Stevea Robbins here. Welcome to the Get It Done Guys quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

Today, we'll explore the 10 Rules of Running an Awards, acknowledgement, or fundraising dinner.

I love people. I love to thank people, especially people who do great things. In this episode,

I plan to thank the 50 most important people of my life. I'll pause after each person,

so you can applaud and really make them feel loved. Ick, ick, ick, ick, ik, I like being a social

do-gooder. I give money to nonprofits who do great stuff, like ship

fingernail cleaning utensils to people in third world countries. Hey, their pitch was persuasive.

The wet-clinging ensemble worn by the person with the clipboard had nothing to do with it. Then,

they invite me to their annual awards dinner. In one brief hour, my moist do-gooder is all but forgotten, and my mission becomes escape, as fast as I can without collateral damage.

Planning an awards dinner is tricky. A perfect awards dinner is the balance between making your honorees feel good without boring everyone else to tears.

I surveyed people sleeping through a recent nonprofit dinner and discovered that, honestly,

not even the people being honored wanted to sit through other people's names being read out.

Many would happily forego their own honor in exchange forgoing everyone else's.

This research inspired Stever's 10 Laws of awards dinners, which you can also download

from the website.

1.

People are hungry.

Let them eat first.

Otherwise, you are just the obstacle between them and dinner.

That's a dangerous place to be, especially if you were so unwise as to give them forks and knives.

Two. They ate before you started talking. They're digesting. Keep it short, or be very

entertaining. This is not about you. It's about your audience. You may not like it, but that's

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