Bid Preparedness

Anita's session will guide you through the process of deciding, essentially, whether to bid for a contract or not.

You will be guided to identify why you are wanting to bid for a contract – is it growth or to stand still? In either case, you will work through the questions you need to ask in order to understand whether or not this contract will meet the objectives you have for your business. You will be able to identify whether or not this contract will provide real benefit to your company or whether you are just chasing contracts. Is the contract a real opportunity or will it become a problem for your business?

These are the things you will need to answer and the talk will guide you as to how best to approach such questions.

Learning outcomes

• How to think strategically about bidding for contracts.
• How to approach ‘bid or no bid’ considerations.
• How to be bid ready before starting the bidding process.

Programme

• 8am - Registration, breakfast and refreshments, networking
• 8.15am - Presentation
• 9.15am - Networking
• 9.30am - Close

Meat your speaker

Anita Thornberry, Executive Director, Haven Gateway Partnership

A history graduate with experience of the City of London, Anita has worked in the field of economic regeneration for 20 years. She started her career at English Heritage, arguing the economic benefits of heritage assets to secure funding.

From there, Anita joined Regional Development Agencies working on projects such as the Olympics bid and writing the Tourism Legacy Plans for the bid. In 2007 Anita joined Southend Borough Council as the Head of Enterprise, Tourism and Regeneration where she delivered a £25m regeneration programme for the town centre, increased tourism revenue to £350m per annum whilst reducing visitor numbers and helped create a thriving business community.

Before joining Haven Gateway Partnership, Anita was MedTech Campus Director for Anglia Ruskin University. Anita leads the senior management group and leads the strategic direction of the partnership, under the guidance of the Board.

Directions

By Car:

Harlow Cricket Club is easy to get to via the B183. Enter First Ave Mandela Ave/B183 in Harlow.

Continue on First Ave Mandela Ave/B183 and drive to Chippingfield. At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit onto First Ave Mandela Ave/B183 and continue to next roundabout. At the roundabout, take the 1st exit and continue onto London RdTurn right onto Chippingfield - your destination will be on the left

By Bus:

Get the number 59 bus from Harlow Town Centre (40 min journey with 39 stops (Platform 9 ))

Get off at the Mark Hall School bus stop and then walk about 9 min, (0.4 miles) to Harlow Cricket Club, Chippingfield, Harlow CM17 0DJ

Attendance

This event is open to all Opportunity Harlow members.

If you're not an Opportunity Harlow member but are a Harlow based business and interested in joining, you are welcome to attend one of our events to see what our network has to offer.