DBA plans procurement workshops

Next week the Design Business Association is intending to prepare designers for some of the procurement challenges they may face at its Procurement Business Briefing.


Taking place on 24 June at London’s Centre Point, WC1, the event is aimed at briefing designers about how to win work through a series of 50-minute workshops.


The idea behind the event, says DBA chief executive Deborah Dawton, is to explain how the tendering process works for public sector projects and to equip them with the business know-how to decide whether to tender for certain jobs.


It will aim to give designers advice about procuring work, with insights from experts including Tina Fegent from Tina Fegent Consulting, who set up and ran marketing teams for O2, Orange and France Telecom. Also participating is Julian Grice, managing director for branding consultancy The Team, which works with the National Health Service, the Department for Education & Skills and the Home Office.


Dawton says the event will takes into consideration designers with all levels of experience, from those working in small and newly started businesses who lack knowledge in negotiating contracts, to creatives working in businesses considering public-sector work to beat the credit crunch.


‘Understanding procurement practices is good grounding for running any business, ’ she adds.


‘Some public sector jobs gain 700 responses for a £20 000 job and the odds of securing the work are so slim that a design business would be better off investing the time of its employees in other ventures’.


The event will also aim to teach designers that they should understand the implication of their answers when it comes to preparing their responses to a tender.


For example, a company may be looking to employ a design group but need it to have an environmental policy to meet certain regulations, in which case a tender application might be refused on the basis of a consultancy answering ‘no’ to a question that asks ‘Have you got an environmental policy?’


The Business Briefing is open to all all design consultancies and runs from 3pm to 9 pm. Tickets are priced at £176.25 standard rate and £111.63 for DBA members.


For more information, see www.dba.org.uk.

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