anyone else registered on Supply2Gov and/or CompeteFor (2012)?

[mrsbaldwin]

I just signed up for a free workshop on tendering for 2012 contracts, via Business Link London - thought I would see what it was like.

Does anyone else keep their eye on the Supply2Gov and 2012 contract sites?

Hello - Yes, I do. I also went to a local Business Link/ Public Sector Tendering workshop, which was OK, but a bit basic (e.g. don't tender for contracts you're not qualified for/ make sure you answer all the questions/ get it in on time )
I think you can see the slides from the previous workshops, so may be checking before you do

I get alerts from Supply2Health which is similar. Sometimes useful, but more and more seem to be restricted to subscriber level only (although you can often search vis Google and find them!)

Hi Whippet. Oh. That does sound a bit basic. I'll check the slides as you say!

So following this earlier post I am off to a 2012 Business Link thing tonight.

A short write up of the 'how to bid for 2012 contracts Business Link' event I went to, if anyone is interested to read.

Three speakers, then 'facilitated networking', basically business speed dating.

First speaker all context 'wow, aren't the Olympics great' - so that was a bit dull.

Second speaker gave a Powerpoint presentation on how the contract opportunities on the CompeteFor database work - which I found very interesting. The great big work eg stadium building has unsurprisingly gone to very large firms. But as a condition of getting that work they are obliged to let some of the subcontracts via CompeteFor. The speaker had a diagram showing real examples of how the work trickled down through 6 or 7 'tiers' to , for example, small one-person businesses running catering firms.

He also said:
*205 countries are sending participants and many make arrangements to have a training camp in a particular location pre-event. The Australian swimming team are in Manchester, Serbia at Leeds Univ, South Africa at St Mary's College Twickenham and so on (so there are local business opps around the UK)
*an extra 325000 visitors a day are expected to come into the UK each day of the Games (for those who have B&Bs etc)
*for some types of work eg photographers there would be a roster that you could apply to be included on

Third speaker was a case study - a guy who ran a translating firm. He said that compared to the other torturous tendering processes he often had to go through to get public sector work CompeteFor was quite speedy.

Then we had the speed dating (plus glass of wine, much need by this time) which was run by a professional networking coach-type person. We all had a badge with a coloured dot on it to indicate the type of industry we were in and could look for other colours to introduce ourselves too. I found this quite good actually (I'd never done it before).

Incidentally amongst the various people I met there were two mums of young children, one who runs a coffee shop and one who runs a garment factory employing 25.

So, in summary:
*looks there are still plenty of Olympic-related opportunities out there (but you have to register on CompeteFor to get access to them)
*I thought this was a good event, from which I got some useful info, so Business Link proved useful