On 08.11.2018 in the premises of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Dobrich the first from the series of seminars with topic “Capacity building workshop for less experienced SMEs in Public procurement and B2B speed dating” was held. At the seminar were invited all companies that were registered in the online courses and are from the selected target groups.
21 companies from Dobrich Region participated in the event. The topics presented were related to public procurement procedures, legal frameworks and regulations.
The participants got acquainted with information on how to get started with public procurement, how to select the proper procedure, how to announce a specific public procurement.
The second topic was how to properly interpret the public procurement proposals, what are the most important aspects of a SME activity when participating in public procurements, what are the selection criteria, the award criteria, and the evaluation methodology and how to conduct a public procurement procedure.
The third topic was how to create networks and consortia, how to analyze the partnership, what are the legal aspects and motivation for participation. The participants got acquainted why to unite with other companies, what are the types of the unions and useful practical guidelines for creating unions.
The last topic was how to manage public procurement contracts, what are the risks and possible changes, what are the special rules relating to the selection of contractor, what are the management approaches. The lecturer presented what is thinking based on risk and what to do – first step – to analyze the environment and conditions under which the public procurement contract is implemented, second step – to identify and assess all potential risks and third step – to develop a program for minimizing risks and their management.
In the afternoon during the B2b, companies worked in small groups in the form of speed-dating shared their positive and negative experience from participation in public procurement procedures.
According to the participants, positive aspects are: secure income, accumulation of experience, more choices for future applications. The mentioned negative are cumbersome and complicated documentation, conditions in the public procurement procedure that are set for a specific company so that this company can win without competition.
Approximately one third of the participants declared some experience in the public procurement procedures. The other companies have not participated in public procurement procedures yet.
All participants were satisfied with the event and declared interest for future participation.