Bids Now Open – CILT International Convention 2025

We are now accepting bids to host our upcoming International Convention in 2025. Countries interested in bidding to host the Convention should submit bids by Friday, 3 May 2024 by email to Roxana Thomas, Director of Finance and Interim Secretary General.

Bid proposals received will be reviewed by the Council of Trustees in late May and the winning bid will be notified shortly after this.

The decision on the winning bid will be based on the following criteria:

Details required to support the bid are as follows:

1. The event programme

The programme should cover three days with an optional fourth day for a local and visit programme. The example programme from 2020 is enclosed but there is flexibility to allow variation. The programme is not prescriptive and variation on the structure is encouraged. A theme or structure to the event is encouraged to enable a focus on outside speakers and a reason for attending apart from CILT business and engagement.

The key programme elements with an indicative structure are –

• Day Zero: IMC meeting and preparation.
• Day One: Arrival and booking in of delegates, country delegation meetings with individual Councils and Trustees, evening reception for all delegates.
• Women in Logistics and Transport and Next Generation Stream programmes. We would like to enable delegates to be able to attend both so your programme should enable this.
• Fringe Events – special subjects, optional seminars or meetings can also be held.
• Day Two: Opening event and presentations. A Speaker programme for all delegates with workshops for part of the day split between two or three main focus areas: Education, Strategy and Membership. Evening should be an informal event including a meal for all delegates with a local flavour or theme.
• Day Three: Main International business for all delegates in the morning with the opportunity for outside speakers (if desired). Afternoon technical visits either off site or best practice sessions at the conference site. Evening President’s Dinner for all delegates and local dignitaries.
• Day Four: A country conference if relevant and can be provided or technical visits can also be scheduled on the fourth day. This is a choice for the bidding country.

Partners programme – There needs to be a provision for partners who attend but will not attend the day conference programme. This can simply be advice and help on places to visit or an organised programme. The variation from a full organised programme to a selection of places and activities that partners and families coming with delegates can choose from depends on the convention venue and location, safety in travel externally, ease and affordability of visiting the local sights.

2. Delegate numbers and the venue

• Numbers – Plan for between 150 – 200 International delegates and between 30-50 local delegates.
• Conference Venue/Hotel – The conference venue will need to hold a minimum of 250 people. A further two large meeting rooms will also be required to hold a minimum of 80 people each for stream meetings. In addition to this there should be three to four smaller meeting rooms available for the purpose of other meetings taking place during the conference. A permanent office for the Convention administration team and a reception area for booking in delegates and dealing with queries throughout the Convention.
• Conference Venue/Hotel Catering – The main conference venue/hotel will need to be able to cater for all delegates to have buffet style meals during the Convention and to also be able to host the main Presidents dinner to seat 200 diners at a minimum.
• Conference Venue/Hotel IT and audio Facilities – The conference venue will need to have adequate IT and audio facilities to be able record and live stream the event, to facilitate the presenting of speaker presentations for those presenting at the Convention in person as well as virtually.
• Hotel Accommodation – Consideration is needed to be taken into account to ensure that there is a range of hotels from 4 stars to budget hotels to suit all attendees’ budgets in close proximity to the conference venue.

3. Organisation and managing delegate bookings, visas and ease of travel to the venue

• Event Organiser – It is encouraged that the host country should consider engaging a professional event organiser at least 6 months ahead of the convention.

The event organiser should be selected by a tender process – see section 6.

• Website – A website for information and bookings needs to be available five months before the event is due to take place and the event organiser should have adequate staffing to manage bookings in the months up to the event itself.
• Booking System – Delegates will need to be able to book online with queries answered and this will cover travel to and from the event and options to stay on and tour the area. Ideally, there should be flight packages (see sponsorship section) offered for the event and travel to and from the airport will need to be managed by the event organiser.

Delegates will be booking from at least 25 different countries so the ability to manage payments internationally needs to be factored into this.

The delegate booking system needs to have a payment system link so that payments can be made direct by individual delegates. There also needs to be a facility to receive group bookings from CILT countries and that process needs to be defined by the time the delegate booking system goes live.

Cash receipts should be discouraged where possible prior to the Convention and should ideally, only be taken at the event itself.

The booking system for delegates should be open for bookings preferably by 1st January 2025, with links to the hotel booking system at the agreed hotel rates.

All booking information must be shared with the International Secretariat, and a final list of delegates and contact details provided after the event.

• Administrative Support – There will need to be administrative support for delegates needing visas, which can be a complex task depending on your country rules. Invitation letters will need to be provided promptly and early.

4. Reception desk at the event

The local team will need to man the reception desk with a minimum of two people from 7.30am to 8:00pm during the convention to book delegates in, handle cash receipts, manage sign up to events, manage hotel interaction, organise travel and tourist trips by delegates.

5. Convention management and administration

The local country is to take ownership of the event once started and will need a dedicated coordinator in addition to the reception staff to manage the wider programme and manage the relationship with the conference venue/hotel. Administration support will also need to be provided to assist the Convention programme – equipment and room facilities, photocopying, IT support for presentations and delegates’ difficulties etc.

Marketing

• Develop, maintain, and update event website.
• Provide event, programme, and speaker information to the International Secretariat for generation of news articles and social media campaigns pre-event.
• Engage a professional photographer to work with International and feed images through during the event (previous standard and style of images can be seen on our Flickr account).
• Provide 1 – 2 marketing communications personnel to feed through news in real time throughout the event and to be main contact for the International news office during the event. Include international social media tags on all communication materials both pre-event and during the convention.
• Production of all on site communications and signage i.e., event brochure, delegate bags, stage backdrop, directional signage, event signage, timetable of programme etc.

Speakers

• Manage and co-ordinate the speaker programme.
• Provide personal bios and presentation details to the International Secretariat for promotional purposes pre-event and obtain necessary permissions for sharing of speaker presentations on our social media accounts.

6. Indicative costs and budgets

• The cash flow for the event needs to be forecasted and understood, as costs for hotels and the venue will need to be part guaranteed before delegate money is received.
• The financial risk of the event is the responsibility of the bidding country, not International.
• A successful model involves a tender and awarding process to identify a professional event organiser.
• The negotiated rates will vary depending on location and country. Similarly, a hotel needs to be identified either by bidding or by a selection process and room and meal deals negotiated. This drives the delegate price.
• Package prices to include dinners and visit costs but excluding travel into and out of the Convention should be created and a booking process established.
• A consideration of cash flow is recommended, as often hotels will want to take deposits on room bookings ahead of delegates booking and paying.
• Hotels will need to be booked six to 12 months in advance. Delegate rates will need to have a mark-up applied. This mark-up will cover other Convention administration costs such as transport between office and event, cost of marketing materials, sound etc.
• Detailed budgets from previous Conventions can be supplied on request by the Secretary General.

Sponsorship

The financial success of the Convention will be helped by attracting local sponsorship from companies locally with the draw of an international audience and the seniority of the delegates arriving. This will enable pricing to maximise the potential number of delegates attending. In particular, sponsorship by the national airline will help delegates to be able to afford to attend.

Risk and Accountability

Bidding countries should only bid recognising that the financial risk of the Convention is the responsibility of the bidding country. The International Secretariat will provide advice and support but the financials including the delegate and hotel pricing and the costs of running the event are entirely the responsibility of the country organisation. This should be forecasted and managed from the start and the bid itself needs to describe how the financial success of the conference will be guaranteed.