Understanding Bidding Process for International Association Events: Convention Bureau Perspectives

1. Paper title: Understanding Bidding Process for International Associations Events from the Convention Bureau Perspectives Author: Igor Kovacevic, MSc Position: Teaching assistant Affiliation: Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade /Contact: igor@ekof.bg.ac.rs

2. Introduction Bidding for international events is one of the basic sales techniques that congress destinations are using. Destinations have two options, either to passively wait for the clients, or to be active in prospecting new leads and business.Bidding can be seen as the first phase in the event management (Westerbeek et al., 2006) and as the formal destination attempt to attract events (Getz, 2003; Hiller, 1999). Bidding can be defined as the process in which destination stakeholders customise their offer based on the formal and informal criteria set by client and enter the open competition with other destinations. In case of internationall association this is a public tender where RFP is sent to all local association members or posted on the web site. Convention bureau is the dominant form of the destination management organisation (Getz et al., 1998) and the major role is to adapt congress products to selected market segments (Manete at al. 2008). Since most of the international associations are organising at least one event per year, it is evident that more and more convention bureaus are trying to reach this segment (Crouch et al., 2004). Starting point are the market research and sale activities (Gartrell, 1991), while bidding is the most dominant sale tool (Getz et al., 1998) Bidding understands several important steps: forming a bid team, bid design according to criteria and submitting a bid (Ingerson et al., 2000). Successful bid understands explanations of technical elements (location, congress capacities, dates, promotion plan), supporting factors (local transport, financial subventions) and destination characteristics (Wilkinson, 1988). Bid critical success factors understands political support, economics benefits, technical capacity as the primary factors on one side, and business environment and references of previous events as secondary factors on other side (Westerbeek et al., 2002). Lobbying is the informal aspect of bidding, that is done unofficially in order to get bid advantage, and lobbying strategy might create bigger impacts than the officially submitted bid (Catherwood et al., 1992). Problem identification The academic sources and researches have been dealing with the topics of bidding, but most of them have been in the field of large sport and commercial events. The paper is focused on segment of international associations whose event is fulfilling ICCA criteria: minimum of 50 delegates, is organised on a regular basis and is rotated among at least 3 different countries (ICCA, 2017). International associations are seen as the important market segment, and this paper brings outlooks on bidding for international association events from the convention bureau perspective.

3. Methodology In the period 2015-2017 author has been analysing bidding process of 10 international associations, and this include personal involvement in the process from the research phase to the submitting of bid and bid presentation. Sample description Total of 3 associations with world event rotation (World Congress on Perinatal Medicine, Conference of the International Federation for Theatre Research, Orthopaedic World Congress) and 7 associations with European event rotation (European Congress of Neurosurgery, Europe Bass Congress, European Multicolloquium of Parasitology, Congress of the European Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, European Cystic Fibrosis, European Handgun Championship Conference). All events required formal bid to be presented by the host destination and all events gathers over 1.000 delegates each. Total of 26 stakeholders were competing in the mentioned biddings – 14 convention bureaus (together with local association), 10 local associations alone (with no support) and 2 convention centers. Results 7 (out of 10) bids were won in case where convention bureau led the process, 1 (out of 10) where congress centre led the process and 2 (where local association led the process). Convention bureau acted on behalf and for the benefit of local association and destination stakeholders (hotels, congress centres). In cases congress centre led the process, the convention bureau has not been seen as a stakeholder due to sales passivity, but large financial support from government has been provided. Local association that led the process were unaware of the existence and role that convention bureau can provide, and therefore did not ask for the support. 8 (out of 10) biddings were based on the official criteria (RFP) and process that association distributed to local association, while in 2 (out of 10) processes there were no official criteria to follow. Official criteria focused 40% on technical (venue requirements, hotel supply, social program options), 35% on supporting (international air access, visa issues) and 25% on destination factors. In case where no official criteria have been defined, interested destination used previous experience in preparing bid process, but informal lobbying has been seen as the most important approach. Since most of the bids in given sample were run and won by a destination bureau, it can be concluded that bureau is seen as reliable and objective partner for an international association. Biddings led by the bureau are more comprehensive since it covers all destination aspects, brings total destination experience and references in handling international events, give more formal note to the bid and assures international association in professionalism of the destination.

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