Pre-Market Engagement Virtual conference platform to host large scale events

Tender description

Summary of the work Pre-Market engagement only, request for information to inform procurement route only, your response will not be assessed. NHS Horizons require a large scale collaboration platform that is able to bring people together virtually for large scale complex events and conferences. Please send response to russell.greenwood@nhs.net Expected Contract Length 12 months with an option of up to 12 month extension Latest start date Thursday 1 September 2022 Why the Work is Being Done The platform will provide a virtual conference space giving participants the opportunity to take part in complex and large scale events in healthcare. This allows people from across the health and care sectors to get involved in transformation and improvement events with enhanced capability, functions and features than that of an a current large provider of digital conferencing. As the NHS recovers from the effects of the pandemic, we need an enhanced digital platform that can produce multiple sessions, breakout rooms, broadcasts, networking and interactive functions that give people the conference experience whilst being online. Problem to Be Solved A large provider of digital conferencing platforms has been proven to not met the necessary requirements of complex and large scale digital events. Participants for the Horizons activity need to have a single space where over 15,000 people can engage simultaneously and access over 100 of sessions with breakout room capbability, networking functions within the platform, broadcast capabilities, hybrid functionality, specific design functions that enabie bespoke design, platform analysis, accessible engagement and interaction. Who Are the Users As a user / client in order to execute complex and large scale events with hundreds of participants we need platform that will enable us to reach a wide audience, run multiple sessions at once with breakout room functinality, networking and with enhance communication functions so we can create a positive, interactive and technically enhanced event that is fully accessible. As and organisation we need to provide the plaform and technical support in order for transformational change events to take place. Early Market Engagement Please set out how you believe your organisation to be a suitably qualified and experienced supplier with the capacity able to deliver the service required in full taking account of the essential requirements. (max 1000 words in total). In addition, it would be helpful to NHSE if you could provide an answer to the below questions which will be confidential and for our information only (max 500 words). We will not use this information to shortlist or assess in any way. 1) Provide a summary of your organisation detailing main areas of service activity and what specific services you provide within the context of what we are looking for. 2) Please provided an estimated cost for Year One, Year Two and Year Three. 3) Do you have a suggested pricing structure? Volume based etc? If so what are the benefits of using this structure 4) Do you currently provide a similar service to any other public sector or similar complex regulated bodies? 5) What do you see as the key issues in providing the service/deliverables stipulated in the brief? 7) Is there any other information you would like to add as part of your feedback to us? Work Already Done An initial discovery exercise was completed in 2020. A conference platform was procured accordingly for 12 months. This contract will finish in September 2022. Existing Team The supplier will be working with the Horizons team consisting of a production lead, production manager, tech team which will all work across various commissions and events Current Phase Live Skills & Experience • At least 3 years expertise in iteratively, prototyping, designing and building services which meet both user needs and the GOV.UK guidelines for content design, service design and accessibility. • Demonstrates experience of running at least 500 large scale and complex events with minimum of 2000 attendees • Experience and expertise of running successful Hybrid events • Previous experience of working with clients in the public sector or similarly complex regulated organisation • Ability to provide bespoke production training and support, as well as indepth analytics of events. Nice to Haves Provide bespoke broadcasting features Work Location NHS Horizons, Cheylesmore House, Second floor, Quinton Road, Coventry, CV1 2WT Working Arrangments The supplier will work virtually with the Horizons team. Including and not limited to weekly calls and monthly progress calls. Security Clearance We are not aware of any security clearances needed as part of this procurement. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 15 Proposal Criteria Pre-Market engagement only- this will be included when the procurement opportunity goes live Cultural Fit Criteria Pre-Market engagement only- this will be included when the procurement opportunity goes live Payment Approach Fixed price Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 70% Cultural fit 10% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. What is the conference platform that is currently in use (to September 2022)? Hopin 2. Are you expecting a response using the DOS submission form or via the e-mail address specified? DOS where possible but if you can't then email. 3. For the conference platform that you are currently using till September 2022, could you please clarify what elements worked well and what didn’t? Virtual conference experience was positive. Multiple rooms with breakout functionality alongside plenary space and main stage to replicate a physical conference experience. Good contact and interaction tools within platform/confernec environment. No problems with service, contract expiry so retesting of market rather than a problem with the provider 4. Are you looking for a bespoke virtual space (i.e. one that looks like an existing environment) or a generic environment? Generic environment that can be personalised to give a conference an identity 5. How many specific areas / stands (if any) are required in the virtual space? Virtual foyer, main stage, multiple smaller meeting rooms (Capacity for up to 100) all with breakout room functionality and space for people to network. Also an expo space for suppliers to provide videos and conference exhibits. 6. Will you be expecting to configure the areas/stands yourself or will you expect that to be done as part of the virtual space provision? The stands will be individual meeting rooms so ability to run breakouts, share slides, speak and chat. Would expect the ability to create rooms to be a simple process so can be undertaken ourselves but with technical support if required 7. How many webinars are expected to be held via the platform monthly? How many simultaneous webinars are there likely to be? Likely one large event (Up to 10,000 participants) every 2 months. If platform is simple with good functionality to use may be additional smaller scale events. Only one large event to take place at a time 8. Will the webinars include any panel discussions or just individual speakers? Panels and multiple speakers per session and ability to invite to audience/participants into discussion (question and answer). 9. The brief refers to enhanced communication functions. What is your expectation regarding this? Engagment platform not broadcast platform. Ability for delegates to connect with each other as well as with speakers and sessions - network functions, group chat, private chat, polls, social areas, expo areas etc. Integrated with social media. Accessible from majority of devices e.g. not just smart phones 10. If registration/login is required, do you expect login to be possible by single sign on? If so, do you currently use a single sign on service (please specify which)? Registration and sign in to the platform is a required feature. We would only expect them to need to sign in once to an event 11. Do you have an existing library of content (videos, images, etc) that will be used to populate the virtual spaces? No, these will be bespoke events 12. Given a contract start date of 1st September 2022, when do you expect the platform to be ready for you to go live with your first event? 1st October 2022 13. Are visitors / attendees required to register / login to access or should they be able to access without having to register/login Register and log in as an option so can do as open or limited attendance 14. Do you require themed virtual spaces/rooms that are topic specific and if so how many topics are there? Variable depending upon event - we would like the ability to run upto 100 breakouts and concurrent sessions. 15. Do you have one standard design that is reused and rebranded? if it is rebranded do you currently manage the content? NHS logo and Horizons Team branding plus event specific identifiers. The platform should allow an element of branding to be displayed and used for each conference/large scale collaboration. 16. what are your expectations for break out rooms? Breakout rooms for delegates to network and for use in all sessions except main stage. Ability to broadcast messages to all breakout rooms as needed. Option to record breakout rooms/chat. Connection functionality - polls, chat etc to be available in breakouts and non plenary sessions also. 17. Do you have a defined scope of analysis for use tracking and interactions within the platform? if so are you able to share the scope No scope presently - however metrics and interaction tracking would be a welcome part of the platform overview and structure. 18. what are your expectations for networking within the platform? i.e. chat (voice, text, video) and one to one or one to many etc. Chat, breakouts, networking opportunities, voice, video, text, image, screen share, one to one and one to many 19. do you have user feedback from the existing supplier platform that you are able to share, and do you have a definition of a typical user and where, when and how they have accessed the current solution? No 20. Are there any authentication methods / user databases specific to the NHS that we need to support? No 21. Are attendees / exhibitors all part of the NHS or is it a mix? Mix, primarily Public sector 22. Do we need to provide a sign-up / registration process with moderation? Who will administrate this – do we need to provide a user friendly front end for this? Require registration/sign up with a user friendly front end but can moderate in house if given access 23. Do user logins / identities need to persist across events? No but would be a welcome feature of the platform to avoid users having to register multiple times to attend different events. 24. Do we need to have different levels of access for different groups of users, e.g. event organisers, exhibitors, session speakers, attendees etc.? Yes, team members need back end access to set up, moderate and manage. Speakers need presenter access and ability to screen share. Delegates need ability to chat with each other but only unmute if invited to speak within a session 25. Do we need to access any external / NHS databases to draw content / information from or are we handling all content / data management? Content and data management held by yourselves 26. Do we need moderation capability for all user generated exchanges? Chat moderation, breakout room administration, mute / kick / ban users etc.? Yes 27. Do we need to have a complete historic record of the events post event completion? Video recordings of sessions, chat logs etc.? What about breakout room interactions? Ability to record everything but not a blanket recording. If confidential discussions need to be able to disable recording to ensure people share their honest opinions. Chat logs and ability to download chat are essential. 28. Is there a fee or any kind of financial contractions that the system needs to support? Fee for events, subscription to access historic materials etc.? No 29. What are the key features missing in the current system? Ability to broadcast messages to all open sessions. Latency lag on external tools - eg menti, SLIDO, Kahoot. Ability to move across attendees to specific areas. Ability to bring audience members up on to the main stage with ease. Ability to upgrade permissions in a simple way from marticipant to moderator. Accessibilty of the platform to take into account for e.g. screen reading software. Accesibilty guidance provided from the platform to users.