Expected this one to be yet another bloated event but in fact it turned up some useful stuff.
Perhaps for me (surprisingly) the material in the morning about Tendering and Procurement was best. Dawn from Review My Tender helped us get into the mindset of procurement officers and whittled down to the most salient stuff-get the marketing right in the year up to the time you're going to be putting in a tender. Make sure you've built up a relationship with the lead commissioning officer responsible for your activity (you have double checked your'e speaking to the right person?).
Don't hassle them about you getting 'that' tender. But do invite them to say a celebration event or social event your charity is putting on-as a guest not a speaker. By doing this sort of thing you can show them that you are an 'industry expert' in your field.
A good analogy for this approach is the budding author trying to get their book published. You want to get out of the slush pile,right? So in the year before you are likely to be going for a tender do everything to promote yourself-send succinct and evidence based (not reams of info) leaflets-say twice a year-don't bombard them.
You want to do everything you can to make it so that when theyre wading through al the tenders, they recognise your logo,know you stand for a quality tender from a leading light in your niche industry and at they should then at least look with a good expectation (in their heart?) at your tender.
The most important thing then is to get your schmoozing right. And Dawn said you'd be doing well if you could get 2 sessions a year lasting 15 minutes with your lead procurement officer. Use that 15 mins to make your pitch.
Dawn's website is ReviewMy Tender
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