Select an Emcee
During the silent auction and other activities your emcee is your voice to the guests. He or she will announce general information about the event, point out interesting items and activities, and announce sale closings. During your live auction, they introduce the different items to be sold before the auctioneer begins the sale. For this reason, you should discuss emcee options with your auctioneer.
 
The mood, rhythm, and even success of your live auction, can be strongly affected by the abilities of the emcee and auctioneer to smoothly coordinate their jobs at the podium. Some auctioneers may prefer to act as their own emcee once the live auction begins. If this is the case, and you are running a small auction, you may be able to do without an emcee at all. Just have someone cover the other tasks informally as necessary.
 
If you do want an emcee, who you use will depend on your group, and your relationship to your guests. If you are running an event where the guests are primarily from your own group, you might want to choose one of your own people. For example, a school might look to well known parents or teachers for an emcee. Having someone on the mic that knows the crowd personally can be a real advantage, since they will have an immediate rapport with the crowd.
 
As an alternative, some groups opt to arrange for a local celebrity to emcee their event. While this type of emcee might not have an immediate, personal rapport with your guests, they will, at least, be well known to your guests. One advantage here is that the celebrity’s presence might draw more people to the event.
 
Whomever you choose to be your emcee, try to book them early. Popular people, whether within your own community or of celebrity, are often in demand, so have busy schedules. Putting this off might cause you to miss out.

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