Hybrid Auction Responsibilities

When having a hybrid live auction, there are a few important people needed to make sure your event runs smoothly. Here is a list of key people/responsibilities that are needed to run a smooth hybrid auction. Each number represents another volunteer/person.

1) Auctioneer

The auctioneer of your event will conduct all the live auction bids and encourage higher bidding. During a hybrid event, we recommend having the Confidence Display visible for the auctioneer to view. This confidence display will show:

current item
current winning bidder
current winning amount
next bid amount.

To access the confidence display: please go to Event Central > Live Broadcast > Launch Butler EventStream > Launch Confidence Display. This confidence display can be sent via email or text to give an easy link to pull up the Confidence Display on a laptop or tv screen.

2) Virtual Spotter

This person will be responsible for communicating at home bids to the auctioneer. This virtual spotter will be looking at the confidence display and looking at live bids coming in from at home bidders. This person will simply raise their hand or a paddle to communicate to the auctioneer that there was an at home bid. It is important that this person is in clear direction of the auctioneer for easy communication.

If your auctioneer is comfortable using the confidence display it is not required to have a Virtual Spotter, although it may still be helpful.

3) Person Managing Butler EventStream

This person will be responsible for starting and selling your live items one at a time using the Manage Butler EventStream page. This can be found under Event Central > Live Broadcast > Launch Butler EventStream. This person will click start to start the live bidding for a live item from the unsold list one at a time.

This person will also submit floor bids for any in person paddle raise bid. This floor bid is important for at home bidders to update the current bid.

The floor bid button: This person will also be able to adjust the current bid or bid increment on the fly in case the auctioneer goes above or below the set increment. To update the next bid, use the green +100, +250 +500 or +1000 buttons to increase, or to decrease use the blue -100, -150, -250, -500 and -1000 buttons. To update the current bid, press the floor bid submit button.

4) Fund a Need Bidder Number Enterer

This person will be responsible for entering in bidder numbers for all in person paddles raised during the Fund A Need portion of your event. This person will enter in all bidder numbers for each denomination the auctioneer works through.

** A donation item must be created for this to be available.

To enter in a bidder number, simply type in the number and press enter or space. If the bidder number has been added, the number will be displayed under the denomination in green. This can be completed through the Butler > Add Donations for Bidders.

5) Fund a Need Spotter

This person(s) will be physically writing down bidder numbers as the auctioneer calls them out during the Fund A Need portion of your live event. This part is important to ensure that all bidder numbers have been accounted for and entered into the software into their account. We recommend having 1 -2 people writing down bidder numbers so you can cross-reference each other's work and make sure all donations have been counted for.

NOTE: It is helpful to have a piece of paper with each denomination sectioned out so the volunteer can easily write down and determine which bidder number donated to what amount and be further organized during the live action.