Telethon call patterns

Hi All

Our company is providing the telephony & call centre support for a Telethon to raise money for the Christchurch earthquake. The Telethon will run from 9am – 9pm on a Sunday and be broadcast on one of the free to air national TV stations.

As this is the first time we have done anything like this, can anyone provide any insights into the likely call patterns & distribution we could expect to receive? Also, would you have any insights on what average handle time we could expect?

Obviously we want to ensure that we utilise the volunteer support staff efficiently and provide good service to those wanting to donate, so we would want our forecasting to be as accurate as possible.

Any thoughts or historical insights would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Chris