Event Management System

Background

Innovate UK Business Connect brings together businesses, researchers, investors and partners to accelerate innovation across the UK. As part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and a strategic delivery partner to Innovate UK, we connect organisations to funding opportunities, partnerships and expertise to help ideas move from concept to scale.

One of the key tools for making these connections is events. We deliver a diverse portfolio of in-person, virtual and hybrid events, ranging from webinars and workshops to large-scale conferences and exhibitions.

To support the effective planning, delivery and evaluation of these events, we are seeking proposals from suppliers who can provide a modern event management system that streamlines event operations, enhances the participant experience and supports data-driven decision-making.

Description of work

Innovate UK Business Connect is seeking tenders from providers who can supply a single event management system that supports the end-to-end event lifecycle, including event creation, registration management, attendee communications, speaker and exhibitor management, networking, reporting and post-event evaluation.

The system should integrate with existing business systems where required and provide a single source of truth for event delivery teams. This aligns with the organisation's wider objective of ensuring events are outcome-led, measurable and supported by efficient registration, communication and reporting processes.

The event management system should

• Deliver an intuitive and user-friendly delegate journey from registration through to post-event follow-up
• Improve the event experience for speakers and exhibitors
• Reduce manual administration and improve operational efficiency
• Provide real-time visibility of registrations, attendance, engagement and event performance
• Support both virtual and in-person event delivery models
• Enable consistent data capture and reporting to demonstrate event impact and ROI
• Support accessibility, compliance and data protection requirements

The platform must support multiple user roles and permission levels to reflect different operational needs across the organisation. As a minimum, the system should accommodate the following user groups:

• Event Managers

o Full end-to-end event management capabilities

o Creation, configuration and administration of events

o Management of registrations, attendee communications, speakers and exhibitors

o Access to event-level reporting, analytics and post-event evaluation data

• Marketing Managers

o Access to update and manage event webpages and associated content

o Access to registration, engagement and performance reporting

• Integrated Systems

o Administration of integrations between the event management platform and our CRM system (Workbooks)

o Management of data flows, field mapping, data quality and synchronisation processes

o Access to reporting, data exports and system configuration relating to integrations

• System Administrators

o A small number of designated super users (typically two to three individuals)

o Full platform administration rights, including user management, permissions, integrations, security settings and system configuration

We deliver a large and diverse portfolio of business-to-business events. Historically, this has included more than 300 events per year and generating approximately 60,000 delegate registrations annually.

The event management platform must be capable of supporting a range of event formats, scales and audience sizes, including:

• In person events: We deliver approximately 100 in-person events each year, typically attracting between 30 and 2,000 delegates to each. Most events are free to attend and may span one or more days. We do not require onsite event delivery support from the appointment supplier; however the platform must provide the functionality and tools to enable our team to manage attendee registration and onsite event operations, and provide a seamless and efficient onsite experience for attendees
• Online Events: We deliver close to 200 fully online events annually. The majority are webinars, including webinar series and interactive workshops. We also run a small number of larger-scale virtual conferences and exhibitions, some of which take place over multiple days. The platform should provide a seamless user experience for both organisers and attendees and support the delivery of events of varying size and complexity.
• Hybrid: A smaller proportion of our events are hybrid, combining in-person and virtual attendance. The platform should support hybrid event delivery and provide a consistent registration, communication and reporting experience across both audience groups.

The proposed solution must be capable of supporting this volume of activity while providing robust registration management, attendee communications, data integration, reporting and analytics across all event formats.

Timings

This is a two-stage evaluation process. We will do an initially score of each supplier bid with the top two or three scoring suppliers invited to provide a demonstration.

This will be the opportunity for the selected suppliers to demonstrate the setup of an event using a given scenario.

Anticipated timeline

• October: demo
• November: final evaluation
• November - December: Contract is awarded
• 1 April 2027: Contract starts
• April - September: Onboarding, training, templates created and integrations built
• September onwards: Events start to be managed from the platform

Cost

The maximum value of this requirement over the three-year period is a maximum of £600,000.00 excluding VAT.

This contract is structured as an initial two-year period with a maximum budget of £400,000.00 excluding VAT with an optional 12-month extension valued at maximum £200,000.00 excluding VAT.

Submission

In response to this tender, please provide the information listed below.

• Short narrative describing your overall approach to working with Innovate UK Business Connect
• Checklist against the requirements
• Supporting information against the essential requirements
• A rate card of costs associated with services you provide
• A completed copy of the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire including:

o A copy of your audited accounts for the most recent two years (or alternative means of demonstrating financial status if trading for less than a year)

• Legal information i.e. Your standard T&Cs

Please provide the information requested above to re.support@iukbc.org.uk by 17:00 10 October 2026 at the latest. IR35 will be assessed before the awarding of a successful contract. Submissions sent without relevant documents as listed above will be automatically rejected.

Innovate UK Business Connect may require successful submissions to be subject to non-disclosure agreements.

Evaluation structure

Submissions will be scored against the following areas

• Value for money - 20%
• Technical specification - 70%

o alignment to objective 10%

o essential requirements 40%

o desirable requirements 20%

• Demonstration - 10%