As attendees filed into the Grand Cypress Ballroom for the beginning of the end of #APMP2019, they witnessed a video put together by the APMP staff and filmed by Altamira Film Co.’s Cory Hammons. The video features conference-goers saying why they are all #ProudToBeAPMP—an incredible way to capture the energy of the event.
More Awards
2019 APMP Chair Ginny Carson then shared a few notes on the APMP 2019 U.S. Benchmark Report. She also said APMP plans on launching a UK survey within the next month.
Carson then announced several APMP awards:
- APMP Vendor of the Year: Upland Qvidian
- APMP Chapter Communications of the Year: National Capital Area Chapter
- APMP Chapter Member Connection Award: APMP Japan
- Stephen P. Shipley Chapter of the Year Award (announced by Brad Douglas, executive vice president of global strategy at Shipley): APMP UK
- APMP Executive Summary of the Year Award: IBM
- Proposal and Bid Executive of the Year Award: Kristy Zagorski, Michael Baker International
- Bid and Proposal Team of the Year Award: Genpact
An Enthralling Keynote
After all of the award announcements, it was time for the final opening keynote of BPC. This time, it was Mike Parkinson, CPP APMP Fellow, principal of 24 Hour Company who delivered a highly engaging presentation on how our brains processes communication and how that can be leveraged to writing winning pitches in proposals.
Parkinson, in his ever-energetic manner, offered thought-provoking oratory. “We live in an at-a-glance society. If we don’t embrace it, what’s going to happen to our industry?,” he said. “When it comes to how the brain works, we want to realize how it’s right—automatic, easy shortcuts.”
After encouraging the crowd to partner up for a quick exercise, he finished off the powerful keynote with: “On your next proposal, it’s game time. I hope you enjoyed receiving this information as much as I enjoyed giving it. Thank you all!”
A Few Final Sessions
Create Compelling Infographics in PowerPoint
Presented by Richard Goring, director, BrightCarbon
Infographics are great tools to convey complex information in an elegant way, but creating a compelling infographic can be hard. It has to be more than nicely designed bullet points. Richard Goring presented a hands-on session Thursday morning, going over techniques for drafting infographics that convey meaning and tell stories.
Attendees left with a higher understanding of how to elegantly simplify and graphically convey complex concepts, structure stories within infographics to lead audiences on the right way, and quickly construct infographics in PowerPoint.
Winning on Value, Not Just Price
Presented by Stephan M. Liozu, Ph.D., chief value officer, Thales Group, and Chris Richter, president, Richter & Co.
This session explored the concept of customer value in the B2G world. It laid out critical concepts to help proposal professionals focus more on value and less on price. Attendees left with an understanding of how customer value is—and must be—defined, how to locate the pocket of value and use it to build a price to win, and how to package differing value propositions by focusing on winning themes and customer hot buttons.
Lead presenter Stephan M. Liozu, Ph.D., summed up the theme of the session with separating price and value from the get-go. “If you don’t manage the message on value, it’s going to be mostly a pricing discussion,” he said. “We need to balance that discussion between value and price.”
Closing Remarks and Giveaways
Back to the stage was Ginny Carson to deliver a few final remarks before BPC officially came to a close. “I believe it’s definitely been a great conference,” she said. “I’m definitely #ProudToBeAPMP. Thank you all so much.”
Carson introduced next year’s APMP chair, Mike Walsh, who left with kind parting words. “If you want to know why I’m #ProudToBeAPMP, just look around. You are why I’m #ProudToBeAPMP.”
Of course, BPC wouldn’t be complete without the exhibitor and association giveaways. Several wonderful awards, from Apple AirPods and an Amazon Echo Dot, to proposal guides and Irish whiskey, were given away to attendees who dropped their business cards off at booths over the course of the week. APMP CEO Rick Harris then thanked his fantastic staff and announced APMP’s prize winners. Prizes included an expense-paid trip to 2020 BPC in Nashville, Tennessee, and three $1,000 giveaways.
“See you all in Nashville,” said Harris. “Thank you for being here.”
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