The Convention Industry Council (CIC) has released a new APEX tool to assist meeting planners with creating and managing requests for proposals (RFPs), it announced yesterday.
Called the "APEX RFP Workbook," the new tool gives planners a way to keep the most common RFPs associated with a meeting, convention, exhibition or event — for instance, RFPs for single facility events, citywide events, audio/visual services, destination management company (DMC) and transportation services, and general contractor services — in a single location. Drawing from automated RFP templates that incorporate APEX best practices, it uses a spreadsheet-driven approach that removes as much extraneous and duplicative information as possible and incorporates streamlined features such as drop-down menus and auto-populating fields.
"Our goals in creating the APEX RFP Workbook were to provide a simple resource that was built on 'APEX DNA' and focused on being accessible and easy to use and understand," said MaryAnne Bobrow of Bobrow & Associates, chair of the APEX Standards Review Council, the volunteer body that created the tool. "The full APEX RFP documents are valuable resources to our industry and are enormously comprehensive blueprints. The workbook translates those blueprints into a handy tool."
Added Doug McPhee of the Experient Sales Network, who chaired the Standards Review Council when the project began, "One of the benefits of moving to a spreadsheet format for the templates is that they can continue to adapt and improve over time to include new functions and to correct any problems. The SRC Council anticipates that feedback from planners and suppliers alike will continually improve the workbook on an ongoing basis."
In development since 2008, the APEX standards include nine individual topic areas, including: Accommodations, Audio/Visual, Communication, Exhibits, Food and Beverage, On-Site Office, Destinations, Meeting Venue and Transportation.
The APEX RFP Workbook is available from the CIC website, www.conventionindustry.org.