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As Procurex Scotland 2024 draws to a close for another year, it's time to review how it went. Like most years, the event took place at the SEC in Glasgow and was hosted by BiP Solutions.

Procurex is the biggest event in the Procurement calendar. It brings together suppliers, buyers, influencers and Scotland’s thought leaders to discuss a large array of topics all related with public sector procurement in Scotland BIP Solutions hosts the event annually. The same event also takes place in Wales, Ireland and England.  

Six members of the SPA team travelled to Glasgow. We had representation from Client Support, Procurement Technical, and Marketing. Attending this year were Ross Barty, Reiss Stewart, Lynsay Logan, Lesley Anderson, John McCollum, Mariann Hughes, and Grant Walker.

The team were kept busy throughout the day building new connections and maintaining old ones with public sector bodies and suppliers. Conversations naturally revolved around the upcoming frameworks and what makes us stand out from other providers. That being our investment in Scottish Community and the extensive technical and procurement support we provide to our partners.

Our Added Value Services would have been a major talking point for attendees. This programme contains valuable resources that our partners can access. The programme consists of assistance in avoiding mistakes when using our frameworks, procurement training, client support, and technical guidance on projects. Social value support is also valuable for our partners and a component of the Added Value Services Programme, which is managed by Lintel Trust.

Lintel Trust manages the distribution of funds from the SPA’s Community Benefit Fund, their input is invaluable for our public sector partners as the offer advisory services on social value measurement and locating opportunities to gain match. The Community Benefit Fund has supported 103 projects, with £910k in financial support from the Fund. Over 27,000 people have directly benefitted from the funding that has been distributed since 2017.

The team were thrilled with how the event went, there were a variety of speakers and workshops accessible to delegates and exhibitors. On offer were several guest speaker spots held by procurement experts from varying backgrounds from private and public sector as well as the Scottish government. Our team were left excited at some of the new partnerships that had begun development as a result of the face-to-face introduction that took place at the event. They were satisfied at the mix of potential partners and suppliers that were in attendance as well as the organisation of the event as a whole. It gave an excellent platform for networking to take place.

If you had missed this year’s event we have produced a highlights reel to show how it went.

We were thrilled to have the opportunity to sponsor the lanyard for this great event. It’s a day in the calendar that we look forward to and get a lot from, whether that is making new connections with public sector organisations and nurturing existing ones or meeting prospective suppliers who could be valuable assets to our frameworks in the future.