EP 65: Derby Days Countdown: Final Week Prep for the PWSA Colorado Fundraiser

Positioning review: No prescriptive adjustments needed. Conversation is entirely experiential and observational, reflecting the team's firsthand planning experience with their own annual fundraiser. Handbid is mentioned naturally in context as the team's own platform.

Jeff: Welcome to Elevate Your Event, your favorite podcast for transforming fundraising events. In this episode, we are joined for the third in our series on the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association of Colorado Derby Days, which is our in-house fundraiser at Handbid, with our CEO and founder Jeff Porter and Kari Porter as well as Elise Druckenmiller.

Lori: All right, everybody, welcome back to the Elevate Your Event Podcast. We are joined today with our superstar crew. So myself, Lori, Jeff Porter, CEO and founder extraordinaire, Elise Druckenmiller, director of sales, and Kari Porter.

Kari: I mainly do operations and finance stuff.

Lori: She's our EOS integrator. She runs the company and the derby. So give all your listeners an update on your Prader-Willi Syndrome Association of Colorado Kentucky Derby fundraiser with a country music concert. Derby Days.

Jeff: We're kind of at that Extreme Makeover point -- scrambling around with the last few weeks creeping up on us.

Lori: First year you hired an event planner. Tell me how that's going.

Kari: Great. We will not be running around with cell phones and text messaging each other, basically operating our own fundraiser. We're going to actually try to enjoy it.

Jeff: Our main reasoning is we need people running the day-of event that know what's going on. When you just hire someone or get volunteers, they don't know the vendors, the event flow, or the planning. It falls back on you. This is our 17th year -- a lot of it we just know.

Jeff: We ran an early bird special, sold more tickets than expected. But we know people who are coming that haven't bought tickets yet. Our fire pit tables are selling well. We raised prices on all tickets but are giving everybody Prader-Willi money to bet in the race or play a game.

Kari: We've really increased our signage this year based on feedback that people didn't know where things were.

Jeff: We've got QR codes everywhere, scan-here signs, drink coasters with the donate QR code instead of paddle numbers. We will update the app with a run of show so people know what to do.

Lori: Some software like Handbid sends pre-event text messages.

Jeff: We've yet to upload silent auction items.

Kari: We're picking up items tonight. Hopefully uploading everything tonight and going live Thursday morning, maybe Wednesday.

Jeff: Those last-minute detail things -- you're laying in bed and remember, I need to print this, bring a poster board, get a tablecloth. We'll spend all day Friday setting up at the venue.

Jeff: We have the most amazing printer, great venue and staff, great volunteers, two designers coming from Florida. The branding and theming is a step above years past. We're doing something new -- the survey will be at the event with a giant pull-up banner QR code when you walk out.

Jeff: The run of show is separate from the timeline. It's the MC script -- who goes on stage and what they say. That starts at 2:30 and goes through 8 o'clock.

Lori: Tips: open the auction early, sell tickets in your software, separate run of show from timeline.

Jeff: We have two auctioneers for the live auction. Three to five items max for our venue. We're not doing a paddle raise -- it's an outdoor concert venue, too big and too loud. We're using a 20-foot LED screen with a massive QR code instead.

Jeff: We like a dribble-in check-in. Doors open at 2:30. Silent auction is in a central spot this year. We bought a green screen for the photo booth with selectable backdrops.

Lori: At some point you have to cut off the ideas.

Jeff: We divide and conquer well. If you're a control freak on a committee, you need to let some things go.

Kari: Don't stress too much. What's done is done. What's not? No one will know what was supposed to be.

Elise: Don't worry about the things you can't control.

Jeff: For an outdoor event, the weather. Pivot. Be flexible. In Colorado, the beginning of May is extremely unpredictable.

Jeff: Everybody's coming because they love you. They love your organization. They want to give. They love you for what you do, not for your event planning skills.

Lori: It's not if something happens at your event, it's when. We've run out of mint for the mint juleps. We've had the internet go down. You just have to work through it.

Jeff: Thank you for joining us as we chatted about our Derby Days fundraiser at Handbid. If you enjoyed our show, please leave us a review. You can find us on Apple, Google, and Spotify. Don't forget to subscribe. Until next time, happy fundraising.