A Virtual Success: Annual Spring Auction Watch Party - Spring 2020 eNews

This years’ Annual Spring Social & Auction will be remembered as one of the most unique in MPIOC Chapter history—our first Instagram Live Virtual Auction! And YOU made it Amazing! Since it’s one of our Chapter’s largest fundraising events of the  year, months of preparation go into making the Spring Social spectacular and unique, but not to fear—we will bring all of this to you in August!

MPIOC Special Events Director Alivia Kimotho and Director, Supplier Sponsorships Kelly Feeney — along with their Special Events Committee of Marilyn Atchue-Zuill, Cynthia Miller and Sara Parrel— had spent months working with Hotel Maya and Troy Karnoff of Long Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau and repeat sponsors AFR Furniture Rental and PSAV to create a magical “Arabian Nights” fantasy theme. But, fate had other ideas for us this year in the form of a global pandemic called COVID-19.

As municipalities began limiting public gatherings, MPIOC’s Office of the President (OPP) reached out to MPI Global, peers, and past chapter presidents for advice. Overwhelmingly they advised our OPP that we go ahead with our event, if at all possible, to provide a much-needed opportunity to gather. The Communications Team of Jolene Campbell, Deanne Figueras and Donna Mulgrew worked with Pawntra on emails and social media messaging directed to our event stakeholders to keep them up-to-date on our plans.

By the Sunday evening before our Wednesday event, however, the CDC recommended the cancellation of all gathering of more than 50 attendees. As a result, the Special Events Team worked all day Monday with the venue and all of our amazing supplier event partners to postpone “Arabian Nights” to August for our Summer Social.

Since the Annual Fundraising Auction had been underway for more than two weeks, we wanted to do all we could to finish strong and achieve our fundraising goal of $12,000. Jolene, Deanne and Donna collaborated with Pawntra and Alivia to plan and promote a live Facebook “Watch Party” from MPIOC’s association offices on Wednesday evening. By Monday afternoon we’d sent emails and revise our website and social media outlets with “We're Taking Spring Social Online” messaging.

But there were more surprises in store for all of us. Tuesday afternoon at 3:00 pm, Orange County Health Office ordered NO public gatherings. So how could we produce a fun event with all of our event hosts in different locations? We “pivoted” our planning again! Jolene researched alternatives and recommended that we move the Watch Party to Instagram Live and use the split screen to bring other hosts into the broadcast.

We used a Wednesday morning Instagram Live test run video to promote that evening’s Watch Party, along with another round of emails and social media updates. Our 2019 South Coast EdCon Emcee and Speaker Jay Jay agreed to support us in a live segment, and gave the Auction Watch Party a “shout out” on his social media channels.  The energy and exuberance of Jolene, Pawntra, Alivia and JayJay combined to make the time between 6 and 8 pm fly past — the livestream was enjoyed by all who watched and we blew past our $12,000 to raise $14,277 dollars and gain 19 new Instagram followers @MPIOC!

In time of great stress and uncertainty it might have been easy to simply throw in the towel and postpone or cancel the event. But, a dedicated group of event professionals “stepped up” — and stepped out of their comfort zone — to create a fun and successful event under trying and evolving circumstances.

Congratulations and thank you to the entire Special Events and Communications Team for a vivid demonstration of how true meeting professionals collaborate to overcome and rise above the challenging times — we are truly #StrongerTogether.