Athletic Auction 2009: Bringing out my inner saleswoman

This semester in my PR admin class, I got the chance to plan my first BIG event, the GCSU Athletic Auction.  In past years this event has raised upwards $30,000 + every year.  Last year they made $40,000 benefiting the Athletic department.  Those are some big figures to stand up to!  It was a little intimidating at first, but with good planning and a great team we pulled it off flawlessly!  From the beginning, I thought that planning such an important event was a little daunting, but it all turned out okay.  According to our teacher, Dr. Ginger Carter Miller, this year went by smoother than ever! 

I learned a lot through the planning of this event.  Our class did a really good job dividing up the tasks evenly and efficiently.  We were able to get everything done ahead of time without all of the last minute stress.  It was amazing how easy it felt the day before when all we had to do was decorate and organize the actual venue.  I also learned how smoothly everything can run when everyone does their part.  When everyone is working on a task, the difficult set-up seemed to go by faster and easier.  

As for the actual Athletic Auction, the gym filled up fast!  More tickets were sold this year than the ten previous years of the auction.  I think we did an awesome job getting the word out.  Like I mentioned in my Tipping Point post, inviting important people in the community really helped.  It brought more people in the community to the auction because of their networking and social status.  Many people also came to the event because they were already involved in the school such as faculty and staff.  They came to get great auction items and to support the university they are already a part of. 

Now during the Athletic Auction, Bailey Abercrombie and I were selected to sell raffle tickets for a weekend get-away.  With the amount of people at the auction willing to chance spending tons of money on auction items, I thought this task would be easy!  The crowd proved me wrong.  I'm usually pretty good at selling, but with a crowd like that it was difficult.  We were selling a weekend get-away to Lake Hartwell to a group of people that already live on a lake!  Most of the people at the auction live in the Milledgeville area which is near two lakes meaning there was little reason to buy a $5.00 raffle ticket for a chance to go to another lake.  In the end, we ended up selling all 53 chances! (One deck of cards plus a joker.)  It was difficult, but it was fun trying to convince people why they needed such an amazing getaway! 

I had fun planning and working at the Athletic Auction.  I had more fun than I thought it would be.  Honestly, I thought I would be stressed out instead, but the auction ran smoothly.  I had a great experience learning to plan such an important event.  I hope that in my career after college, I get the chance to plan more events.