The Secrets of Raising $12 Million in Five Hours

Auctioneer Butler calls everyone’s attention to Lot No. 28. It is a 2006 Bentley Continental Flying Spur, retail value $190,000. There is a long waiting list at the factory for the prized automobile, but the organizers’ connections and charitable cause have helped them jump to the front. "I don’t suppose there would be any interest at $100,000, would there?" Butler says, teasing the crowd. Instantly, he is assaulted by the frantic waving of hundreds of bidding paddles. Butler’s tongue-in-cheek humor and outrageously low opening price have achieved his goal of getting everyone involved in the action. Now he uses speed to cull out the pretenders. He barks out increments of $10,000, barely pausing for breath until he’s at $300,000. Most of the paddles fade away.

Welcome to one of the world’s most successful charity wine events, to which the 550 patrons long ago secured tickets for this year’s three-day festival (Jan. 26–28). Celebrity chefs, including Emeril Lagasse and Wolfgang Puck, will team with internationally renowned vintners to help celebrate the ultimate in food and drink on a carousel of luncheons, dinners and wine-tastings. It will all culminate on the third day, on the grounds of the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, Naples, when Butler and his partner for the afternoon, Ann Colgin, greet the guests at the seventh annual Wine Festival Auction. By the end of the day—in roughly five hours—they likely will exceed the record $12.2 million they helped raise in 2006. And when that happens, more than $50 million overall will have been brought in for the benefit of Collier County underprivileged and at-risk children, through the Naples Children and Education Foundation (NCEF). Everyone involved will have performed a modern-day miracle of biblical proportions. They will have turned wine into milk.

The 18 philanthropic individuals who joined together to create the festival virtually ensured its success by engaging Butler and Colgin to conduct the auction. The pair combine charm and quick wit with skills and knowledge acquired from years of experience at the pinnacle of the auction and wine industries. Butler, from the U.K., was with Christie’s and then Sotheby’s for more than 20 years, serving as a director at both firms. He continues to conduct auctions worldwide while managing his own jewelry firm in London. Colgin also owns her own business. She founded Colgin Cellars in St. Helena, Calif., in 1992, and in a relatively short time has created a demand for her five handcrafted, distinctive wines that is almost unprecedented in the industry. Because of both the quality of her product and her years of service in Naples and at other charity auctions, the festival has named her its 2007 Honored Vintner.

One of the many secrets behind the success of the wine fest auction is the order in which the 70 lots are arranged in the catalogue. "There is definitely an art to it," says Colgin. "You start with a really great item, which immediately sets the tone for the day and creates excitement. And then you establish an ebb and flow—building back up to another big lot in the middle and saving one last one for a great finish. You can’t put all your big lots at the end, because if somebody has been waiting for one of those and it goes by like a freight train, he or she won’t have much of a chance for anything else."

Butler and Colgin confer mainly by e-mail in the weeks leading up to the auction, deciding which lots each auctioneer will handle. They will take turns doing seven lots at a time. "You really can’t do more than that," says Butler, "because the energy level is so high, and you want to make sure you can keep your voice going. It helps to have water handy at the podium, and of course a supply of good wine."

Two days before the auction, they meet in Naples and review all elements of the physical setup in the tent. "The audio and visual people are absolutely key," says Colgin. "We have giant video screens set up that show the various lots, and the music has to be coordinated with that. Then, by turning the cameras on the bidders, people can look up at the screens and see who their competition is. And we also have to make sure that the lights are set up so that they’re not shining in our eyes; otherwise, we won’t be able to see the bidders."

With paddles popping up in all directions, the auctioneers sometimes need more than their own eyes to find out where the action is. That’s where trained spotters come in. "We use 10 or so and intersperse them around the tent, particularly in areas that might be unusually light or dark," says Colgin. "I give them a pompon or a flashlight, and I tell them to be aggressive in getting our attention. Sometimes they even have to call out to us. You have to be careful in this kind of environment not to give too fast a hammer to anyone."

Perhaps the trickiest part of the auctioneer’s job is knowing when to bring down the hammer. "The tell-tale signs are different with every bidder," says Colgin. "Frequently you’ll end up where a husband or wife wants to keep going and the other doesn’t, and one of them will grab the paddle. I give them extra time to make sure they both really want it. There is such a thing as buyer’s remorse, even at a charity auction, and I want to avoid that."