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Meet the Buyer 2021: Inclusive Growth Stage

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At Meet the Buyer 2021 there will be the biggest agenda to date with three main stages: including the Inclusive Growth Stage, Sustainability and Innovation Stage, and Community Wealth Building (Supply Chain) Stage.

Suppliers are invited to watch presentations throughout the day. Each stage has a slightly different timetable, with in-built time for visiting the virtual stands. There is not enough time to watch every single presentation and take part in every live question and answer session, so the Supplier Development Programme encourages all suppliers to plan their time in advance. All presentations, including each live question and answer session, will be available on the Supplier Development Programme's YouTube Channel after the event. Please click to subscribe!

All three of the stages will begin the same way on 8 June:

9:00am Portal Opens (Please note: suppliers will not be able to interact with exhibitors until the 10:00am start!)

10:00am Meet the Buyer 2021 Opens

  • Keynote Address by SDP Chair, Councillor Heather Brannan-McVey

10:10am Ministerial Address (Subject to Parliamentary Business)

  • Welcome from Ivan McKee MSP, Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism & Enterprise

Following these two opening sessions, the three Stages will begin. The Inclusive Growth Stage will focus on two of the major growth deals in Scotland: the Glasgow City Region City Deal and The Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal. A City Region Deal is an agreement between the Scottish Government, UK Government, Scottish local authorities and other partners to invest on cities and regions. They are designed to bring about long-term strategic approaches to improving regional economies, meaning there are a lot contract opportunities that arise from the deals to help businesses around Scotland grow. You can read more about each Deal across Scotland on the Growth Deals page on the SDP website.

Morning

The morning will focus on the Edinburgh Growth Deal, starting The City of Edinburgh: Meet the “Real” Buyer address by Stephen Moir, Director of Resource, followed by a live Q&A session. The Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal includes six local authorities, including Fife, The City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, West Lothian and Scottish Borders. There has been more than £1.3 billion committed to be invested by the local authorities, universities and colleges, and private sector, with an additional £300 million each from the Scottish and UK Government.

At 10:45am, there will be a presentation by the CEO of Capital Partnership, Rona Hunter about The Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal and Capital City Partnership. This will also be followed by a live Q&A session.

To learn more general information on upcoming contracts and framework opportunities, suppliers can attend the 12:00 noon session on How to Do Business with The City of Edinburgh Council. Suppliers new and seasoned will learn where and how you can find all of its contract opportunities, and also have the chance to ask any questions about procurement with The City of Edinburgh Council during the live Q&A that follows.

At 12:30pm there will be an address by the Supplier Development Programmes, Programme Manager Gillian Cameron, with hint and tips on how you can bid better the address will be followed by a live Q&A Session with SDP’s expert trainer. This will give you the opportunity to ask any questions about the tendering process. All SDP’s expert training has have been both suppliers and buyer in the past so know exactly what you are going through.

Afternoon

In the afternoon, suppliers will hear from the Glasgow City Region City Deal (GCRCD). GCRCD is one of the largest growth deals in Scotland, where there has already been some considerable progress made since the deal was signed in 2014.

There are eight local authorities in the Deal which act as regional partners, and these include East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow City, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire. The regional partners estimate that an overall investment of £1.13 billion will deliver around 29,000 jobs in the region and attract around £3.3 billion of private sector investment. On top of this, there will be an additional £500 million contributed by the Scottish Government.

The afternoon session will kick off at 2:00pm with an address from the Leader of Glasgow City Council, Councillor Susan Aitken. This will be followed by an address from the Glasgow City Council Director for Regional Economic Growth, Kevin Rush.

At 2:10pm, there will be an operational presentation to launch of Glasgow City Region Deal Contract Pipeline. The presentation will be given by Dorothy Balfour, Category Manager at North Lanarkshire Council, followed by a live Q&A session.

The rest of the afternoon will focus on three future projects the Councils need suppliers for, and the first will begin at 2:20pm with a presentation by Graham Construction, about the new Clyde Waterfront and Renfrew Riverside Project. This will be followed by a live Q&A session with Renfrewshire Council and Graham Construction.

At 2:45pm, there will be a presentation by West Dunbartonshire Council about the Former Exxon Mobil Fuel Depot at Milton Development. This will be followed by a live Q&A session West Dunbartonshire Council, giving suppliers the chance to ask any questions about the project.

At 3:15pm, there will be a presentation about the Ravenscraig Access Infrastructure Development from the Senior Project Manager at North Lanarkshire Council, Jonathan Speed, and this will also be followed by a live Q&A session with North Lanarkshire Council.

Meet the Buyer 2021 will close promptly at 4:00pm.

Next steps

Before the event, the Supplier Development Programme advises all participants to look at the full agenda for the day on the Meet the Buyer page, to help decide which presentations suppliers wish to attend. Again, suppliers will not be able to attend all of the presentations as they are across three stages and some run at the same times. Don’t worry if participants miss a presentation, as anyone can watch any presentation on demand after the event on the Supplier Development Programme's website or on the SDP YouTube Channel.

There's still time to book a free place for Meet the Buyer 2021 on 8 June. Register your place on the SDP website.

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