Outcomes

Ayrshire Meet the Buyer Final Report

The Supplier Development Programme has published the final report for Ayrshire Meet the Buyer 2021.

East Ayrshire Council, North Ayrshire Council and South Ayrshire Council, in partnership with the Supplier Development Programme, hosted a pan-Ayrshire ‘Meet the Buyer' event online on Wednesday, 28 April 2021. Prior to the event, there were 659 suppliers registered. On the day, 391 participants attended the event, made up of 317 supplier attendees and 74 exhibitors/speakers/public sector colleagues. After attending the Ayrshire Virtual Meet the Buyer Event in partnership with the Supplier Development Programme, 91% of Scottish SME and supported businesses said they were more likely to bid for public sector contracts as a direct result of participating in the event.

All presentations and Q&A sessions from the Ayrshire Meet the Buyer event are available on the SDP YouTube Channel.

Lanarkshire Meet the "Real" Buyer Final Report

The Supplier Development Programme has published the final report for Lanarkshire Meet the "Real" Buyer 2021.

North Lanarkshire Council and South Lanarkshire Council, in partnership with the Supplier Development Programme (SDP) jointly hosted the Lanarkshire Meet the “Real” Buyer event. This live virtual event held on 30 November 2021 allowed businesses to meet the procurement teams from both Lanarkshire Councils and the “real” buyers who commission the contracts and identify the need for procurement works and services in the first place. On the day of the event, in total there were 108 participants and of these, 63 were unique SMEs/supported businesses based in Scotland. Post-event feedback highlighted that 95% of Scottish SMEs responding to the survey said they were more likely to bid for public contracts after participating in the event.

All presentations along with the live Q&A session can be found on the SDP YouTube Channel.

Meet the Buyer North 2020 Final Report

The Supplier Development Programme has published the final report for Meet the Buyer North 2020.

Meet the Buyer North 2020 was held on 2 September and was the first fully-virtual 'Meet the Buyer' type event that the Supplier Development has ever organised. The Scottish Government was a headline partner of this event. On the day, there were 825 actual attendees on the day, which was made up of 684 suppliers (from 590 unique businesses) and 141 buyers/exhibiting staff. There were 30 virtual stands, and through the 1-2-1 exhibitor meetings on the portal, we collectively achieved 11,000 minutes of video interaction. The post-event survey also highlighted that 90% of Scottish SMEs responding to the survey said they were more likely to bid for public contracts after participating in the virtual event.

All presentations and Q&A sessions from the Meet the Buyer North 2020 event are available on the SDP YouTube Channel.

Meet the Buyer 2020: Live Virtual Event Final Report

The Supplier Development Programme has published the final report for the Meet the Buyer 2020: Live Virtual Event.

Due to restrictions imposed by the Scottish Government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, the physical Meet the Buyer event was postponed from 2 June 2020 to 8 June 2021. However, on 2 June, the Supplier Development Programme (SDP) organised virtual activities to mark the occasion of what would have been the 12^th annual Meet the Buyer event.