The Gala Glow-Up on the world stage. As a result, the gala has successfully broken its own fundraising records every single year since 2014, she says, while maintaining a high rate of retention among corporate sponsors and individual donors. Technology should be merged with the guest experience, rather than overtaking it. “For a few years, we used apps on phones to have guests fund a need, and we saw the numbers drop significantly,” says Flanagan. “When we turned off the phones and brought back some chaos into the room, the fundraising doubled.” By asking guests to raise a paddle to donate, “you create some healthy competition and a little guilt—two very powerful human emotions—and once a few people start raising their paddles, then others follow,” she says. Combine this with music, lighting and a great host, “and the paddles keep raising up and the energy is palpable,” says Flanagan. Look for one centralized platform that can do everything to avoid “digital fatigue,” says Bickers. For example, if attendees buy a ticket on the event’s website (and link it to their credit card), they don’t want to download separate apps to participate in a silent auction or 50-50 draw—so fundraising efforts could lose momentum. THE SPONSORSHIP EVOLUTION “We all know what’s happening with the economy, we all know what’s happening with sponsorships,” says Bickers. “In some scenarios, the cash is not flowing the way that it always did.” And while his company doesn’t sell sponsorships, “we are 100 per cent accountable for activating them.” Sponsors want their logo to be seen, but they also need to feel they’re making a worthwhile investment. Just telling a potential sponsor that 500 people are attending the gala isn’t enough anymore, says Bickers. They want to understand the demographics of those attendees and how much access they’ll have to them, whether it’s onsite, pre- event or post-event. Reveal Events Group’s 2025 Coquitlam Firefighters’ Charity Mayor’s Ball Sponsorships, too, have evolved into experiences of their own. But the key is alignment—making sure an activation feels organic to both the sponsor’s brand and the event’s cause, says Miller. “Rather than just displaying a retail sponsor’s logo, we designed a cohesive, branded ‘mystery gift card wall.’ Guests purchased a numbered card to win a gift card of a surprise amount, with all proceeds directly benefitting the charity,” she says. For the guest, it provided a fun, gamified, low-barrier way to participate. For the cause, it drove an entirely new, seamless revenue stream. And for the sponsor, it drove physical or digital traffic directly into their stores. When it comes to evaluating the success of an event, “at the end of the day, cash is king,” says Bickers. But it’s not the only metric: repeat attendance, social media traction and post-event sponsor engagement are also critical. When attendees talk about how a gala was the best one yet, “you know you got it right,” says Bickers. “Because they may not have spent more money at the auction or the 50-50 than they have in previous years, but they’re damn well going to talk about this to other people.” And that, in turn, can lead to increased ticket revenue next year. “In a sea of noise,” says Bickers, “you want to be the one event that they’re talking about.” 46 | Ignitemag.ca | Fall 2026
