Well, 2024 is almost over.

For many APMP members, that means a mad dash to wrap up weeks of work in just days, followed by a head-first dive into a whole host of new goals (with an all-too-short spell of muted emails and festivity in between).

You don’t get much of a chance to stop and smell the flowers in your line of work—especially not with the propensity of certain customers to set early January RFP deadlines (bah humbug). So, we wanted to take a moment to give 2024 the flowers it deserves, because this year has been a really amazing one for the APMP community.

Here are some of APMP’s 2024 highlights:

A 14,406-strong community

Our community reached an incredible milestone this year: we are now 14,406 members strong! That’s 14,405 people just like you, who understand what you do all day without you having to explain it. APMP members are the heart of APMP—they are APMP—and the more the merrier!

3,200 certifications achieved

This was a big year for professional development. 2,138 of you chose to scale up your career by passing your Foundation Certification. 291 of you took that a step further by getting your Practitioner or Capture Practitioner Certification. And 7 of you achieved the highest signature certification there is: the Professional Certification.

Our members also threw themselves into Micro-Certifications. 236 brushed up on their Executive Summaries, 199 worked to master Bid & Proposal Writing, 121 refined their Graphics skills, and 50 studied the Competitive Price To Win process.

Congratulations to everyone who achieved a certification this year. Those postnominals look great on you!

Our first virtual member

At BPC Barcelona, we announced that our first AI member had joined APMP! Her name is PIN, and she’s a unique ‘cognitive neural entity’ that has been designed exclusively for APMP members.

Remember, if you’re a member, you can access PIN via a chat pop-up on the APMP website and receive quick and accurate responses to a wide range of bid- and proposal-related queries.

A successful Leadership Academy launch

We got a clear picture of just how self-motivated and dedicated our membership is when we launched the Leadership Academy at BPC New Orleans in June. Enough people applied to take part that we were able to fill eight cohorts with current and future leaders looking to develop their leadership skills. We are so excited to see how our fabulous students apply the lessons they learn through the Academy in their careers.

A packed events calendar

This year, we had over 12,000 attendees across our events, who participated in a total of 195 hours of new event education.

In March, BPC Barcelona saw bid and proposal professionals from all across Europe congregate in Spain for two days of learning and networking. Then, came our flagship event BPC New Orleans in June—the biggest BPC yet with a record-breaking 1,300+ attendees. August saw Winning AI24, which was hosted over five days this year to pack in as many innovative AI strategies as we could.

We hosted our third Women’s Virtual Summit in October, a virtual event where we centered and uplifted the women in our profession and beyond. November played host to CBDC, the event specifically designed for our membership’s capture and business development contingent. And to top it all off, we presented the 2024 Honors Gala, where we celebrated some of the best and brightest of our profession.

Introducing a lifestyle brand

We brought a lifestyle brand to our merch store that celebrates the essence of the bid and proposal field, aptly titled ‘Winning for a Living’. You can browse and buy a range of accessories and apparel here.

Body of Knowledge and Foundation exam updates

In the spirit of continuous improvement embodied by our certification program, we made updates to our BoK and Foundation exam this year. The new Foundation Certification has been updated to:

• Reflect today’s most relevant strategies to help you succeed in your field.
• Emphasize practical skills.
• Provide a streamlined and efficient experience.
• Include storytelling techniques, proposal graphics, and customer-focused content.
• Focus on value propositions, discriminators, and win themes to stay competitive.

The new exam—complete with a brand new study guide—is available to take now.

A developing staff team

This year, HQ upped its efforts to give you the best APMP experience possible by investing in the staff team that serves you.

We welcomed two new members of staff:

• Melissa Bittner – your new Director of Membership will be leading the charge of growing our community and increasing member value.
• Mark Pigg – your new iMIS Database Administrator will be ensuring that HQ can connect and engage with all of you as effectively as possible.

We also saw the well-deserved promotions of four existing staff members:

• Jay Denslow – Jay leads our marketing team and has been promoted to VP of Marketing and Communications.
• Chelsea Mackenzie – Chelsea leads the execution of APMP’s events, and has been promoted to Events Manager.
• Erin Smith – Erin is in charge of all of our written content, and has been promoted to Content Manager.
• Mike Sweet – Mike works closely with APMP members to provide support and solve queries, and has been promoted to Senior Membership Coordinator.

As always, our team is dedicated to supporting APMP members, and will be working tirelessly to enhance your membership experience in 2025 and beyond.

Looking ahead

As 2025 edges ever closer, APMP HQ is focused on building on the momentum of this year. There are a number of exciting initiatives planned, and there is much to look forward to next year.

Event calendar

For the first time ever, all of our 2025 events are available for registration right at the start of the year. Your events calendar for 2025 is comprised of:

• The Leadership Conference (January 29) – Back by popular demand, this virtual conference is designed to help you hone your leadership skills and take the next steps in your career. REGISTER NOW
• The Office Power-Up: Microsoft Workshop Day (February 19) – This one-day, virtual event covers the essential tricks you need to know to streamline your work on Microsoft software. REGISTER NOW
• BPC Dublin (March 13-14) – The European iteration of APMP’s flagship event will be held in the grand capital city of Ireland this year (and only a few days before St Paddy’s Day too!). REGISTER NOW
• GovGains US (March 26) – This virtual event is designed to provide you with the strategies, tools, trends, compliance essentials, and innovative practices that drive success in the GovCon space. REGISTER NOW
• BPC Nashville (May 18-21) – APMP’s flagship event will take place in Music City this year, and we’re dead set on blowing last year’s triumphant visit to the Big Easy out of the water. REGISTER NOW
• The Science of Winning (July 24) – This virtual event blends proposals with psychology and data analysis to explore the science behind success. REGISTER NOW
• Capture Elite (September 18) – This virtual event is designed to help capture professionals to push the envelope with their capture strategy and tactics. REGISTER NOW
• Winning AI25 (November 18-19) – This two-day, virtual event sees AI get the APMP deep-dive treatment to make sure you’re caught up with the AI developments that haven’t even happened yet. REGISTER NOW

Welcoming new leadership

As of January 1, Stacey Lee will take over the reins from David Gray as our International Board Chair, as David becomes our Past Chair. Heather Finch, current Executive Committee member, will begin her Chair cycle as Vice Chair this year.

We also welcome Bruce Farrell back to the Board to continue his term as Director.

Thank you!

None of these achievements would have been possible without our members, volunteers, chapters, HQ staff, and Board of Directors. Thank you to everyone who has played any role—big or small—in APMP’s 2024. We look forward to an even more successful 2025.

For those who celebrate, we hope you have an excellent holiday period—we’ll see you all in 2025!