Brief

Freshwater was appointed by the Welsh Government to provide consultancy support for its involvement in Procurex Wales 2024, a crucial industry event aimed at public and private sector procurement stakeholders and key suppliers. The three-year contract runs through to November 2026, with Freshwater working alongside event organisers, BiP Solutions and key stakeholders, to ensure the event’s success. Our goal is to protect and enhance the reputation of the Welsh Government’s Commercial Procurement Division by capitalising on the event’s potential and supporting the objectives of new government legislation, which includes encouraging collaboration and transparency, maximising social value and improving procurement opportunities for smaller Welsh suppliers.

Delivery

Freshwater’s approach was tailored to ensure that the Welsh Government’s objectives were met efficiently and effectively. After initial involvement in shaping the sponsorship agreement between the Welsh Government and BiP Solutions, our team joined regular planning and marketing meetings with BiP Solutions, as well as stakeholder engagement workshops to shape the speaker programme. We also carried out an analysis on 2023 delegate registrations to identify areas for improved outreach and advised on venue selection and the appointment of a bilingual host for the GO Awards Wales.

A critical part of the contract was to support Welsh Government’s main presence at Procurex Wales, through its high-profile Procurement Pavilion. Freshwater supported Welsh Government through the appointment of a stand designer through to onsite delivery, ensuring consistency with the government’s wider communications around the implementation of new legislation. The Pavilion brought together a range of industry partners, as well as delivering a Collaborative Procurement Hub, where suppliers could engage directly with managers responsible for over 45 of Wales’s largest procurement frameworks.

Additionally, we delivered the first ever Micro, SME and Third Sector Showcase, a new initiative introduced in response to the Welsh Government’s aim to make public procurement more accessible to smaller local suppliers. Themed around the food and drink sector, it featured a number of partners and exhibitors, offering valuable networking opportunities for buyers and support for small suppliers looking to break into the public procurement market.

Freshwater also advised on an evaluation framework for the 2024 event. This included app-based delegate scanning and questionnaires administered on the WG pavilion, additional questions added to the post-event delegate survey and ‘theatre counts’ to establish the popularity of different event themes.

Freshwater also developed a targeted LinkedIn campaign, themed around upcoming procurement reform, which drove additional engagement and registrations in the final weeks before the event.

Results

Delegate registrations exceeded the 2023 figure by 10%, with more than 1,100 participants attending the event – a figure that included a total of 973 delegates (up 26%) from 763 unique organisations (up 53%) who ‘opted-in’ to receiving additional information from Welsh Government.

From the Welsh Government’s internal feedback, 89% of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that the event fulfilled the objectives of their visit (the remaining 11% were neutral).

With just a £500 media budget, our LinkedIn campaign reached over 20,000 people and generated 225 clicks during the final weeks of registration and the event was also used to capture six case study videos, featuring prominent buyers and suppliers.

The Micro, SME and Third Sector Showcase was a successful addition to the event, achieving the highest satisfaction score of all the feature areas in the post-event survey and initiating important collaborations around inclusive procurement practices and social value.