The end of the year is always a busy time for our industry – from early January due dates to forward planning, our minds are often in the new year before our feet are.
But 2023 was no ordinary year for APMP. Our association has gone from strength to strength, thanks to the invaluable contributions of our members, the visionary leadership of our boards (from the chapters to HQ), the tireless work of our staff, and the unwavering passion for this profession from all corners of our community.
Under the exceptional leadership of Alison Coon as Chair – supported by Steven Coles and David Gray serving as Past Chair and Vice Chair respectively – APMP’s year has been full of new events, initiatives and ideas.
So, before we dive head-first into 2024, let’s take a moment to reflect on all of the ways this year changed the game.
We grew our HQ staff
Our HQ staff have been ramping up their efforts to keep our growth strong, raise the profile of our profession, and provide the most rewarding and enriching experience for every single one of our members.
To help us do that, we hired four new staff members this year, each with a crucial role to play in pushing our association’s success to new heights:
- Chandler Martin became our Marketing Communications Manager.
- Darby Coughlin was welcomed to the team as our Digital Events Coordinator.
- Joshua Deakin took on the role of Multimedia Designer.
- Erin Smith became our new Writer/Editor.
We launched three new micro-certifications
In 2022, we launched our first ever micro-certification to give our members further validation of their knowledge and skills, and credibility within the industry. We received such great feedback that we decided to triple our efforts in 2023!
This year, we launched the following three micro-certifications to give our members industry recognition for their bid and proposal prowess:
- Bid & Proposal Writing (BW-M APMP) – writing compelling bids and proposals that win.
- Graphics (GR-M APMP) – creating impactful and effective graphics to put your bid/proposal over the finish line.
- Competitive Price To Win (PW-M APMP) – developing a competitive price to win.
We sponsored the first ever official bid and proposal code of practice
In October this year, the British Standards Institution (BSI) officially published PAS 360:2023, the first ever internationally-available code of practice for the bid and proposal management industry.
APMP was proud to sponsor this document’s landmark publication and to play an instrumental role in providing organizations with their first recognized framework for consistency in the approach to implementing a successful bid and proposal management function.
PAS 360 is an invaluable contribution to APMP’s long-held ambition of raising the profile of the bids and proposals profession.
We celebrated the one-year anniversary of our Mental Health Affinity Group
Last year, the APMP Mental Health Affinity Group was created to give our members a safe space to share their experiences and support one another.
Under the leadership of Chair Tori Bunk, the Mental Health Affinity Group has become an invaluable resource for many members – and, in September this year, we celebrated its first birthday!
We know this industry can come with a number of mental hurdles – from imposter syndrome to burnout. APMP is proud of the work that this group and its leadership are doing to combat these issues with community and mutual support.
We delivered nearly 100 hours of new event education
We really upped our CEU/CPD offering this year, with over 97 total hours of education for our members.
We hosted 40 webinars in 2023, averaging out to almost one webinar a week! From Power Half-Hours and sponsored webinars, to in-depth lectures about specific industry issues, our members got a steady stream of invaluable content this year – available to be watched anytime, anywhere. This made it easier for our members to improve their knowledge and skills, as well as maintain their certifications, with 1 CEU/CPD on offer per webinar.
We also hosted multiple large professional development events this year – from in-person experiences like BPC Europe and BPC Orlando, to online extravaganzas like CBDC and the Women’s Virtual Summit. Our 2023 events had a grand total of over 28,000 attendees.
We helped our members to embrace AI
In the wider business landscape, 2023 was the year of artificial intelligence! AI was the topic on everybody’s lips, and APMP was characteristically ahead of the curve.
We hosted two completely AI-focused events, providing a platform for tech experts and our savviest members to share their favorite tips, tricks and tools with the whole APMP community:
- The Winning AI23 Online Conference was an entire day of industry forecasts, best practice advice, tool recommendations and breakthrough ideas – we taught attendees to prompt engineer, balance innovation with data privacy, and predict AI trends.
- Our AI Demo Day was a free benefit for our loyal members that gave our 1,170 attendees a full day of practical, hands-on demonstrations of different AI tools specifically designed for bid and proposal management.
We announced the upcoming APMP academies
This year, we conceptualized and began developing two brand-new learning academies which will be taking APMP’s educational offering to the next level in 2024: the Leadership Academy and the AI Academy.
These academies will be multi-week programs, led by world-class experts on leadership and AI. And they won’t just give innovative insights into their respective topics; they will also culminate in a micro-certification, serving as the final exam in the academy.
We launched the first ever APMP Leadership Conference
We held the first and only online industry leadership conference to help our members nurture their inner leader. We delivered a day of high-quality sessions from some of the world’s best experts on leadership, and showed our attendees what it means to lead with impact.
The conference was another step in APMP’s commitment to helping our members grow and flourish both professionally and personally.
We hosted the first ever APMP Honors Gala
On Thursday December 14, APMP held the inaugural APMP Honors Gala to celebrate the best of the bid and proposal industry in 2023.
This ceremony was the latest installment in a long-standing APMP tradition of honoring the bid and proposal superstars of the year with industry-recognized awards. But this year, APMP went out of its way to recognize these incredible professionals with all the pomp and circumstance their success truly deserves!
The virtual event was broadcast to all corners of the world, and gave every nominated professional a chance to shine on a global stage.
We celebrated the first annual International Day for Bids and Proposals
From 2023, September 29 forever became known as the International Day for Bids and Proposals! Originally conceptualized by BidCraft, this day is designed to spotlight the incredible work that YOU, our members, do every day.
We wanted to make sure that we really let you know how amazing and appreciated you are, so we went the extra mile with a week-long celebration where we gave away over $10,000 in prizes to lucky APMP members. From ten $1,000 cash giveaways, to free merch from the APMP store, we celebrated you in style.
We celebrated our second Member December
As with any association, the members are the lifeblood of APMP. You’ve been out there driving this great profession forward as the backbones of organizations all over the world, and we at APMP HQ want to celebrate all of that hard work. For the second year in a row, we’ve made December a month of treats exclusively designed for our wonderful members. This Member December, we:
- Gave away free APMP Glossaries.
- Launched our new Competitive Price To Win Micro-Certification.
- Gave everyone 15% off on the APMP merch store.
- Launched new APMP merch, including a free t-shirt with BPC registration.
- Awarded a complete certification package to member Aida Rifdi.
- Launched the first-ever APMP podcast.
Thank you for joining us on the incredible ride that was 2023! We can’t wait to show you what we have up our sleeves for 2024…
Have a wonderful holiday period and a Happy New Year!
Join the Conversation