Looks like there are good examples for doing a sit down or an appetizer type of event. One person mentioned that it really depends on what your community would want. Would you ever want to pose it as a question by email and see what kind of response you get?
Michelle, I like the gem bag idea. That sounds like a lot of fun.
Michelle L. How many people do you have at your auction? I like people being on their feet but just wondering about difficulty of getting people's attention to bid on the live items. Do you provide any kind of seating or tables for setting drinks, etc?
We have a Silent Auction with milling-around appetizers and a cash bar, to encourage people to stay on their feet and keep bidding! Toward the end of the evening, we have a live auction for a few items, and gather the crowd up to join in. Our fear has always been that at a seated dinner people would sit and chat, and let the silent auction go on without them. With everyone standing around, the energy seems more contagious...
Our school does a meal with silent auction then live auction with MC. After live auction we have a DJ. The past two years we have sold gem bags, that a local jewelry store donated, one bag has a large sapphire or equivalent gem(the winner) and all others have smaller precious stones, we sold 100 bags at $25 each. We also do a "Heads and Tails" that we sell beads for with a prize going to the winner. This will be our third year and are hoping for another HUGE success.
