PROCUREMENT TOOLKIT

OVERVIEW

Traditional and common procurement practices typically don’t work when it comes to live events, exhibitions and pavilions. Principally because of the unique environment they exist within: constant change with a fixed deadline and you often need what you’re procuring in order to work out how to procure what you need in the first place.

This procurement toolkit though gives you everything you need to procure goods, services, talent, turnkey solutions or a promoter and is based on proven approaches that have been used for contracts and events from a few thousand pounds or dollars to tens of millions.

This guidance can be used as a template for a formal procurement process or as a foundation and background to support an informal or even verbal arrangement.

The 6 approaches below are the only ones you will need as a basis to find or procure anything you will ever need for a live event – of any size, type or complexity.

This toolkit is provided as a quick reference guide and summary; and assumes you have also read The Facts Of Live book to understand fully how these tools are best used and why.

INFORMATION

Use this approach if you know exactly what you want and can specify your requirements accurately. ‘Accurately’ means makes and model numbers of equipment or detailed construction drawings for example. If your specification is open to any interpretation, it is a brief (or scope), not a specification and you’ll need to use the approach to procure goods without a specification.

1. SPECIFICATION

Specify the goods you need, when and where you need them, for what duration, and any other relevant requirements. Add any goods-specific guidance or clarifications necessary.

Add any specific guidance or clarifications necessary: e.g. certifications for electical equipment or any contractual requirements for a venue hire etc..

2. GOVERNANCE

Add any governance requirements if you need or want to, for example, health and safety checks, environmental checks, financial standing, sustainability management, quality assurance checks etc, or any other criteria important to you and/or appropriate to the size and type of the live event.

3. DISTRIBUTE

Distribute your specification of requirements in whatever way works for you or your organisation to a relevant supplier, or suppliers if you want to compare prices for an identical specification.

4. REVIEW

Assess the responses you receive on the quality and value of the goods you’re looking for. Look closely at any caveats, notes or exclusions. Conduct interviews or clarifications if they’re necessary.

5. REFERENCES

Check references relevant to the goods you’re looking for if you’re not familiar with the suppliers who are responding. Perform any governance checks you deem necessary.

6. APPOINTMENT

Agree the price or unit prices and confirm your requirements.

7. MANAGEMENT

Don’t assume that once you’ve confirmed your requirements or ordered your goods, they will just turn up. Keep in close contact with your suppliers to check they have what they need and are fully informed of what you expect from them. Ideally, they will become deeply involved with the planning process if you set up a two-way liaison throughout the project.

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INFORMATION

Use this approach if you, or your team, know you need certain goods, infrastructure, manufacturing, contractors or suppliers, but you either don’t know how to specify them, or don’t yet know exactly what you need, you will likely want the help and support of those who can supply the goods in order to develop a plan or specification.

1. BRIEF

Write a brief, detailing what types of goods you’re looking for and the likely location, date, type and scale of the event. If you don’t know the details yet, estimate as much as possible and indicate that the details may change. It’s much easier for a supplier if they have at least some idea of the scope and scale of the event.

Avoid using any acronyms and use plain English rather than any phrases or industry jargon.

2. GOVERNANCE

Add any governance requirements if you need or want to, for example, health and safety checks, environmental checks, financial standing, sustainability management, quality assurance checks etc, or any other criteria important to you and/or appropriate to the size and type of the live event.

3. DISTRIBUTE

Distribute your brief in whatever way works for you or your organisation to suppliers you believe can support you.

4. REVIEW

Assess the responses you receive on the quality and value of the goods you’re looking for. Look closely at any caveats, notes or exclusions. Conduct interviews or clarifications if they’re necessary. You’ll be working closely with this supplier – as if they are one of your own team, so chemistry is important, too.

If the responses come back using terminology you don’t understand or that’s different on each response, simply ask each supplier to use the same terminology. Be explicit: say you’re comparing responses and that’s why you need comparable information.

5. REFERENCES

Check references relevant to the goods you’re looking for if you’re not familiar with the suppliers who are responding. Perform any governance checks you deem necessary.

6. CONTENT AND CONTEXTUAL EXPERIENCE

If you are looking for help from a supplier to guide the content or purpose of your event, then they will need relevant content experience. If you are looking for help delivering or facilitating your event, the supplier will need relevant contextual experience of events with similar scale, complexity, budgets, types of location and, if applicable, marketing and commercial activity.

7. APPOINTMENT

Appoint a supplier on the indicative value of their goods and/or how they feel to work with. Agree on unit costs of goods if possible, or a framework and/or milestones and payment terms.

You can set hard budget limits at this stage too if you’re working to a fixed budget or want to limit expenditure, but make this clear before appointing anyone and make sure you or someone with the relevant content and contextual experience assess any notes, caveats or exclusions a supplier may have included.

8. MANAGEMENT

Work with your supplier to develop a specification against the brief. Make sure you support them and confirm requirements once you’ve received their quotes, based on the terms, prices or framework you’ve agreed with them. This exercise gets you the expertise you need while making sure you’re not getting ripped off as plans evolve and the event date approaches.

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INFORMATION

Use this approach to find or procure professional talent or services: designers, artists, producers, event management experts, sponsorship experts, consultants, marketing experts, commercial support, accountants, lawyers, travel agents, administrators, choreographers, IT support, stage managers, dancers, singers, scriptwriters, interpreters… anyone with specific talent or expertise. You can also use this approach to find software/systems that automate what people do: registration or data management, for example. Any services needed to support or deliver a live event.

 

1. BRIEF

Write a brief, detailing what you do and, importantly, don’t want, how long you think you may need the service for, and any other information you can think of that paints as full a picture as possible regarding what you’re looking for.

Use plain English and outline the challenge, opportunity or role as you see it. Importantly, also explain who the service provider will both be reporting to and managing (if relevant). Avoid job titles at all costs at this initial stage, they are too open to interpretation.

Ask for their fee or rates for their services – whether for that be a fee, salary or rate.

If you are looking for professional volunteers you can still follow the same procedure, though without the fees/rates element.

2. GOVERNANCE

Add any governance requirements and procedures to your brief that you deem necessary. These could be checks or questions about financial standing; their tax, visa or employment status; health and safety track record (if relevant); employee conditions (if you’re hiring a company); sustainability management; quality assurance; your organisation’s HR policies; or any other criteria important to you and/or appropriate to the size and type of the opportunity. Be realistic, though: too much governance or paperwork could put off your best candidate or company.

3. DISTRIBUTE

Distribute your brief or job description in whatever way works for you or your organisation, be that via headhunters (some headhunters service temporary positions), through your own network, across social media, traditional media, or anywhere appropriate for the type of role or service you’re looking for.

4. REVIEW

Assess the responses you receive on the quality and value of the providers’ services and any other criteria important to you: their ideas/creativity, experience or solutions, for example. Conduct any necessary interviews or clarifications. Look closely at any caveats, notes or exclusions if relevant or applicable.

5. REFERENCES

Check the service provider’s or person’s references if you’re not familiar with them.

6. CONTENT OR CONTEXTUAL EXPERIENCE

If you’re looking for someone for one of the key roles to head up a live event, then you need to make sure that they have relevant content or contextual experience. The person taking the overall lead, the person responsible for the physical delivery and the person responsible for the operations and logistics all need relevant contextual experience. The person leading on the events content or creative direction need relevant content experience.

For any other role, assess dispassionately whether they need relevant content or contextual experience and check they have it.

7. UP & DOWN TEST

Conduct the ‘up and down’ test when checking content or context experience. What did they actually do? Did they do this or did they oversee people who did it for them Did they do this or did they support (report in to) someone who took responsibility for it? How many people were involved in doing this, and could they do the same again with more or fewer people? Who did they report to and who reported to them?

The answers to these questions, and assuming you check them, will be the most useful part of this entire process.

8. APPOINTMENT

Agree on terms or rates for your providers’ services. Keep any arrangements flexible, unless you are certain about the quality of the providers’ services and certain your plans won’t change.

Things can and usually do change with live events, so when you’re buying or hiring services, flexibility is key.

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INFORMATION

Use the flexible turnkey solution when you want to outsource all or part of a live event in its entirety (goods and services) and it’s likely your event will evolve between brief and delivery. In other words, this is the solution you will need most of the time as. Unless it is a formulaic live event (a straightforward conference for example), it is extremely unlikely it won’t change between brief and delivery.

1. BRIEF

Write a brief, detailing what you do and don’t want. Provide as much information as you can, using plain English and avoiding industry-specific jargon or acronyms wherever possible. Include location or location ideas, dates or date options, timings or possible timings, and details of the audience and participants. Terms like ‘creative’, ‘innovative’, ‘high quality’, ‘wow’ and ‘best in the world’ alone are extremely subjective and won’t help an organisation develop ideas and designs for you. Provide details or examples of what you consider creative, innovative, high quality and best in the world to mean. The more information you can provide, the better.

Ask for an organisation’s fees or rates for its services and ask how they will guarantee to procure the best value goods.

Provide a guideline budget for everything (goods and services), even if you provide a number below what you actually have to spend, otherwise, you will be wasting your own and other people’s time and money.

2. GOVERNANCE

Add any governance criteria and procedures to your brief that you deem necessary. These could be checks or questions about financial standing, health and safety, employee conditions, sustainability management, quality assurance, or any other criteria important to you and/or appropriate to the size and type of the opportunity.

3. DISTRIBUTE

Distribute your brief in whatever way works for you or your organisation. You may circulate it online to organisations you’ve selected or have had recommended. You may run a formal public tendering process. You may ask friends and/or colleagues to distribute it. It may even all be done verbally, if that works for you, for a smaller event or requirement.

4. REVIEW

Assess the responses you receive on the quality and value of services and any other criteria important to you, for example ideas/creativity, experience, credibility, solutions etc. Look closely at any caveats, notes or exclusions.

5. REFERENCES

Check references the organisations responding provide if you’re not familiar with them.

6. UP & DOWN TESTS

Conduct the up and down check. Did the applicants actually do what they say they have done previously, or just a part of it? Did they either report up to people who did what you need, or have people beneath them who did what you need doing?

7. TEAM STRUCTURE

Check to make sure the team each organisation has in place covers each of the key roles. Can you and/or they identify:

Which one person will be responsible for leading the event (contextual experience is key)?

Which one person will be responsible for its content (content experience is key)?

Which one person will be responsible for its technical delivery (contextual experience is key)?

Which one person will be responsible for the logistics and operations (contextual experience is key)?

8. APPOINTMENT

Agree terms, fees or rates for the turnkey solution’s services. Agree cash flow payment terms. Then, separately, agree how goods will be secured at the best value and on what terms, and that they shouldn’t be contracted without your approval if you want to maintain control. You may want to set this up for contracts over a certain value, to save you from getting swamped in every small expense.

If you prefer, you can contract all third parties directly, with the agency or organisation overseeing this process, procuring and managing the contracts on your behalf.

9. BUDGET

Agree on an overall project/target budget (which should be less than you actually have, so you have a contingency). You can even incentivise (reward) those you appoint for trying to save money or reduce the budget. This gives you a flexible arrangement while ensuring you’re getting the best value and capping any budgets. Most importantly, though, it means you will have a team working with you, transparently and openly rather than against you trying to marry fixed budgets to a flexible specification.

10. MANAGEMENT

Only make variations to the services you and your turnkey solution provider have agreed if the original scope changes, and only release money (or agree for it to be spent) for goods once the provider has followed the agreed process for providing them. The result of this process is that you will have a group of people you can work and develop ideas and plans with. You’ll know you’re not going to get ripped off by them for any of the goods as everyone will be working towards a target budget.

A live event demands a strong and collaborative relationship between parties on both sides of a contract, it is impossible to delegate everything completely as it is you or your organisation on show. Work towards an open and supportive approach to the ongoing management of the contract.

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INFORMATION

Use this approach to find or procure a fixed turnkey solution, which is best used when you know your event’s requirements will not change, either by decisions you make or external forces or circumstances, between the brief and delivery – which is extremely rare.

This fixed approach is best used if you’re looking for a turnkey solution for a live event that is formulaic or that’s happened many times before in exactly the same format.

1. BRIEF

Detail what you do and don’t want. When turnkey solution providers apply to work with you, ask for the price of both their services and any goods you require. Provide as much information as you can, use plain English, and avoid industry-specific jargon or acronyms wherever possible. The more information you can provide, the better.

Provide a guideline budget, even if you provide a number below what you actually have. If you don’t, you will be wasting your own and other peoples’ time and money.

2. GOVERNANCE

Add any governance criteria and procedures to your brief that you deem necessary. These could be checks or questions about financial standing, health and safety, employee conditions, sustainability management, quality assurance, or any other criteria important to you and/or appropriate to the size and type of the opportunity.

3. DISTRIBUTE

Distribute your brief in whatever way works for you or your organisation. You may circulate it online, run a formal public tendering process, or ask friends and/or colleagues to distribute it.

4. REVIEW

Assess the responses you receive on the quality and value of services and any other criteria important to you, for example ideas/creativity, experience, credibility, solutions etc. Look closely at any caveats, notes or exclusions. Conduct any interviews or ask for any clarifications necessary.

5. REFERENCES

Check the references the organisations responding provide if you’re not familiar with them.

6. UP & DOWN TESTS

Conduct the up and down check, that is: did the applicants actually do what they say they have done previously, or just a part of it? Or did they either report up to people who did what you need doing, or did they have people beneath them who did what you need doing?

7. TEAM STRUCTURE

Check to make sure the team each organisation has in place covers each of the key roles. Can you and/or they identify:

Which one person will be responsible for leading the event (contextual experience is key)?

Which one person will be responsible for its content (content experience is key)?

Which one person will be responsible for its technical delivery (contextual experience is key)?

Which one person will be responsible for the logistics and operations (contextual experience is key)?

8. APPOINTMENT

Agree terms, fees, rates or prices for everything. Agree on the process for any scope or budget variations both during pre-production, when there will be plenty of time available, and nearer and during the event, when changes may need to be made and agreed almost instantaneously. If there are likely to be more than a handful or very small changes, you will be better using the flexible turnkey solution than this fixed one.

Agree cash flow and/or payment terms.

9. MANAGEMENT

Make sure any variations to the contract, if they happen, are agreed by you before they are implemented. If it’s likely there will be many variations, it will be easier and cheaper to use the flexible turnkey solution.

A live event demands a strong and collaborative relationship between parties on both sides of a contract, it is impossible to delegate everything completely as it is you or your organisation on show. Work towards an open and supportive approach to the ongoing management of the contract.

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INFORMATION

Use this approach if you have rights – commercial rights, marketing rights or any other rights – that a third party could exploit (sell for money). You can award those rights to a ‘promoter’, who will take on the responsibility and risk of delivering your event, in line with any agreed terms or guidelines, in return for the opportunity to make a profit.

They may do this at no cost to you, a reduced cost to you, on a profit/revenue-share basis, or in any combination of the three – subject to the type of event and value of the rights you’re offering.

You need to be realistic about the value of the rights you have to offer – they will only be worth what someone is willing to pay, or take on, for them – regardless of your own opinion.

1. BRIEF

Write a brief, detailing the marketing rights, commercial rights or any other rights you have to offer and what you’d like in return. A brief could be a simple outline of the event, including guidance on what the event will be and how it should be staged, along with example sponsorship packages and ticketing prices for a seminar or small conference. At the other end of the spectrum, for a major sporting event, for example, where you want different cities competing for the rights to host (promote and deliver) your event, the brief would encompass detailed creative and technical requirements along with commercial expectations and opportunities.

This will be part brief and part sales pitch, as you will need to outline the commercial potential of the event with as much evidence as possible.

2. GOVERNANCE

Add any governance criteria and procedures to your brief that you deem necessary. These could be checks or questions about reporting, financial standing, health and safety, employee conditions, sustainability management, quality assurance, or any other criteria important to you and/or appropriate to the size and type of the opportunity.

3. DISTRIBUTE

Distribute your brief in whatever way works for you or your organisation. You may circulate it online to organisations you’ve selected or have had recommended. You may run a formal public tendering process. You may ask friends and/or colleagues to distribute it. It may even all be done verbally, if that works for you, for a smaller event or requirement.

4. REVIEW

Assess the responses you receive on the quality and value of services and any other criteria important to you. Look closely at any caveats, notes or exclusions. Conduct any interviews or clarifications necessary.

5. REFERENCES

Use this approach if you know exactly what you want and can specify your requirements accurately. ‘Accurately’ means makes and model numbers of equipment or detailed construction drawings for example. If your specification is open to any interpretation, it is a brief, not a specification and you’ll need to use the approach to procure goods without a specification.

6. CAN THEY SELL?

If you are relying on the successful promoter to find sponsorship, funding, participants, customers or investment in return for your rights, they need to have proven selling and marketing ability. This needs considerable attention. Ask if each organisation can sell. Is selling what its team does normally? If the promoter intends to partner with another organisation that will do the selling, you need to know this. You need to know which organisation they intend to partner with and establish the credentials of that organisation separately.

6. CAN THEY DELIVER?

Once you know your promoter can sell, you then need to know if they can produce and deliver the event. Don’t confuse selling and producing. The two skills, or services, are worlds apart.

If a promoter intends to outsource the producing and delivery side of the live event, ensure you and they go through the guidance outlined to procure or appoint a turnkey solution.

7. APPOINTMENT

Agree terms. If your event is critical, ie, it has to happen, include break clauses that allow you to find another solution should the promoter fail to obtain sponsorship, marketing, funding, attendees or participants in good time.

8. MANAGEMENT

Review the promoter’s progress regularly wherever it’s appropriate or possible. If you have concerns, apply the governance, selling, and content and context checks again with more rigour and make any changes necessary.

A live event demands a strong and collaborative relationship between parties on both sides of a contract, it is impossible to delegate everything completely as it is you or your organisation on show. Work towards an open and supportive approach to the ongoing management of the contract.

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