Naught Cuisine – Table Auctions

For those of you not familiar with table auctions, it’s a very popular revenue enhancer at many events.  The way it works is, you place an inexpensive centerpiece  at each table then mark a chair or place setting to decide who the “auctioneer” is and then conduct a mini-auction at each table to bid on the centerpiece.  The table who has the highest bidder on the centerpiece wins a prize to share with his or her table-mates,  like a bottle of champagne or dessert, etc.  I have seen $15 orchids go for hundreds of dollars in the heat of the moment so it actually can be  fun and profitable. There are however a few things you need to keep in mind if you want to pull this off successfully.

1.  If it’s a school event, make sure that all the centerpieces were made by all the students.  You won’t get parents bidding on their centerpiece if their child worked on the one across the room and you sure don’t want them running around the room trying to find a specific one
2. Do not have expensive centerpieces, and then expect to recoup your money at the table auction, you need to start the table auctions at a very low price to get people bidding.
3. Make sure that you have placed some type of small card on each table pre-printed with a bidder number and amount space so your “auctioneer” can fill them out to be picked up so you will have a record of who bought it.  Make sure you have a PEN at each table next to the card! or the whole thing will go badly

And most importantly, DO NOT USE EDIBLE CENTERPIECES!!! at a recent event they did, and by the time we started the table auction half of the centerpieces were already eaten! Needless to say the Table Auction raised more eyebrows than dollars.