TOMORROW (8 June), the Supplier Development Programme will hold a free online business event, Meet the Buyer 2021.
The 12th annual event will take place as a live, virtual event. Headline partners include the Scottish Government and Scotland Excel.
Ivan McKee MSP, Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism & Enterprise, will deliver an opening address to the online event.
The virtual platform will showcase three agendas, with virtual presentations and live Q&A sessions, themed on inclusive growth, sustainability and innovation, and community wealth building.
Businesses across Scotland will learn details of upcoming public sector contract opportunities with The City of Edinburgh Council, Fife Council, Dundee City Council, Perth & Kinross Council, Angus Council and the Glasgow City Region City Deal.
Representatives from 27 of the 32 Scottish local authorities will be on hand at virtual exhibition stands throughout the day for you to meet and talk through their plans and projects, as well as wider council capital investment programmes, outlining what contracts are coming up to award and when.
Gillian Cameron, SDP Programme manager, said: “Meet the Buyer 2021 is our largest, free national procurement event in Scotland. It means taking one day from the demands of running a business to network and make connections with public sector buyers and decision makers from across Scotland and the wider UK.
“The Supplier Development Programme makes a crucial link between the public sector’s procurement strategic aims and operational practices, to help small businesses understand how to feature inclusive practices in their tenders, like Fair Work, addressing climate change, health and safety, community benefits and more.”
During the event, Glasgow City Region City Deal will formally launch the latest contract pipeline for its £1 billion City Deal infrastructure programme including details of over £150 million worth of tier one infrastructure contracts due to go to open tender in the coming three years.
Councillor Susan Aitken, chair of the Glasgow City Region Cabinet and Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “Our City Deal is helping to protect the region’s jobs and businesses from the impacts of Covid-19. In fact, to date, local companies have benefitted from over £110 million worth of City Deal contracts.
“This event will give our partner councils the chance to engage with the business community at different stages of project timelines to tell them about upcoming contract opportunities.
“I’d urge local businesses in these industries to register for this free online event to find out more and to hear what support is available.”
The contract pipeline was issued before the event so that relevant businesses get advance notice of contracts coming up that they could either bid for or which they are already on a framework for – and then register to attend the event to find out more.
Meet the Buyer 2021 is free to attend and open to all, but businesses must register through the Supplier Development Programme website at www.sdpscotland.co.uk.
Ends
Notes for editors
- SDP is a publicly-funded partnership led by local authorities, working in conjunction with Scottish Government and other public bodies, to bring Scottish SMEs support in all aspects of tendering. By assisting businesses to become tender-ready for public procurement, SDP improves all-round efficiency, sustainability and market potential.
- In Scotland, there is an estimated annual public spend of £12.6billion. In the UK, there is an estimated annual public spend of £240billion. SDP Scotland offers free training throughout Scotland to Scottish SMEs to support and champion them tendering for this work.
- Membership of SDP provides:
- early market awareness and promotion of potential tender/supply chain opportunities;
- support at the organisation’s tender-related supplier engagement events;
- additional participation in the organisation’s tender and supply chain opportunities; and
- assistance to organisations to promote the availability of the Supplier Development Programme’s free procurement training to the organisation’s supply base.
- Visit sdpscotland.co.uk for more information.
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SDP contact details…
Contact: Jennifer Payne
Phone: 07584174531
Email: jennifer.payne@southlanarkshire.gov.uk
Website: http://www.sdpscotland.co.uk
