How Galabid Helped Heartkids Increase Silent

A little while ago we organised for a prospective client to email some questions to the lovely people at HeartKids NSW. HeartKids NSW are one of a growing list of charities who switched from other electronic systems to GalaBid in 2013 and saw a significant increase in silent auction revenue. They have kindly agreed to let us share their responses to the questions asked. Here's what they said:

How many silent auction items did you have?

147 items

How many bids were placed through GalaBid?

1216 bids

What features of GalaBid did you find particularly useful/beneficial to your event?

Ability for more users to bid at the same time instead of two hand units per 10-12 peopleHaving images of the silent auction items available. Pictures speak a thousand words and I feel this generated higher prices as bidders could really see what they were bidding on if the item was not on display.Opening the auction early so guests could then 'favourite' the items they were interested in bidding on. We a lot of bidding activity prior to the night.The outbid text helped the majority of our items sell for way more than the actual value. For example items like the $250 Myer gift cards sold for $450. I think it becomes a bit of a game for guests who want to be the winning bidder on the night more than about the item they are bidding on.The ability for guests to pay using PayPal in their seats and then going to the express queue to collect their items äóñ we also had staff in the queue assisting guests with this service as they lined up to pay by credit card.

Were there any issues with people accessing GalaBid?

No issues at all. We had back up plans for every scenario including an IPAD desk where people could place bids via volunteer throughout the night.

What WiFi connectivity did you have for the event?

Guests connected to the auction through their own mobile 3G and 4G networks and as a back up we had a WiFi connection provided by the venue and crowdcomms. crowdcomms completely handled this component, taking the stress off our team on the night.

Did you receive any feedback from attendees about GalaBid?

We had an online survey done and I spoke to several guests about the experience and all feedback was positive. They loved the system compared to systems used in previous years.

Please provide an overall summary of your experience:

I have all positive reports on this product and was very impressed with the ease of use and the professionalism of the staff at crowdcomms.

I would highly recommend this product and I found the price very competitive. I feel you get a lot more for your money using this product over other options.

Our items went for record amounts this year and we raised more than any other year.  I definitely put this down to the GalaBid system and the ability to have people bidding in high volumes in the last 10 minutes instead of only 1 or 2 people at the table being able to bid at any one time.