Tip That Auction!

I enjoyed reading The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. The book was a smart, observant read. It made me want to go look up the other books by the author and read those as well.

The biggest key point that this book is trying to make is that every fad, trend, or popular item has a point at which the popularity “tips” from average to a success. It took specific instances and analyzed their tipping points to figure out what made them popular. It also looked at the three types of people involved with making things tip in our society. The three people are the Connectors, the Mavens, and the Salesmen.

The Connectors are “people with a special gift for bringing the world together”; they have to know a lot of people. Connectors have a “truly extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintances”. A Maven is “one who accumulates knowledge”; “a person who has information on a lot of different products or prices or places”. “This is the person who connects people to the marketplace and has the inside scoop on the marketplace”. A Salesman has the “skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing”. If I had to put myself in one of these categories of people, I would be a Salesman. I could possibly be a Connector, because every friend that I have belongs to their own group of friends that I’m connected to as well. My friends are scattered and very diverse. I think Salesman above a Connector because people have always believed everything I say. For some reason people trust me and the things I say. I have the ability to convince people to do things. In the book it describes Tom Gau as having “energy, enthusiasm, charm likeability, and more”. There is just something about me that has the same kind of affect on people.

Finding the tipping point to something is the key to making it a success. A lot of the instances in the book discussed the tipping point by looking back on what happened, but if one could discover this before then they would be very successful. We are in the midst of planning the Athletic Auction. Pinpointing things that we believe will make this auction “tip” will make our event a success. I think our theme for the night is an essential element to making this Auction tip. Our theme will get the attendees excited about the evening and will create the perfect atmosphere for them to feel appreciated and in return spend money on the Auction. We need to make sure that everything that we do (the invitations, program, decorations, etc) looks classy and set apart. They need to feel as if the money the spend will go to a good cause and that they are loved by Athletics. Even the small touches make a big difference in making something the evening spectacular. Without those touches it will just seem mediocre. Making sure it’s classy not cheesy should be our goal. Question: What can we do to make the auction tip? Answer: Details, details, details!!!!!