1.  During your Gala event, guests receive an email invitation to participate in mobile bidding.  The invitation includes a link which brings them to your catalog of Mobile items (logged in and ready to bid.)  

2.  As guests bid on items, their bids are projected in a large display, visible to everyone at your gala (shown above).   The smartphone view has easy links to view the items bid on, outbid on and won, and the projected display allows everyone on the room to witness (and encourage) the bidding.

3.  At a pre-determined time, the mobile bidding closes and items are awarded to the high bidder.  If desired, multiple "rounds" of mobile bidding can be offered, much like silent table closings - with staggered closings of items and displays to be projected configured ahead of time.

4.  At the desired time, guests (gala, mobile, and online bidders) are emailed an (optional) invitation to check-out on their smartphone.  The invitation includes a link to their account where they can review their purchases and pay with a credit card (just a click of a button if they vaulted a credit card).  

Note:  The Mobile bidding feature is integrated within the software so all the work you have done to prepare for your gala event also supports Mobile bidding. The same donors/catalog items, tickets, credit card processing, Self Check-out, receipts and reports are used for both the Gala and Mobile portions of your event.

Additional steps to offer Mobile Bidding:

1.  Enable and configure the Mobile Bidding feature on your site:

• Mobile bidding is available with new Premium subscriptions or as an upgrade to your existing subscription.
• Specify when the mobile items will be available to view/preview in the web catalog.
• Select your desired features/settings such as whether to send outbid notifications to bidders etc.
• Tailor the message in the Invitation to participate in mobile bidding to suit your event perfectly.

2.  Decide which items to include in the Mobile Bidding portion of your gala event.  

• Note:  Mobile bidding works best when limited to 10-15 items.    Not all guests are equally capable, or comfortable, with using mobile technology - so having plenty of traditional bidding opportunities allows all of your guests to support your cause in a manner they will feel good about.  Also, smartphones have pretty small screens - so navigating dozens and dozens of items in order to place bids can be too high of a hurdle for many bidders.
• Add or Edit Items to add them to the Mobile Bidding venue and specify the desired opening and closing bidding times.

3.  Create a display to project for each "closing" group of mobile bidding items.

• Choose the desired setting for your projected display(s) (number of items to display at once, scroll frequency, data to display etc.)
• Add your logo and/or custom text to the display, if desired.
• Add items to the display(s) (usually grouped by closing times)

4.  Once your gala event is underway:

• Activate the first display screen on the projector.
• Trigger the sending of the Invitations  and  announce to your guests that an invitation to mobile bidding is now in their email inbox and instruct them to follow the link provided to start bidding.  You may also send invitations to online auction bidders and/or supporters not able to attend in person to allow simultaneous bidding.
• Promote and monitor the bidding - including placing proxy bids as requested, announcing impending closing times, upcoming rounds etc.

5.  Once mobile bidding has concluded:

• Bidding is closed precisely at the specified closing time.
• Items will be placed in the high bidder's shopping carts once closeout is enabled (can be set to close automatically, or manually, after reviewing final bids.)

6.  Send invitations to all guests with open orders to Self Check-out on smartphones (optional).    Note:  guests with open orders have the same options for checking out and paying for their purchases, regardless of whether the item was won during mobile or gala bidding.