Bradford Meet the Buyer is organised annually by Bradford Council. Companies are invited to attend the free event aimed at equipping them to win more public sector business. The event also provides companies the opportunity to attend workshops, network with other businesses and meet buyers from public authorities, such as Wakefiled Council, Kirklees Council, West Yorkshire Police, NHS, Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation (YPO) and support organisations.
View short videos of the event and an interview with Sandra Lomax, Assistant Director for Major Projects and Procurement:
Bradford Meet the Buyer 2010
Transcription:
'My name is Jonah Cofi and I'm in the process of setting up a business.
It's been rather resourceful; I've got some information and some business cards and made some contacts. So far is has been good.
You get a lot of information in terms of the seminars and you meet a lot of important people in regards to information and networking, so I would definitely recommend it. I think it's a good thing.'
'My name is David Streets, I'm from the NHS commercial procurement collaborative based in Sheffield. We're here today as part of an initiative to support inward investment into the area for the NHS.
We've seen the benefits ourselves at some of the Meet the Buyer events we've done over the last year. Some of the smaller businesses have won work with the NHS as a result of that.'
'Hi I'm Rob, I work for Blackwell's book shop in Leeds. We're a national company of over 50 stores. We're here today to meet Bradford City Council who we've already got links with, but it's about meeting the purchasers themselves and getting contacts, that kind of thing.
It's about the opportunity to meet various buyers, understand their systems and get contacts, specific contacts face to face which is very useful. It's obviously more difficult to do that over the phone, so to come to these events is very useful for us.'
Bradford Meet the Buyer 2010 - interview with Sandra Lomax
Transcription:
'Hi, I'm Sandra Lomax, Assistant Director for Major Projects and Procurement for Bradford Council. I'm here today because this is such a prestigious event for local suppliers. We're absolutely passionate about promoting businesses locally. We know that keeps the economy going, so we've done an awful lot of work this year in corporate procurement and this is the highlight event of the year.
We've had pre-registered over 500 separate suppliers who are coming here, we know the event works. The feedback from last year was fantastic. We'll be covering things like, how to do business with the council.
What we've tried to do is simplify it and we've got people here who are experts in how you can do business with the councils. We've updated our website to hold contracts and just to try and simplify the process. But more than that we wanted you to meet all my staff here who are fantastic. They are really passionate about what they do and about local business.
And that's why we're here today. To bring opportunities to local suppliers and to see what we need to do over the coming year to make Bradford a thriving place and to make suppliers profitable. '
'Working with all our partners is something we have to do in this day and age. We have to work collectively. The supplier, it doesn't matter who they are and how they get the information. We have to look and provide a cohesive approach to everyone. So Business Link, and all our other partners here, all the other councils, we have to work together to promote Bradford as a district, to be more profitable as a district and to keep suppliers going.'
'I would personally recommend for people to come to this event, to know how to do business with the council, to find out the opportunities that are available and to network to all the other suppliers that are here, and just to understand how to do business with the council. The leader of the council will be here later, the strategic director of performance and commissioning Mary Weastell will also be here.
Just look how busy it is, it speaks for itself. The number of people here pre - registered is the highest we've ever had. We're expecting over 750 suppliers. The event speaks for itself, it's already a success!'
