New Releases

Handbid Release 2.47 - Digital Seen, New Livestream iPad Manager, & More

New features including custom branded event site, livestream iPad manager, and remote live bidders
New features including custom branded event site, livestream iPad manager, and remote live bidders

Happy Labor Day (almost)! We are in the heat of summer here in Colorado, and we have some HOT updates to share with you on the Handbid platform. Below you will find some great new feature upgrades followed by a list of additional improvements and fixes in this release. Please read carefully as we have some fundamental changes in how “live” auction items work on the platform!

Handbid's New Features Update

Introducing Digital Seen, the Power of Handbid... Your Way!

We know you love the Handbid interface but would prefer to have that same interface match your event theme or organization’s brand. Well, now that is possible with our new Digital Seen theme editor.  Working closely with our amazing web developers, we have exposed nearly every element of the web interface for you to customize.  We think you will be blown away by how much you can change yet still keep the usability of the platform that Handbid users demand.  See below for a simple example of what is possible with a Mardi Gras theme, but pictures can’t do it justice; so register for our upcoming webinar to see it in real-time or check out our new Digital Seen Handbook for more information.

 

Improved Hybrid Auction Management for Remote and Live Bidders

With Handbid’s premium (zero-latency) streaming solution, customers have been running hybrid auctions for over a year on our platform.  However, customer feedback along with our own experience running hybrid events has prompted us to make some really helpful improvements.  

Improved LiveStream iPad Manager

We added a new screen to our iPad manager that allows a bidding clerk to set up a bidding queue for the live auction. The tool allows managers to lock remote bidding, place floor bids, sell items, instantly change bid increments or asking prices, and organize and manage the queue of items up for bid.  

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We know our commercial clients will love it, but expect our charity customers will too. There is nothing on the market that gives an auction manager the power to run a hybrid live auction like this. To see this feature in action, please check out our live stream demo.

Important Changes to Live Auction Items

In Handbid, live auction items were not biddable by bidders using the Handbid apps or web interface.  Instead, bids on these items had to be placed by a manager using our iPad app or the Auction manager interface.  The intent was to facilitate the recording of bids for a live auction that took place in a physical place.  However, with the shift recently toward virtual events or hybrid, live auctions consisted of a remote audience. In the case of hybrid events, it includes an “in-person” and remote audience.  Originally, the Handbid solution was to make the live items “silent” in Handbid which allowed remote bidding.  This worked fine, yet it made it difficult to identify which items were for the live auction vs. silent.  In this release, we have modified how “Live” items work in the platform as follows:

  • Items marked as Live Auction will not be “biddable” by remote users until the item has been promoted on the live stream.
  • Live auction items now do not default to a bid increment of 1 and their asking price and bid increment can be instantly changed with a tap of a button.
  • Managers can now set a custom message for live items that instruct a bidder on when they will be available for bidding.
  • Handbid has a new item status called “lock remote bidding” which will disable remote bidding on any item in the auction (not just live items).
  • Live items are no longer automatically sold when the first bid is placed on them.  Instead, managers have the option of “Place bid” or “Place bid and Sell”
  • Managers can transfer the winner of any live auction item to a different bidder (making it easier to use dummy floor bidder accounts if preferred).

Additional Improvements

  • Managers can now hide certain ForSale or Ticket item purchases from a user’s dashboard. This will keep large sponsorships and donations off of a user’s dashboard. They will still appear on their invoice, but not on their user dashboard in the Events Site or Apps.
  • Item descriptions now allow for an expanded set of HTML including hyperlinks
  • We added a new browser source for live streaming that shows the entire event goal, not just the donation goal.
  • Managers can download a QR code that links to their event landing page (main page)
  • Managers can elect to copy their templates and their Digital Seen settings when cloning an auction.

What’s a Rich Text element?

The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.

Testing image caption text
  1. Numbered list
  2. Numbered list 2
  3. Numbered list 3

Static and dynamic content editing

A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!

How to customize formatting for each rich text

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.