Episode 49: When the Room Works Against You: How to Overcome Challenging Gala Venues and Keep Donors Engaged
In this episode of Auction Is Action with U in It!, Bobby D. Ehlert goes live from the Tribeca Rooftop in New York City just before a fundraising gala and delivers a quick, practical walkthrough of something most event planners do not think about until it is too late: what happens when the room itself works against your fundraising.
Beautiful venues can create real obstacles. Pillars block sightlines. Towering centerpieces hide bid paddles. A sprawling dance floor creates distance between the auctioneer and the donors. None of these problems are fatal. But all of them require a plan.
Key Takeaways
Pillars Are a Real Fundraising Problem and There Is a Real Solution
Pillars in a venue can completely block the auctioneer’s view of donors holding their bid paddles. Guests behind a pillar could be raising their paddle and nobody on stage would ever know. The solution is a professional fundraising motivator, ringman, or bid spotter: someone moving through the room who can see every corner, spot every raised paddle, and relay it to the auctioneer in real time. Volunteer bid spotters can help here too, but they need to be trained and positioned intentionally before the auction begins.Tall Centerpieces Look Beautiful and Can Kill Your Auction
Oversized centerpieces are one of the most common well-intentioned event planning decisions that quietly undermine fundraising. When donors hold their bid paddles up, the centerpiece blocks the view. The auctioneer cannot see the bid. The gift does not get recorded. The moment is lost. If you work with an event planner who prioritizes aesthetics over fundraising sightlines, make sure you are having this conversation early. A professional fundraising auctioneer should be part of your event design conversation, not just your event night.Distance Between the Stage and the Donors Creates a Different Kind of Challenge
A large dance floor between the stage and the guest tables creates physical and emotional distance at exactly the wrong moment. Bobby’s solution at Tribeca Rooftop: come off the stage entirely and work directly in the crowd with a wireless microphone. Bring the auction energy into the room rather than projecting it from a distance. Intimacy drives generosity. Distance creates passivity.The Practical Solutions That Fix Most Venue Challenges
A professional fundraising motivator or ringman moving through the room. Large, clearly numbered bid paddles that guests can read from across the room. Enough space between tables for the auctioneer and bid spotters to move freely. A wireless microphone that allows the auctioneer to step off the stage and into the crowd. Centerpieces that are low enough to preserve sightlines across the room. None of these require a perfect venue. They just require thinking about fundraising when making event design decisions.Not Every Event Is Perfect. Every Event Can Be Better.
This is a short, honest episode from someone standing in a stunning venue on a beautiful New York evening, naming the things that could get in the way tonight. The Tribeca Rooftop is gorgeous. It also has pillars and giant centerpieces and a big dance floor. That is the reality of live event fundraising. You adapt. You plan for it. You bring the right people and the right tools into the room. And then you go raise money.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Bobby D.:
Good evening everyone. Bobby D here, your Auction Is Action with You in It podcast host. I am live on location here at the Tribeca Rooftop in New York City and it is an absolutely beautiful night for fundraising.
I want to talk about something we have to talk about: your room challenges. There are a few challenges in this room. I love Tribeca Rooftop. Beautiful, beautiful venue. Absolutely amazing. But they have got these wonderful things called pillars that can block the vision the auctioneer has with the bidders. Pillars are challenging. Someone could be behind a pillar holding up their paddle and we cannot even see them.
The solution is to have what we call a professional fundraising motivator, a ringman, or a bid spotter. Volunteer bid spotters help with this as well, but they are able to run around and see who is behind those pillars. Yes, there are challenges with every venue space and we have just got to learn to adapt and overcome. That is a big part of this work.
Now, another challenge: look at these amazing centerpieces. Beautiful. I love them. However, let us look at the height of these centerpieces and then look at our paddle numbers, which are full sheets of paper with big numbers on them. I love that we can see them across the room. But when people are holding them up behind a centerpiece, you are going to have some difficulty seeing those paddle numbers. Again, that is where your fundraising ambassador, your fundraising motivator, your bid spotter, your ringman, your hype person can come in and help with that.
In your venue, you just have to be aware of the elements that might not be working in your favor.
Here is another one: the podium where the MC and the auctioneer are going to be is up here on the stage. And then you have this giant expanse of a dance floor that is going to put all of the bidders, donors, and givers probably about 50 feet away from the stage. Personally, I do not love that distance. I love to be amongst the crowd. So tonight, what is going to happen is we are going to come off the stage, off the podium, and work right into the crowd. We are going to bring that auction energy and action into the room directly. We are able to use the full dance floor, which is good, but that distance between the stage and the donors is a challenge. We want people to feel intimate. We want people to feel together.
So: a few challenges with this room, a few solutions. Use a professional fundraising motivator. Have big, visible bid cards: everybody needs to have one and they need to be readable from across the room. Look at how big these bid cards are. That is great. And then think about your centerpieces. Look at this one: sightlines are perfect, everybody can see. But then you get these giant ones over here. They look great. However, they can get in the way of fundraising.
A lot of times organizations will think these are good ideas, or they will have event planners with wonderful intentions who pick them because they are going to look beautiful, but they do not quite think about the fundraising sightlines. This is one of the things we work with our clients on: thinking about all of these elements together. This particular client chose consciously to have the large centerpieces, and we can guide, we can only lead and teach to fish, we cannot catch the fish for you. They did take some of our other recommendations: the big paddles, enough space between the tables for us to move, and a wireless microphone, which is a big part of making this work.
Just a quick episode here talking about the challenges of venues. Tribeca Rooftop, we love you. Love events here. Absolutely beautiful, absolutely stunning. And yes, not every event is perfect. But I want to thank you all again so much for watching, investing your time in this, and striving to make better events. By making better events, you make a bigger impact in the world. By making a bigger impact in the world, we are able to help change it that much faster.
Thank you for what you do and all the work you do for your mission. My name is Bobby D with the Auction Is Action with You in It podcast, sponsored by Call to Auction. We will see you on the next episode. Thanks everybody.
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At Call to Auction, we specialize in turning galas and fundraising events into mission-driven, revenue-generating experiences. From paddle raises to live auctions, our team knows how to excite donors, engage audiences, and inspire generosity in the moment.