resign.

Jeff Porter: It's taken her three years. But yeah, absolutely, technology is important. When you look at the cost per attendee or the cost per dollar raised, it is peanuts compared to what you could lose if you don't have the right technology. It blows me away. People want to save $50 here or there, or this package is $50 less, or they can skip implementing this feature and save $100. At the end of the day, if you're driving your bidders to disengage, what's the cost of that? I don't think people see it that way.

Jeff Porter: Kind of twofold. There are probably only two things in your event costs that are potentially going to generate more revenue for you. One of them is probably the alcohol. The other one is your mobile bidding technology. So it is as much of a revenue generator as it is a cost. And I'm not just talking about our software. Whatever you're using, if it's keeping your bidders connected and engaged, they're bidding more and spending more.

Elise Druckenmiller: And the other piece to that -- if you don't have somebody on your team or volunteers that know how to use that technology, having staff from that technology company at your events is critical. The first impression you have at an event is that check-in process. Somebody can have pre-registered, given their credit card, gotten their paddle number, but they still have to go through the line. If they've done all that work already and they're still waiting 10 to 15 minutes to get checked in, it's not that they're going to be upset and not buy anything, but right away they're like, now I need a drink.

Jeff Porter: Move them through. Get them checked in and make it as seamless as possible. You need experts and people that know the software doing that part, and that's critical for the technology. And not just knowing the software, but knowing how to check people in, knowing how to manage the flow. Having the experts doing that is important. If you don't have somebody on your team that can do that, then that's another part of the investment. It's human technology that you need to bring in. And if you think paper bid sheets are cheaper, they cost a lot more and people don't realize that.

Jeff Porter: I think the first year you go to mobile bidding, if you come from paper, there are also people that just don't like change. There are those people that loved spending their entire evening blocking a paper sheet so they get an amazing deal on everything, and you've taken away that fun for them. So you are going to get some people that don't like it. But give them time. Let them learn how to use the technology, and don't expect everyone to adopt immediately.

Mike Papi: But that doesn't mean that it's not good for you as an organization. Some people just don't like change. The first time they get that notification that says "you are now losing item 674," then they're bought in because now they're watching it.

Jeff Porter: But that's critical. Well, the technology is definitely going to drive more revenue. The other thing it's going to do is reduce the stress of the team that's there. It's going to take a lot of things and automate them. Unless you're the type of person that loves 200 people lining up at the end of the event while you run around and grab 200 bid sheets and run back into a back room to calculate who won what. And most probably make an error and then have to go back and fix it. Or not be able to read someone's handwriting. We've covered all these and we will do a podcast on the hidden cost of paper bid sheets because it's a tremendous cost.

Jeff Porter: We had a client call us several weeks ago. They were revisiting this. They didn't have the best Wi-Fi. They tried mobile bidding last year and it was successful, but they had some board members that wanted to go back to paper. They thought it was better. She asked what I thought. I said, you're just going to make less money. They all looked at me and said, how? I walked them through it and they said, okay, we get it. Those are called opportunity costs, and you don't always see them.

Jeff Porter: Think about how bid sheets work. You put a bid sheet out with a price on it. Mike comes by and bids on it. I come by two minutes after Mike, and I bid. But Mike's off to the bar now and he's talking to his friends. Thirty minutes later he comes back and notices he's been outbid. How many bids would he and I have gone through in that 30-minute period? And where would that item be at this point? It's hard to know. And you can't open it early. You can't keep it open to the last minute of the night because you have to tabulate bid sheets. Remember all the staggered closings? "Closing the travel category. Everybody get ready." Why? Because they needed time to tabulate invoices.

Mike Papi: So you said the two -- the alcohol and the technology. There's a third part of that that feeds in with both, and that's the experience. And that's where when we kid about me blowing the budget, that's where I absolutely spend top shelf -- the experience. It's a small giveaway to every attendee that comes. It's the look and feel of the room or the event. But that experience is enhanced by an easy check-in and even easier checkout, the fun of competing with people across the room in the bidding. To your point about the 30 minutes going back and forth, there could be other people bidding in there, but you always get those two people going after it. "Who's 115? Another drink. 115. Who's that guy?" The experience is huge.

Mike Papi: Diving into that part of an event is making sure everybody walks away saying that was an awesome event. You mentioned entertainment -- whether that means having a keynote, having a comedian, having something there. It's all of it. But it's the whole event in itself. And part of the experience isn't just what you're giving to the attendees or the messaging -- it's the flow of your event being seamless.

Jeff Porter: I think you're making a good point. You're tying a couple of things together and saying, create a better experience and your guests are going to donate more and bid more. There's not a formula for that. It's just 20 years of doing this will tell you that's absolutely true. It could be the entertainment. It could be the check-in experience. It could be just handing them a glass of champagne when they walk in. All of these little things that diffuse any stress. You don't know where these people are coming from. Especially if you're doing it on a Friday night, it may have been a bad day at work. The babysitter might have been late. There might have been horrible traffic. They're all grumpy. You show up and someone hands you a glass of wine, and boom, all that goes away. I think that's important -- grouping all these things into the concept of the experience. And I don't care how old your donors are or how old your board is. Paper bid sheets are not a good experience.

Mike Papi: No.

Jeff Porter: People will see that when they get into mobile bidding. So let's talk about an element that came up earlier that could be a significant cost related to mobile bidding but might enhance the experience, which is the staff. How much time are you spending learning the software? How much time do you want to not spend learning the software? How much handholding do you want? All these things are going to factor into not just the company you pick but how much money you spend with them. The ultimate goal needs to be making sure it runs smoothly because you want a great guest experience. And it's easy to assume that the software will be so intuitive that you'll know everything off the bat. In most cases, there isn't time for that.

Elise Druckenmiller: Right. If you use a certain software package for years, maybe you start to get comfortable with it. But think about all the things most event planners are doing -- the venue, the caterer, the auctioneer (auctioneers have a lot of needs), the entertainment, the AV person, making sure everybody shows up on time. And now you've got to not just learn the software. You've got to become an expert. You've got to train the volunteers. And then you've got to manage it all.

Jeff Porter: Even if you don't hire staff from the mobile bidding company, it's important to have one or two right-hand people that you've worked with prior to the event who know what they need to know for the day of, because you can't be everywhere if you're the main person doing it. You can't be at check-in, saying hi to guests, and troubleshooting last-minute changes all at once. You need good volunteers and right-hand people. Even if it's not going to be paid staff, they need to be someone capable. At our own event, for years and years, even when we were using Handbid, Kari spent a lot of time at check-in. She's the one that knows who bought what package, who's supposed to be sitting with who, how to move this person from table X to table Y. And I'm like, I don't want you at check-in. I want you out here talking to our biggest donors. We eventually hired staff. And it's not because we don't know our own software -- we know it inside and out. It's because we don't need to be doing those jobs.

Elise Druckenmiller: What Mike said is important -- the guest experience. A lot of time, having somebody that's very familiar with the event and the software at check-in is important because when you have somebody whose guest isn't on the guest list, or needs to be moved -- we call those solutions tables now, as we mentioned in the last podcast. "Oh, you need help fixing your phone, go talk to that person. Oh, you don't want to sit next to someone, go talk to that person." But you have to get them out of that area fast.

Jeff Porter: And then you can have somebody who's more of an expert there. I'm not here to plug that you need to hire Handbid staff. In most cases, we would tell you not to, and we are not a staffing company. We don't want to bring eight people to your event to run your event. We want to bring one smart person if you need it to help you with it in most cases. But all I'm saying is you need to understand that to create the experience Mike is describing, you've got to know what you're doing. And it's beyond just "I know how to check someone in on Handbid." It's knowing how to run an efficient check-in. Knowing you need somebody greeting people at the door. Knowing you need somebody moving people into the venue because people stand in line for 10 or 15 minutes and then they don't leave. You check them in and then they see their friends in line and just stand there. All of those little things that we see and recommend, and our staff knows.

Jeff Porter: So when you're thinking about the event budget, it's investing in the time to either learn the software, or if you don't have the time to really be the expert the night of the event, then you need the budget to bring somebody on site. Whether that's a hired staff person that goes in and learns Handbid or whatever technology you're using, it shouldn't be your event planner, because your event planner has enough on their plate. Maybe you know someone who works at another charity and they know what they're doing. It's totally possible to figure that out.

Jeff Porter: We've spent a lot of time talking about costs. Are there any other costs we want to mention before we wrap up?

Kari Porter: I think one thing we didn't talk about is how you set your ticket prices and sponsorships. Sponsorships -- it's fun to label them based on specific costs. Entertainment sponsor. If you're spending $10,000 on entertainment, make an entertainment sponsor. If you're spending $15,000 on the venue, make a venue sponsor. Because if you do get those higher-end sponsors, you can put their name all around what they're sponsoring and they feel like they're contributing and offsetting a direct cost.

Jeff Porter: And then as far as ticket prices go, do you make your ticket price try and cover all your expenses so that your fundraising is above and beyond? Or do you pick a ticket price that seems reasonable to get people in the door to spend more money?

Mike Papi: Depends on what you're doing at the event.

Jeff Porter: We've seen both. We recently went to an event where all of the sponsorships covered the cost and the ticket prices were pure profit. Most events, it's the opposite -- setting the ticket price to where 150 a ticket or 200 a ticket times 100 people gives you $20,000, and you're trying to cover as much cost with ticket prices. You can go either way. You've got to balance what you think people are willing to spend and understand the total cost of their evening. There's an Uber involved. There's a babysitter sometimes involved. There's probably a dress involved if you're Elise Druckenmiller.

Elise Druckenmiller: Okay.

Jeff Porter: All of these things play a factor. People walk in the door and they've already spent quite a bit. What are you asking them to spend in addition? Ticket prices can get tricky. What do you think, Mike?

Mike Papi: Yeah, I look at it as I try to at least get something out of the ticket price. But what I do on top of that is try to make the experience or the gift kind of equal that price. You mentioned my golf swag bags -- for the player bags, I try to go above and beyond for a couple of reasons. If I look at it as marketing, I've played in a lot of golf tournaments where you get a swag bag that doesn't cost much, stuff I'll never use, never wear, never see the light of day. I'm still there for the charity. But when I've done our player bags, whether it's a hat or this year a pretty unique gift in a total cooler bag that everybody's getting -- it was about $90 a player. But I'm working on making it so somebody's going to walk away saying that was fantastic, I'd pay $300 to play in that tournament any day. And that's not even counting the experience they get in the tournament.

Mike Papi: When they're there, they walk away thinking they should have given more. We're on our third year and our numbers are higher than they were last year, which is the idea from an attendees standpoint. Now we're starting to look at how to increase the costs. But to get started on a non-established charity or a non-established event, I keep the prices to where I know I'm not going to lose but I can still give a good experience. And they'll come back and they're not going to balk at next year's prices if they're higher.

Jeff Porter: Right. That makes sense. And look at what other events similar to yours are charging in the area and kind of get a feel for it. I think that works. We're going to wrap up. That was an awesome conversation and hopefully helpful for those listening to the podcast -- everything from alcohol to AV and sound and all the challenges we've had in the past, to food and how amazing some events have been with food trucks, all the way down to ticket prices and sponsorship. It's been a really good conversation. Thanks for listening, and we hope to see you back on another episode of Elevate Your Event. Until then, write us a five-star review or share this podcast with your friends. You can find us anywhere you typically find podcasts -- Apple, Spotify, or Google. You can also go to handbid.com/podcast and get all the other information. We thank you for listening and hope to see you again on a future episode of Elevate Your Event. Until then, happy fundraising.