Episode 67: Event Planning 101: Why You Should Hire an Event Planner

Jeff: Welcome to Elevate Your Events, your favorite podcast for transforming fundraising events. Join us weekly for expert tips and creative ideas to make your next event a standout success. In this episode of Elevate Your Event, we are joined with our friend, event planner Adrienne Coffey with A Touch of Bliss Events. We discuss event planning, why it's important to hire an event planner, and other tips and tricks to help you out with your future events.

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 than the last one. And with that, we have a special guest today, Adrienne Coffey, who is absolutely an expert in helping you make your next fundraising event better than the last one. No pressure.

Adrienne: Yeah. Thanks for that intro. I'm not sure I would call myself an expert, but we'll get there.

Jeff: You are. You are. How many -- you've done countless numbers of events, right? I mean, you've done a lot.

Adrienne: Yeah, like over a thousand.

Jeff: Yes. That makes you an expert.

Adrienne: Thank you. I thought it was 10,000 was the expert level, though.

Jeff: That's if you're trying to learn how to play the piano. Apparently hit a golf ball far, but other than that, I think a thousand events puts you in that expert range.

Jeff: All right. So I'm joined here with Elise Druckenmiller. She's the head of sales here at Handbid. And we've got a long history with Adrienne. We're really happy to get her on the podcast. She's so busy, especially this time of year. Especially this week.

Elise: This week.

Jeff: This week. It's my fundraiser this week. And guess who's the event planner for it? You can't see us pointing if you're on the podcast. We're all pointing at Adrienne.

Jeff: So we will talk about that a little bit later because that was a big change for us. And we had a separate set of podcasts about our own fundraiser, just trying to share, being a little authentic here at Handbid about what it takes to put on an event, especially your own. But at the same time, we had also mentioned that we had hired an event planner for the first time. And now we're here.

Adrienne: Yes. And she hasn't fired us yet.

Jeff: She might have fired you, but she hasn't fired us.

Jeff: Awesome. Okay, well, let's break this down into various pieces here. So tell us a little bit, first of all, how did you get into event planning? Where did you start? Talk about fundraising events in general. And then when you start talking to charities, what's the point where you're like, hey, you're ready for me or you're not ready for me yet?

Adrienne: Yeah, good question. So I started in fundraising events in college. I went to school for business and then decided that I wanted to try to do something. And so fundraising events was really the easy way in. I did a couple different internships. Really just loved it. And then out of college worked in nonprofit organizations, planning their fundraising events, but also in a nonprofit, as everyone knows, a thousand other things as well. And then the events really got pushed down to the bottom of my list, and that was really what I wanted to do.

Adrienne: And so one year, my husband gifted me my company name, and he said, you should just start something.

Elise: And at the time, that was the only thing I knew how to do, so --

Jeff: That's awesome.

Adrienne: Started my company planning events.

Elise: That's so sweet.

Adrienne: I know.

Jeff: Oh, I actually think right after you did that, we met at a Starbucks.

Adrienne: Yes, it was very soon after that. Because what year did you start?

Jeff: We ran our first auction in May of 2011 and then we really didn't get fully started until about 2015.

Adrienne: Okay, I started in 2014. So it was right at the same time there. But yeah, I just love the event side of fundraising for nonprofits, not necessarily all the other things that go along with fundraising. And then mostly the strategy behind the events. Why are we doing this? What's the purpose? What are we trying to get out of it? Not just, we should have a gala because everyone has a gala. That's how they make all their money.

Jeff: I know. That's how we got started. Not a thing. We need to make money. How do we do that? I think we just throw a party. So that's kind of how I got started. We've come a long way.

Jeff: Well, that's great. And so when are people ready to start talking to you, when they're ready to talk strategy and kind of starting to put together a rationale for having an event?

Adrienne: Yeah. So the biggest thing is, can you spend money on events without the guarantee that you're going to make money on them? Is your organization sustainable enough to do that? And also do you have enough of a donor base to be able to have a large event? I would say around 10 to 15% of your donor base comes to your events for various different reasons. So if you have 150 donors and you're trying to have an event for 150 people, obviously not going to happen. And you can't guarantee that your donors are going to invite all their friends because they're just so passionate about it. That's just unrealistic.

Adrienne: So I think once an organization gets to the point where they have discretionary funds to be able to put on an event -- because it costs money to put on the event before you get to the event -- it takes money to make money. We talk about that here at Handbid all the time. Once your organization gets to a point where you can spend money on an event and you have enough of a donor base, that's where you can really start thinking about an event strategy.

Adrienne: And then when we start talking to organizations about what do you want to get out of it -- what are the goals of this event? -- your goal cannot just be make a bunch of money. That doesn't happen. You can make a bunch of money on it, but it's not consistent. Not going to happen the first year. It takes a while to build that up.

Jeff: So kind of things are right. Well, then if you don't have the long-term perspective in place, you can easily give up after year one, saying, oh, these don't make any money.

Adrienne: Exactly. So thinking of other strategies behind the events is what we try to get our nonprofits to work on, too. You're not going to think this event is successful if your only goal is a dollar figure that you just created on your own and have no basis for.

Jeff: Yeah. So what are the things you encourage them to think about when they talk about criteria for success?

Adrienne: Different strategies of what do you want to get out of it. The biggest thing is, what do the donors do at the end of the event besides, oh, that was fun, see you next year, kind of a thing? What can we get them to commit to, whether that be money or resources or time or whatever goes with it? It's not just about this one night. We're not planning all of this just for one day. So how do we get them to engage throughout the year?

Adrienne: So thinking through that with your event strategy -- you can have a really awesome program and everyone's going to be happy and excited and passionate in the moment. But then the next day, are they going to forget about what you said at the event? So thinking about strategies like, can we get them to commit to monthly donations so that they see your organization every month? Finding a way to keep them engaged throughout the year -- volunteering or whatever other levels of support you need, because not everyone in your room is going to be able to just give you cash.

Jeff: Right. Especially if they're invited from someone else who bought a table or something like that. Or maybe not even ready to give you cash. Maybe you need to nurture them a little bit. Because I would say, when we talk to a lot of our clients, very similar, right? Yes, you have monetary goals. And we also try to help them understand, are those realistic monetary goals? But at the same time, we also say, here's some other things that you should try to get out of here. How do I grow my connected audience, whether they're donors or not? That might happen further down the road, but how am I expanding the base of people that I am generally connecting to throughout the year? That's one thing. You want to nurture that. And then the other piece of that is, how do I also use the event as a way of advancing a relationship with somebody? That's the other challenge.

Jeff: That's why we get into these check-in wars with some of our clients around why it's important to actually collect their information at the door.

Adrienne: We find that all the time too. You buy a table and then you have nine or eight guests and the organization is like, oh, they said they have all their eight guests. We don't need their names. I'm like, well, why? Why don't you want their information? Don't you want to follow up with them? You should know who they are. What if they donate and you could never connect it back to the person who invited them to that table?

Jeff: There's so much, sometimes I think, anxiety with some charities around bothering their sponsors for names. They don't want to do it, but they don't realize what the ramifications are of not doing it. And there's plenty of them. One of them obviously is, "Druckenmiller guest" is not somebody that I can nurture throughout the year. But beyond that, if Elise shows up as my guest or say she brings a friend and doesn't fill out her sponsorship and it's just "Druckenmiller guest" and then that person wants to bid, what am I doing at check-in now? I'm entering in all their data. I could have done that ahead of time. They could have done that ahead of time.

Adrienne: Yes. And saved everybody a bunch of time. Well, we don't really want long lines. Well, if you don't want long lines, get their information. They don't have to have long lines. They're not one and the same -- gathering information and long lines.

Jeff: They think it is.

Adrienne: They think it is. We had one nonprofit like that. One of the lessons-learned stories: they did not want to collect any information ahead of time. And then when we arrive at check-in -- we warned them many times, this is going to be about three minutes a person. You have 300 people coming. This is a very long check-in line. The venue setup that they were in was really cramped at check-in. And so naturally the line goes outside and naturally it was raining that day. So it was just a complete mess.

Jeff: Were you at the same event I was at last week?

Adrienne: I could imagine this happens way too many times. But then they decided, oh, we'll skip getting everyone's information. We'll just pass out bid numbers. And I was like, well, how do you know whose number goes with who? Who is that attached to? They were something else, interesting people. And so they decided, we don't care. We're just going to send everyone in. And we'll pass out numbers during the paddle raise. Well, of course, our auctioneer is really upset about this.

Jeff: Of course.

Adrienne: As you are. And we're like, okay, you're just ruining all of your fundraising activities at the moment. Just get people champagne down here while they're waiting in line. Bring them apps. Anything else. You have to get their information.

Jeff: You want to diffuse stress in a line. We've talked about this before. Hand them a drink when they show up. And they will stand in that line for 20 minutes. I'm not saying you should have a 20-minute line. You shouldn't. But they will. If you did, you wouldn't know.

Adrienne: Well, and we were at an event last week, right? We saw that. We couldn't even get them to come to check-in because they were chit-chatting and drinking their champagne. Right? So it's like, hello, over here. If you all could move along a little bit, you could make this not a gathering at the moment. The gathering takes place in there. At the bar.

Jeff: Right. At the bar.

Adrienne: So getting the information ahead of time is key to the lines, check-in process, guest experience in general. That's the first thing they experience at your event. And it sets the tone. If you don't have the wherewithal to ask somebody ahead of time what their information is, why are we standing on stage asking them for thousands of dollars? You're bothering the sponsor already to buy a sponsorship. Just --

Jeff: Do you talk to your clients about -- I already know the answer to this because I'm a client -- but do you talk to your clients about goals at check-in? What do you want to accomplish at registration? So when that person passes registration and goes inside, what do you have and what do they have?

Adrienne: Exactly. That's a huge thing for us too because just a couple months ago, we had one client who, very smart, has done events for many years. She says, all we are doing at check-in is passing out a name tag. And I said, that's it? She has all their stuff ahead of time. Just give them their name tag and send them on their way.

Jeff: Okay, I'm going to trust you on that one.

Adrienne: Well, we get to the event. Anybody who says "name tag at check-in," you should not trust. It's like, she's done this exact event for eight years. I'm going to guess you probably have this process down. I don't need to question it. When we get to the event, two people come through, she's like, you have to say all this stuff. I was like, okay, that's where we were asking what are we doing at check-in here? We're not just passing out a name tag.

Adrienne: So we now have to really write it out, especially if someone comes up and is doing check-in in shifts or something like that.

Jeff: Ooh, bad.

Adrienne: Yeah. We're going to have to have this little script for them to go off of. I mean, look, you obviously have done a lot more of the event planning conversations. Because we tend to show up as a mobile bidding company. And we're working as an event lead or something. We're typically working with you or we're working with the client who didn't hire you. And we've seen those things.

Jeff: I remember one event, we show up, and they moved check-in from the walkthrough to the bottom of an escalator. I'm like, this is not going to work, by the way, unless you turn the escalators off. I'm just going to picture what that looks like. And then literally 30 minutes into check-in, six volunteers get up and walk away. Shift's over. I was like, where are they going? Oh, their shift is over. I'm like, oh.

Adrienne: So note for next time -- are you planning to have volunteer shift change during check-in? Because that will be a no for us. You just learn through the years what you've experienced.

Jeff: Yeah. So you've got to go through a whole new training and you have a line of people at the bottom of an escalator. I can't get downstairs. I'm talking to the hotel guy. Can you turn that off? He's like, ooh, I don't think the fire department will let us. I'm like, well, I think the fire department is going to want you to when they see 500 people pile on top of each other.

Adrienne: There's a lot of stories like that -- this is how it works. I've seen it so many times. And then you go to an event and you're like, I never could have guessed this is what we were going to plan on. I've never seen anything like this. How have I not seen this so far?

Jeff: I know. We did an event in Miami and I find out on Wednesday exactly what was happening because they had a bit of a meltdown when Handbid told them no, this is a bad idea. And because of just the mass number of events we were doing and the fact that I knew this client, I go to this event.

Elise: Well, and the fact that we learned that they wanted you there five days before the event.

Jeff: So anyway, it's like, okay, last minute, who can go? Everybody's booked. All of our staff is booked around the country. Jeff, you can go. All right, great. So I go. And I find out on Wednesday what they're doing. I'm like, yeah, our service team is right. This is a really bad idea. "We have done it this way for 20 years." Okay. Well, can we propose a better way to do it? "No, it has to be done this way."

Jeff: Well, I should have said no. But we're like, all right, I said, it's going to be a disaster. I'm just telling you. And it was a disaster.

Jeff: So a lot of times -- let me ask you, do you put your foot down in certain cases where you're like, this is just not going to work?

Adrienne: It's so hard to find that line, though, too. Especially like you're saying, if they've been doing it the same way for many years and you're like, I know this isn't going to work, but I've never seen your specific event before. But I can just tell. And so it's so hard to say this isn't going to work, it has to change 100%. But you speak up and say, I'm concerned. Let's talk about this. And here's the things we've experienced in this situation before and why we think this won't work and why it's going to be different than last year for you because we have these different things that we're planning this year.

Adrienne: And I would say half the time people listen and then the other half the time they don't and then they're mad that it didn't work.

Jeff: At you.

Adrienne: At me. We have a support group on Thursdays.

Jeff: It's all your fault.

Adrienne: Yes. It's every Thursday. It's at 4 o'clock at Los Dos Potrillos. You're welcome.

Jeff: There we go. You actually wait till 4 o'clock. That's impressive.

Adrienne: We have to wait for Abby to get home from school.

Jeff: But no, you're right about that. And again, we go back to, what are your check-in goals? What do you intend to have the people know or walk away with when they leave check-in to go into the event? And what do we get out of it? We get their name, we get their email, we get their phone number, we get their credit card hopefully. They get whatever information on how to donate, what table they're at. And all that kind of stuff.

Adrienne: Yes, we agree with that. Just create that good guest experience where they walk in and they're like, so where do I go, what do I do? Or they come back -- I love when they come back to the check-in area because they don't know what table they're at.

Jeff: Table 12. 12, remember?

Jeff: So, Adrienne, tell me, how do you manage -- prior to the whole guest experience and check-in conversations -- how do you manage board expectations as they start throwing out ideas and you're like, okay?

Adrienne: That never happens. Board members don't show up and give ideas to event planners. No, especially not pyro.

Jeff: They don't ever suggest that.

Adrienne: I think for us, we always have a conversation at the beginning with everyone who wants to give their opinion. Like, okay, now's the time. Give us your opinion now. And then we try to limit the amount of people on the regular meetings to just the people who could actually make decisions, just because it becomes a lot of chit-chatting and debate. Debate of things that are irrelevant at the time. And a lot of rabbit trail stuff.

Adrienne: So that's really our way to combat it: get your opinions in now. We will consider them all. But moving forward, this is the max for people that get to be on the planning committee and making decisions here.

Jeff: Well, and we've learned that too, even in our own organization. You've got a planning committee, you have a board. And then we now -- as I sit on both of those committees, the board and the planning committee -- we do need to know the basis now. I mean, every once in a while I'll throw something out to the board saying, what do you think of this? Like, I threw our event survey out. And that is harmless. They can give me feedback on what questions we ask people. But other things, it's like, oh my God, one night I made the worst mistake of inviting the entire board to check out the step and repeat backgrounds and the money and all this other stuff we're building at the event because I just thought they would find it really cool. And then I had eight opinions on what to change on it.

Adrienne: Or the food menu. The menu is the worst.

Jeff: I was just going to say that.

Adrienne: Don't ever tell your board the menu because you will -- everyone has different opinions. Just have a gluten-free and a vegetarian option and you'll be fine.

Jeff: Oh, no, there's way more options now.

Adrienne: Oh, I know, but we cannot discuss menu. Someone pick, move forward with it.

Jeff: Oh, I know. I used to be one of those, though. It was so funny. I'd go to the event and I'd be like, this menu is kind of boring, what is going on with this. And then I come to find out my wife and my sister-in-law were the ones picking it out every year. And they don't like salt. They don't like goat cheese. They have limited palates. Let me just put it out there. So then I find out that you can actually go to the caterer and sit down and do a formal tasting, and I'm like, I'm inviting myself next year to this.

Adrienne: We turned it into an auction item.

Jeff: Yeah. Usually we have our organizations do it -- biggest sponsor gets a seat at the tasting table or something like that.

Adrienne: Great idea.

Jeff: Yeah, we auctioned it off for about two grand -- a derby tasting because it was at Footer's Catering. And I guess I didn't realize how amazing it was. I show up and they're serving you drinks and then there's a five-course meal and you're trying all this amazing gourmet food.

Adrienne: We had the debates. I just want to throw some more events to do that. Just to get the tastings. You don't have to eat for the next two days because you had so much food. But yeah, don't invite your entire board to your tasting for sure.

Jeff: No. Keep that one under wraps. There are certain things we keep under wraps. And that's just, it's not to hide things from your board. It's just because they're inconsequential to the revenue. And for the most part, largely inconsequential to the guest experience. It's just that you cannot deal with this many opinions.

Adrienne: Yeah. And you do that with your golf tournament, right? It's like, what sponsor things are going in this grab bag thing? We're just going to pick those. We're going to figure that out.

Jeff: We do. We pick them. And they're amazing. It's hard to top them. But you can't have 15 people chime in.

Adrienne: No, you cannot. No.

Jeff: Okay. So outside of that, it sounds like you have a cutoff date. You're like, okay, we're cutting off debate and now we're in execution mode. Because we used to run into this problem too. And we had to put the kibosh on it. So by the way, Saturday, you're welcome to do the same. If I have a board member that shows up and wants to move couches around, you can just tell them no. I mean, we've run into that before, and I'm sure you have as well.

Adrienne: Yeah, we have a few strategies for responding to that one that we will not reveal.

Jeff: Oh, I've been to events where the board member doesn't like where her table is. She wants it moved. And that kind of fun stuff. Or they brought four more people and you only have a table of 10. And now you have to have a table of 14.

Adrienne: No problem. Never seen that. We can do that for you, for sure.

Jeff: Oh gosh. So let's move on to some productive conversation here. Tips -- give us some tips. Through your experience, you've seen a lot. Give our audience some tips on what you think will drive better success for them.

Adrienne: For events in general? I think the varied goals for the event are huge, because then you can have so many different pieces to the event and elements of it. And then essentially it's like a success either way. You may not hit that revenue number, but your event is still a success.

Adrienne: Like we touched on a little bit, you can't just do it one year and hope that it knocks it out of the park. Building on it over multiple years tends to be what really makes these events work. You have to invest in it. It's a huge commitment, because people have to remember that you have your event every year and not just -- you can't just pick a cool theme and then everyone's like, oh, I got to go to that event. Denver has thousands of events every month. There's so much competition here that you really do have to build that up.

Adrienne: So I think that's a big thing that a lot of nonprofits forget, too. Like, oh, we tried that theme. It didn't work. Well, did you try it one year and then you stopped? That's why it didn't work because you didn't keep going.

Jeff: Isn't that funny, though? I mean, think of the paradox there. You've got, I've done it for 20 years and I refuse to change, or I did it once and I'll never do it again. Is there something in between those that's more logical or rational?

Adrienne: Well, I think the other thing is too, if you found something that works, keep the basis of that and then kind of adjust or add fun new elements as you go on instead of completely changing it.

Jeff: Well, I would say we learned that with your event last year, right? You guys had done Derby for how long?

Adrienne: 15 years.

Jeff: Okay. And then we pivoted and completely changed it and did a country concert. There was no derby element. It was not around Derby Day. It was a full-on country concert with a national act out of Nashville. And it was good. It was great. I mean, we had a blast, but the feedback was bring the derby back. And so we did. We're doing it now in two days.

Adrienne: Which I'm sure is on your calendar.

Jeff: But we've added an element of the country concert. We have. On a smaller scale.

Jeff: There's another lesson learned there, though, which was we took an event scheduling conflict as a catalyst to change something. And so when we got booted from our derby date -- and guess what, there's only one day a year you can have a Kentucky Derby party -- so when you get booted on that day, you're not having a Kentucky Derby party. So we decided we're going to have to do something. We pivoted. But we also kind of justified it because we're like, there's a lot of board and committee fatigue on doing a derby party. You do an event for 15 years, you're kind of like, we'd change pieces of it, but a derby party is a derby party.

Jeff: And so for us, it was like, yeah, we're kind of sick of the derby. Let's just do a country concert instead. So we did Country for a Cure, and we did it in the fall. And we're like, this is it. We're moving on this. This is awesome. We even went as far as creating a logo and branding everything that could be reused with that same logo. And guess what happened? It's all in storage. This is why we had to reprint all the signs, Adrienne.

Jeff: But the point was, our donors were not fatigued from the derby. But we never asked them. We assumed. They came anyway to Country for a Cure, but they're like, yeah, we want the Derby back. And I remember last year on Derby Day when we didn't have our event, and we decided to go to another Denver Derby party instead -- which, by the way, is not as good as ours, I'm going to point that out. But I got texts all day from my donors, disappointed. There's no derby event today. I was super excited about putting on my Sunday best and betting on the horse race. And it was like, oh man, I guess maybe we got to definitely bring this back.

Adrienne: Yeah. But what would you have done if you didn't have the date for the derby?

Jeff: Well, we would have moved venues. We have a very good relationship with the folks at Fiddler's Green. And so we do everything we humanly can to keep that date. And they have now helped us do that. And they wanted a derby party. We have that date secured. There's not a risk -- well, there was not a risk this year. And hopefully in the future there will not be a risk of that event being booted out of that facility. That was just because there was a concert that was there that same day.

Adrienne: Which they moved this year.

Jeff: Well, you don't want to run a fundraiser when there's a massive rock concert with 15,000 people right next door. Can't hear the program at that point. And they walk right through your event. Anyway, I think we're good there.

Jeff: But yeah, there are certain types of themes, and I think when you're strategizing with your clients, you have to give them the pros and cons. You want to have a golf tournament, you're subject to weather. And so the time of year matters, especially in Colorado. If you want to have a themed event that's around a sporting event -- Super Bowl, Derby, whatever -- guess what? It has to happen on one day. And the other thing is, it also forces the timeline, because the horse race is at 5 p.m. in Denver, roughly. So that has to be in the heart of your event. People can't show up at 4:30, bet on a horse race, and it starts 20 minutes later. So they're coming in the afternoon. And then it's like, are they leaving at six? Two to six? That's kind of weird. Then what's everybody do? It's six o'clock. They're hungry.

Adrienne: Yeah.

Jeff: So we have extended it to eight. We have now a country band. I don't know, it's a whole day now. It's the Derby Day. Derby Days is what I call it.

Jeff: So what else would you say? Tips for success.

Elise: Listen to your event planner.

Adrienne: Yeah. Hire an event planner. That's what I would say.

Jeff: The other thing -- we kind of talked about a little bit -- don't just copy other people. Just because they have a successful event doesn't mean that your group will have a successful event.

Adrienne: I mean, even with the themes, your crowd is used to one thing, like you're saying. And a different crowd is used to a different type of event or a different way that that event flows. Just because you have the same theme or style or layout as an event you went to as a guest doesn't mean that your crowd also agrees with it.

Jeff: 100%. And we can stick with our event as a theme because we've tried all those things. And you're absolutely right. The big derby event in Denver is downtown and it is full of the younger generation. Let's put it that way -- 20s and 30s. I'm old. And we should be there, Adrienne, I know. It's a massive party. But ours is definitely higher end. The food is higher end. The drinks are higher end. The experience, the bands, the entertainment, the ability to bet in the race. It is massively elevated over that. And it costs a lot more money to go. But that's what our audience wants. Our audience is in an age group where they're not in a fraternity anymore. And so it's not about getting completely hammered off of as many beers and red solo cups that you can drink.

Adrienne: Yes.

Jeff: Well, we went to last year's derby party. I got the last mint julep. And this is two hours before the race started.

Adrienne: Oh gosh.

Jeff: Yes. We don't run out of alcohol at our event, by the way. But the point is -- tips for success. Don't run out of alcohol.

Jeff: If we turned our event into that -- and I'm not criticizing them, they have their audience -- but if we copied their event, it's $150 for a ticket, sell as many tickets as you can. But there were no QR codes up there. I would tell you 90% of the people that show up there have no idea who the charity is. They don't even know that it's for a charity.

Adrienne: I agree with that.

Jeff: So because of all those things, that's not our audience. And so you're absolutely right. You can have a derby event, but it doesn't have to be what every derby event's like. You can make it your own.

Adrienne: Yeah, exactly.

Jeff: So to that point, maybe you kind of alluded to this, but the why. Why are we here? Are we here for a party? I mean, sure, we want to show our donors a good time. Absolutely. But why are we here? You've got to talk about it. You have to bring those connections. I brought it up last week. You've got to connect with your donors.

Jeff: I was helping the staff with check-in last week. We went to an event last week, an organization near and dear to my heart. I'm helping the staff with check-in. And so I asked this guy, full on, is it Visa, MasterCard, or Amex tonight, sir? And he's like, what do you need my credit card for? I go, well, you're at a fundraiser. And he goes, oh, fair enough, pulls his credit card out. Sometimes you have to remind people -- you're not just here for the food and the drink. You're here because -- and you're going to get asked.

Jeff: I know this is always a joke when I tell people at check-in, they're like, what do I need this paddle for? It's very simple. When they ask who wants to donate $10,000, just hold that over your head. Hold it high so the auctioneer can see it. And he's like, ho ho ho. Well, now you know what it's for, right? Now you know. Oh, this is why you're here.

Adrienne: Or they're like, I don't need that, I don't need that. I'm like, just take it, just in case. I promise you'll come back to me later and ask for one and you'll have to stand in line.

Adrienne: I think the other tips for success with the program -- so many people don't adjust their program to the type of event they're having. We had one organization who had a traditional gala, really successful gala. They decided they wanted to pivot to a younger crowd, which doesn't have as much money. So that was a bad idea in the first place, which we warned them against. The organization dissolved. I'm not sure if that had something to do with the gala or not, but they wanted to pivot to a younger, band-focused, casual open house style of event.

Adrienne: But then when we started talking about programming, they had a 45-minute program for a standing event. And then they're like, well, we'll just add tables and chairs for everyone. And I was like, so we're now back to a gala. This is no longer the purpose of what we wanted to pivot to. Your program could be five minutes. Max five minutes. You're going to have to put signage up everywhere. Put it on your coasters, like you guys do. Give them glasses to take home that have your information on it. We have to get all the information out but it cannot be a stage program.

Adrienne: And I think that's what a lot of people fail to do when they come up with their event theme or style.

Jeff: Yeah, you have to know the environment. You're absolutely right. We don't do a traditional paddle raise. And I know there's been -- we've done them in the past. But now we are outside at an outdoor concert venue. It is really hard.

Elise: This has been a debate for two weeks.

Jeff: The pros and cons. Yeah, I agree with that. It's hard. Yes, we have board members that constantly ask the question. But the answer is, we've been to enough events, you've been to enough events where you know when those things are going to work and when they're not. And I love them in the right environment. But an outdoor concert where people are walking around and doing their thing and they're in fire pit tables and couches and sofas that are on the lawns -- it's not easy to keep their attention.

Jeff: And so last year, this is how you learn and evolve. Last year, check-in fail. Because the check-in strategy was they're going to walk in the door with a donation card with a QR code on it on how to donate. Those were not handed out at check-in. They didn't talk about them. Those were left in a box and not given to people.

Adrienne: Happens more often than you think.

Jeff: So Adrienne was not doing check-in, don't worry. That's why she's hired now. So this year, we're like, we're not doing that. We're going to put them on coasters that are going to be everywhere. We printed cardboard coasters, derby day style, with a QR code on the back on how to support us. They can take them home. They're everywhere. That QR code is all over our venue. And so that's the difference. You learn from it -- why did we think it was a good idea to give someone a piece of paper they're going to drop or put in their pocket anyway? Who has space to hang on to a card and a bid number and all the program and all these things you're giving them? Just put it all in one. Have one program with everything on it.

Adrienne: No, that's a good point. Make sure the program kind of matches the environment.

Jeff: And your audience.

Adrienne: And the audience. Yes. I agree. I think that 45 minutes for a program is probably too long for any audience these days. You don't even watch a 45-minute TV show. They're all 25, 30 minutes. So you think we can sit and watch a screen and someone talking who shouldn't be talking for 45 minutes? That's too long.

Jeff: It's not that important. We don't have that much to say. I've been accused of being a little long-winded too on stage, so I'm going to --

Adrienne: Just get kicked off.

Jeff: I'm not kicked off. At least you have a personality on stage. So many of these programs are so boring.

Adrienne: Give them a mint julep.

Jeff: But the point is, yes, we now drive our program by slides, and we time it so that it is as concise as you can get. But look, it's a captive audience. I'm not here, and I don't think any of us are here to say don't get up on stage and talk about your charity. Get up on stage and talk about your charity. You have to. That's why you're there. But if you go into ChatGPT and you write your speech, then tell it to shorten it. Then tell it to shorten it again. And then tell it to do the TLDR -- which is the too long, didn't read -- and then read that.

Adrienne: Agreed. I agree with that. Because no one pays attention for that long anyway.

Adrienne: I think the other big thing that we find a lot with organizations is they have too many activities at an event. Like seven fundraising options -- auction and wine pull and raffle and live auction and paddle raise and fish bowls and you could buy this art. There's just way too many things. We typically say three fundraising activities. That way you can hit pretty much your entire audience with what they want to support you on, but don't have so many. It's confusing. It's confusing to the guests and then you're upset at the end when they don't work well because you spread it too thin.

Jeff: And understand the time frame. For our event, because doors open at 2:30 -- no one ever gets there at 2:30, except the board members -- and then you go all the way to 8 o'clock, we have time for you to float around and do stuff, especially since the horse race is a fundraising activity for us. So that's an element of it.

Jeff: But you're right. We go to these events and check-in's at 6 o'clock at night. And you're closing the auction, hopefully not at 8, but a lot of them still do 8 o'clock. And then checkout's at nine. How are you doing all of those things?

Adrienne: To your point, we went to one event and they had 75 bottles in the wine pull and you had 20 minutes to sell wine bottles before everybody was ushered into the seated dinner, plus you have 75 bottles and 150 guests. So what, every couple is going to buy a bottle? That's unrealistic.

Jeff: We don't need that much. I agree. We did one recently, and I don't remember how many bottles of tequila or whatever they had, but it was ridiculous. It was 100 bottles of wine and 116 bottles of bourbon. For 200 people.

Adrienne: Oh my gosh. That is -- yeah, so I think just make it simple.

Jeff: Totally agree.

Adrienne: It's easier to talk about what you're doing and ask people to do stuff when you don't have to list off 15 options of how they can support you, too. Just keep it simple and to the point.

Jeff: Good stuff. So to wrap everything up, what would you say -- if you had one piece of advice, what is the number one thing you'd give your clients?

Elise: Advice.

Jeff: I think it would be hiring an event planner, don't you think? Come on, she runs an event planning company. That's what I thought, but that's why I want her opinion.

Adrienne: Yeah, I mean, that would be my selfish advice -- hire us to help with your event. But I think the biggest thing is keep it simple and keep it strategic. What are we doing? What's the purpose? And focus on that instead of having a thousand different ideas and trying to put them all together.

Jeff: Ladies and gentlemen, Adrienne Coffey, the voice of reason.

Jeff: But let me answer Elise's question and give you some kudos, because we hired you, obviously we think you're great, but we hired you as an event planner for very specific reasons. And it was, as this event has evolved over time, there have been a lot of things where it just took our organization a while, especially certain board members and committee members, understanding that it's okay to spend a little bit of money in these areas and give up control in these areas that are inconsequential so that we can focus on other areas of the event.

Jeff: Because the challenge has always been for us that when you're running your own event -- and look, we know how to run an event -- but what am I not doing? I'm not talking to my donors. I'm not acting as a board member. I'm acting as an event operator. And it came to a head at Country for a Cure just because there were so many moving parts and so many issues. And look, we love this venue, but it is big. And so it's hard to be everywhere at once.

Jeff: And so I think that's where the board finally realized, we're at a point now in our organization and in the evolution of this event where it's okay to spend a little bit of money to let somebody else operate -- not just help plan, but show up and operate the event so that we can go do these other things.

Jeff: And I think when it comes to an event planner, some people often get stuck on, well, my event is already planned. I already know what I'm doing. So for our reasons, I think you can drill down and say, where do I need the help? And there are different levels of support from an event planner. And for us, you guys came in and we said, this is our event. We know it. Here's where we need you. We really need logistically day-of event operational things -- dealing with the vendors, organizing volunteers. That stuff is inconsequential, but necessary.

Adrienne: Yes.

Jeff: Because look, and Adrienne, you've experienced this a lot, I'm sure. Volunteers are incredibly unreliable in certain circumstances. And so when they don't show up -- when we would have volunteers in the past and they didn't show up, who's it fall back on? It falls back on us. So now, unfortunately, it's going to fall back on you. But we're prepared for it. You're prepared for it. You're used to that. Because we've been in your role.

Jeff: So that's the other thing that people listening to this podcast need to consider. Elise is right -- event planning is not just the planning part. It's the planning and executing. Both of those are important. And you need to think about, okay, you will have your say as a client and how you want the event to be organized. There's not an event planner, except for Frank from The Wedding Planner or whatever it was, who makes all the decisions. You're going to have your say in that, and you should leverage the experience of your event planner in giving you advice on how to best do those things.

Jeff: But what you're really going to benefit from is the day of the event when you're talking to your biggest donor or maybe the new three or four guests they brought, about your charity and what it's about, and not helping them figure out how to get someone checked into the mobile bidding software. Or restocking a green room. Or putting toilet paper in the bathroom. Or plunging the toilets. Or picking up all the coasters on the ground that people didn't take home with them.

Elise: It's right. What are you saying, Adrienne? Our idea was terrible?

Adrienne: Oh, no, no. We already have it in our plans. We're ready for it.

Adrienne: I think that's the biggest point for us, too. We just take that time off of your hands so that you can then go talk to your donors. And even on the planning side, too -- you can now spend more time working with sponsors, getting their names for check-in. You should see our guest list. Instead of replying to vendors or sending timelines or layouts or stuff like that. And that's the biggest thing. These were the key pieces. These were our reasons behind bringing you in.

Jeff: Yeah. And the other part of it is small organizations don't necessarily have an in-house development director or planner or something like that. Volunteer-based.

Adrienne: Yeah, to plan this event. And your staff now is neglecting their other duties. And that's another point for having someone do the logistics where you guys can just focus on bringing money in. And that's really what we do. There's different levels. We pick all your vendors, we come up with your theme, your messaging, your marketing, your strategy, everything. But there's other organizations who've been doing it for a while or know what they want and they just want the support on the back end. And so there's different levels to that too.

Adrienne: But the goal is not that I'm bringing you money. It's that I'm freeing up your time so you can bring in more money.

Jeff: Yep. And I think a lot of people miss that designation. You're not hiring me to solicit sponsors for you. You're hiring me to give you time to do that.

Adrienne: I think that's insightful for sure, an important point to make.

Jeff: Yeah. This has been a great conversation. Thank you, Adrienne. Thank you to all of our listeners that stuck with us through this one. This has been a long one. But I think a good conversation in general. So definitely appreciate you being on with us. And for all of you out there that are thinking about hiring an event planner, Adrienne, how can they get in touch with you?

Adrienne: You can go to our website, adrienneco.com. And I'm sure we'll link it in the show notes too.

Jeff: Yes. We will make sure we do that. So until next time, happy fundraising, guys.

Jeff: A special thank you to Adrienne Coffey with A Touch of Bliss Events. We hope you enjoyed learning about event planners and how they can take your event to the next level. If you enjoyed our show, please take a moment to leave us a review. You can find us on Apple, Google, and Spotify. Don't forget to subscribe for more great content. And if you're a fan of video, check us out on YouTube. Until next time, happy fundraising.