WHAT MAKES A GREAT EVENT RFP FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE TABLE

In this episode, we’re talking with Michael Thompson, Vice President of Strategic Communications at Nuveen, who puts together RFPs; and Bethany Potter, Senior Manager, Growth & Administration at Proscenium Events who responds to them. This episode is chock full or actionable advice about the entire RFP process from both sides of the table.

You can read the transcript below or listen to Episode 10 on the episode page, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

EPISODE 10 TRANSCRIPT

JEREMY: Alright, so I am here with Michael Thompson and Bethany Potter. Now we're here to talk about the RFP process and I'm really excited about this because I love the idea that we've got two people on both sides of the table.

Michael, you've spent some time writing RFPs, creating RFPs, and thinking about RFPs. Bethany, you've spent a ton of time responding to RFPs. Michael, I kind of want to start with you and say, when you're making an RFP, what makes an RFP a good RFP?

MICHAEL: Yeah, that's a great question. Actually, let me tell you a little bit of the story behind the RFP that brought the three of us together. I was at Lowe’s, and we held a pretty major annual meeting called our national sales meeting, at the time it was called NSM. My boss's boss asked a very simple, important question about our incumbent production agency. We had been with them for 11 years, and his very simple question was, “Are they expensive?”

CHUCK: This is not behind the scenes Bethany breaking in with a fact check. Michael's boss's boss was Brian Peace, former SVP of administration at Lowe's.

MICHAEL: There's really only one way to know the answer to that question and that's to do the RFP process, but in order to get to that point, you have to write it in a way that everyone you're inviting to participate will understand and be able to give you the information you need in order to make that apples-to-apples comparison.

It sounds simple on the surface, and then it gets really difficult, really fast. You realize that for a project this size, the budget was somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million.

When you're doing something as comprehensive, as creative, as difficult, and as putting together a show of that magnitude, it is obvious that we've got a few more questions, and we need a little more information before we can make a choice.

I would say that the real secret is collaboration. The real secret to a good RFP is writing it in a way that no matter who they send it off to, they're going to understand what it is you're looking for. Again, it’s the only way to make sure that you're getting apples-to-apples comparisons across the board.

When we say company A is going to charge us 3 million and company B is going to charge us 10 million, are they really responding to the same thing? Why is there a $7 million gap in that? That was important for us to write simply, to get as much input as we could, and get it out that way.

JEREMY: Right, wow that's very interesting. I have a couple of follow-up questions for you. You don't want someone to be coming in at 3 million and someone else to be coming in at 10 million, so my first question is, can you sort of control that in the process by giving them a budget and asking what can you give me for the budget? Do you think it's better to just say these are the things we need? What would it cost?

MICHAEL: You can put the control in there, and I had an argument with our procurement team about exactly that. They probably would have preferred that we had done that. Except, I told them it's a little bit of a cost analysis. What do we get for that? If somebody comes in at 3 million, what does that show look like relative to what we have? If somebody comes in at 10 million, what does that look like? Brian didn't say it had to be cheaper. Brian just wanted to know how expensive our incumbent was relative to the others.

I argued with procurement to say, if we find a firm in this process that's double the price but gives us a show that is 10 times better, isn't that worth the money? They didn't have much of a comeback when I put it that way, so we went to Brian for clarification. I said, “If we're just doing this to find an answer but we find something better along the way, do you want to know about it?” He said, “Yes.” That's when we decided not to put the control in there.

BETHANY: It's interesting though because if you have 900K for a show, that show's going to look so much different than a $10 million show, but if you are expecting a $10 million show and we're conservative in our budget, you're going to be disappointed and not get what you're looking for.

Having even a range or some sort of anchor point to shoot for can be really helpful so that we have the best chance of giving you what you're trying to accomplish with that.

MICHAEL: Yeah, and I agree with you. The way we addressed it in the RFP was to not arrange a budget range but say we need a set that's going to seat 2,500 people at tables in chairs with a view of the stage from virtually anywhere in the room.

There were some things that we put in that we asked for from a creative standpoint that would certainly have ruled out the idea that I'm just going to give you four spotlights, a couple of downstage monitors, and call it good. I think there were certain minimum, not dollar figures, requirements for what our set and our show had to include.

BETHANY: Certainly. When we don't have those budget numbers or any ranges, those sorts of cues are so helpful so that we have something to latch on to, to give us an idea of how much we can do, and how big the show should be. We just make assumptions and go from there.

MICHAEL: Yeah, absolutely.

JEREMY: You may or may not have found that the incumbent was expensive, but you decided to make a change for additional reasons, I'm guessing. What is that? Other than costs, which obviously is hugely important, what do you find in the proposal that makes think you should make a change or not?

MICHAEL: That's a great question so here's what we found out to answer Brian's question. The answer to his question was they were right in the middle. We got proposals that were, again, 2-3 million dollars for the whole show. We got proposals that were 10 million for the whole show. Here's the funny part, when we made the decision to switch, Proscenium was slightly more expensive, but not by a lot. It was by less than a couple of hundred thousand dollars, but technically Proscenium was just slightly more than what we had been paying.

That proved to me, once again, that Brian asked a great question, but that shouldn't be the end of the story. Let's find out what else. Really, what I was learning was that we could get an incrementally better show for just a fraction more of the money. I want to say that we had more than 20 proposals come in, and for procurement, that was a record for them in terms of just the volume of the number of pages that were involved and that they eventually turned over to us.

They're used to one- or two-page proposals, and they get five of them. I want to say there were like 24. The smallest of the 24 was like 35 pages. The biggest overall was like 100. It took a good two weeks for all of us to go through all of them and give them the attention that was due.

We wanted to give them the respect that they had earned by participating in the process and putting their effort, their heart, their soul, their blood, and their creativity into those things. I believe we invited four to come to Charlotte and do a standup pitch. What really separated those four from the other 20 or so, were some interesting ideas and approaches to things that we had been doing the same way for years and had even written it that way in the proposal.

A lot of these proposals came back and said, “Have you ever considered sitting everybody like this? Have you ever considered doing your manager of the year show like this?” The answer was no, we considered any of those things. We just thought we put people in a room, we put up some screens, and we're good to go. Quite frankly, what we started to do when we were going through, was really add up the number of new ideas and hope they were not going to get too mad if we don't go with them, but we still steal that idea.

There was a lot of that, and I think that was eye-opening for me too because it's a two-way street. Yes, we are letting agencies see behind the scenes of what we do and how we do it. We're also getting to see behind the scenes what agencies do and their creative process. They're sharing some ideas with us that maybe they don't necessarily want to become public if they're not getting paid for it. I totally understand that now, and our incumbent came to us with some really great ideas.

I will say that was also a little bit of heartburn for us because the question became, why did it take an RFP for our incumbent to come to us with those two ideas? They were great ideas and they had just been sitting there. That wasn't cool, but we saw some really great things. In the end, it was unique ideas and a level of creativity. I would just say in each case of the four, there was a level of honesty in the RFP, as well. When they didn't have a great solution or have an answer that was better than what we already put, they told us that.

In that answer, it was good to know. If you guys have all these clients, you do all these proposals all the time, and you see something we're doing that you wouldn't touch, then thank you for letting us know that.

JEREMY: Yeah, that is super interesting. It's worth mentioning for the people who are listening that if you've never seen one of these proposals, as Michael said, they can be between 30 and 120 pages. They are works of art, some of them, with the graphics, the scenery, and the amount of creative work that goes into these.

It is just worth mentioning for folks who may not know. These four agencies that Michael was talking about, all of the work, all of the time, and all of the energy that goes into putting together a proposal and then flying down to Charlotte to meet the team, putting your team up, and all of that, the agency is responsible for all of those costs.

These proposals are not inexpensive to put together on the agency side, so Bethany, I'm curious to hear from you. Michael was talking about the value, the vision, and the honesty that he found in some of these proposals. When you're putting that proposal together, what are you trying to do? What are you trying to make sure is in there in order to win and impress the client? Ensuring our team is going to bring something that no one else will.

BETHANY: Yeah, it is a really interesting question. I think the word value is really important because you could go based on who's going to give me the cheapest show, but you're not going to get the best show that you could. There are sometimes things that just cost money, so you need to have a budget.

If you want to have that particular element, the set with the automation, or something that is going to be really cool but there needs to be money behind it, sometimes you just need to pay a little bit more for those things. Elements that I think about when putting together the response to a proposal are addressing what was asked. Did we answer all of the questions that they had or are all of the pieces that were mentioned in the design? Usually, we will design it specifically for that client. Does the look and feel match our understanding of the brand, which admittedly is usually from the outside?

We don't usually get brand guidelines. There is a little bit of a risk there if their branding has changed and it's not as apparent from their website. I would say also paying attention to detail. We always talk about, even if we're just doing the keynote, we look at the whole show and all of the messaging. There might be some pieces that are in other parts of the show that we want to fold into the keynote. If we hadn't paid attention to those details, we wouldn't have been aware of that messaging to pull it through in the parts that we are touching.

I would say also not just sharing case studies. What is something that is specific and tailored to what they're asking for and to the specific clients? A fun hip brand is going to have very different needs, likes, and wants than a company in finance or pharma. They can still have fun too, but it's a different vibe.

I think that's something that's important to get across, that we get that. I think also shows personality. We can do that in certain ways and ascend in that. It's just right written and there isn't any additional commentary from us, but really where you get that personality is in the standup. That’s a whole other level that you get to see who we are. We get to show you what we value, and how well we worked with you or might work with you depending on what the feeling is in that room. Those are the main things that come to mind for what makes a good proposal.

JEREMY: Yeah. I think it's worth mentioning again, for people who might not be as familiar with these proposals, that really what you're being asked to do is design the entire event from top to bottom. When Bethany says, not just send in case studies, it's not like the agency has a generic proposal that you can send in to say this is the sort of thing we do. The question isn't what is the sort of thing you do? The question is, what would you do for us very specifically? You're talking about a multi-day conference and a lot of the time. Basically, for every second of that conference, what are you doing and how are you making it come alive for the attendees?

Now, I'd love to hear because, again, I just love this round table from each side of the fence from the agency perspective. To some extent, this proposal just shows up here. How’d it get here? Don’t know. From the client side, we've put a lot of work into it, but here's this proposal, it just showed up, and I'd love to hear each of you talk a little bit about the process.

Michael, how did you come up with these questions? How much of a team did you have? How did you know the right questions to ask? Was there brainstorming? Was there anyone on the team who was vetoing stuff or how did that work?

Then, Bethany, I'd love to hear from you. Once you get the proposal, between then and the due date, what does that process look like to get it answered?

Michael is chronologically. Yours comes first, so let's start with you.

MICHAEL: Yeah, it's interesting. When I was at Lowe's, really, the NSM process for me was a 365-day, year-long journey. It always started with me on the flight home from Vegas. We get on the airplane, the show just ended last night, and here we are. I've got about four or five hours now and it started going through my mind, what worked, what didn't, what surprised us, what went exactly the way we envisioned it, what didn't come close to the way we envisioned it, what got the biggest response, and what are people talking about daily?

We had an app and there's always a function on there. People can just chat about what they experienced, and we might prompt them with some poll. By getting some of that immediate feedback in that particular year, that's when we got the question from Brian, “Can anybody tell me how expensive this is?” Immediately, I went from let's start preparing for next year to now, we get to do this.

Our normal process of getting ready for the next NSM was interrupted immediately with, this. We got to do an RFP, so we convened the team that really puts the meeting together. They really know what it takes and it takes an army to put that show on because you're doing it in a way where you are trying to cover every single detail of an attendee's experience from the moment they first hear about it, to the save the date, to the theme unveiling, to nominations for various awards going out, to coming back and being announced, so by the time they get on the airplane to fly to Vegas. That's at least the 10th touch point that we've had with an attendee.

In our process for putting together that RFP, yes, it was the core group of us who work on NSM year-round, or at least call it 8-9 months out of the year. We also realize that we had to bring in all the other people who usually don't touch it until the very end. That meeting was in February and there may be a whole host of people that don't really jump in and get involved till January or even onsite, quite frankly.

We needed their input, as well. It was very much a collaborative effort. I would say there were probably 30 to 40 people who contributed in some way, shape or form to putting the RFP itself together.

JEREMY: 30 to 40 people, I can imagine, as you said, there's this wide-ranging attendee journey, so you've got 30 to 40 people responsible for various points along that journey who want to ask specific questions once they submit those questions. Maybe they're not even questions, but just something I think you should ask about or talk about.

Are they then involved in the decision-making, or do they just turn it over at that?

MICHAEL: Yeah. Outside of that group of 30 to 40 people, at the end of the day to answer your earlier question about does anybody have veto power, I think any one of us in the core group could have raised our hand and said that question doesn't work, and here’s why. Can we work on changing that question to address what I think is an issue? I think we all had the power to do that.

The group that, in the end, made the decision was that group plus a certain collection of senior-level executives. They didn't sit in on the presentations themselves, at least not the whole group, but we also wanted them to see it.

In the end, there were probably eight or nine people who made the final decision on who we were going to hear from in person, who our finalists were, and then who we were going to go with.

JEREMY: Wow. Very interesting. Bethany, so they've put all this work into the proposal. 30 to 40 people have been involved and now it lands on your desk. What happens?

BETHANY: Yeah. Then we have a kickoff meeting, in which usually there's a core team of about four or five. Usually, it's a partner, a creative, production person, a graphic designer, and myself. We will talk about what we understood from the RFP, which will also come from research that we've done about that company and the industry knowledge that we have. Who should be on that team just evaluating and what are the elements?

We need to have a person to help us with recommendations and budgeting. Do we need a scenic designer to come in and do things? Is there an expo or logistics component because we can do all sorts of things? We have a lot of internal experience and people who can do lots of different pieces of the show, but then we also have trusted partners in a bunch of other folks that we use on a very regular basis.

We have to figure out who we are going to bring in for the proposal. Who would we bring in if we won the event and then start to build out? What do we want this particular response to look like? Then what is the timeline we've been given? From like 10 days, not 10 business days, to several months and everything in between, it can be really tough when it's on the shorter end of that spectrum, but we make it work. We make it happen just as we would with any element of a show.

Once we've had that discussion, our creative director will go away, and come up with an outline of what the presentation and all those slides should look like. We'll go through that with a designer who will start to put together that look and feel. Then I play a project manager role of facilitating, and all of these pieces are happening simultaneously. Then we'll meet and we'll discuss numerous elements. It could be a strategy.

It could be the specific look and graphics on a slide. It could be the copy, scenic, or whatever elements. We're having to wear multiple hats at the same time. Then, if that's a week process or if that's a month process depends on what that particular client gave us for that timeline. Once we finalized everything, we will package it and either upload it to a requested procurement site or to our microsite, often both. We like to upload to our microsite because it gives us a chance to also include videos of our events that were photographed beautifully, but when you're there, you're immersed, and it's even better.

It's easier to get that across in a video than it is in a photo. By having our microsite, we can give you that little bit of an extra look into what our events are actually like. Then we wait and sometimes the clients are very punctual with the timing they gave us. Sometimes they're not, sometimes they communicate that, and sometimes they don't. We just have to wait, and then, usually, there'll be a standup. We'll put that together, that re-imagined version of the presentation. We'll rehearse it a few times to make sure we're saying things in the way we want to say them in the clearest way we present them. Then we wait. Either there are next steps, or they tell us what their decision is, and we go from there.

JEREMY: The way waiting is the hardest part.

BETHANY: Yes.

MICHAEL: On our side too.

[JEREMY & MICHAEL LAUGH]

JEREMY: You put it out and you're like, what's going to come back?

MICHAEL: Who’s going to participate? We have no idea. Are we going to get one back? Are we going to get, “Yeah that was hard.”

JEREMY: Bethany, in a typical process, how many versions of a deck would you say you go through?

BETHANY: In terms of versions that the full team sees because I also have intermediate versions, I have a very close working process with the designer. I will sometimes sit back and forth with them, but just looking at the versions that go to the full team, I would say, it's very common for us to have 15 or 20.

JEREMY: It's pretty crazy. You both were talking about the standup, and I do want to talk about the standup, Michael, I'll ask you why we need the standup. Is the standup important? Did you learn anything super valuable?

Did anything really surprise you? Was there anything crazy that happened at the standup?

MICHAEL: One crazy thing happened, and I could tell you we were shocked at it. We just assumed everyone would rehearse together, come as a team, and present as if this is our varsity. One of the four did not. In fact, it was the largest agency that we invited to do the stand-up with us.

In the end, they came with four people that had not worked together, and they all met in Charlotte that morning. Not only was the delivery, not smooth, but at various points, they were either contradicting each other, arguing with each other, and we got a flat-out, “You’ve said enough, shush from one to another.”

[MICHAEL LAUGHS]

JEREMY: Wow.

MICHAEL: We were blown away. We were not expecting that at all for obvious reasons, but is it necessary?

[JEREMY LAUGHS]

A hundred percent it’s necessary because don't ever assume that somebody is going to come in and give you a well-rehearsed, well-practiced pitch as much as you think. That's just common sense, apparently not.

What was really interesting was that one of the lead guys in that group reached back out to me a couple of weeks later and apologized. He said that we had some challenges on our end with getting the right people together at the right time. There was some miscommunication about who was coming in. Some people that got sent really had no business being there. There were experts in their little area, but they had never really seen the broader picture. He said, “I completely understand why we're not in consideration anymore. We screwed up on our end.”

Here's the other thing, everything we had seen up until that point was on paper or on our computer screens. All of that is great, but we're in the live event business, and at some point, we're all going to have to be in the same place. Seeing how the other team interacts and supports each other, isn’t really eye-opening and really important.

Ultimately, from the other side of the table, we were hiring an agency, and we had to trust that they were going to execute the way they planned, the way they put it on paper, and that they were actually capable of doing it onsite.

While we might get a glimpse of that in a standup, we have absolutely no glimpse of it if we don't do the standup. We have no idea, so I would highly recommend it for just those reasons though. Don't assume that they're all on the same page. You get a chance to see how they support each other and how they treat each other. If they treat each other with respect, then they'll likely treat us with respect, as well. Hopefully, they get a sense that we are going to be a good client to work for.

Here's the thing that I think most of the companies on my side of the table forget, especially those who do events in January, February, and March, the agency that you've hired doesn't actually have the graphic artists, the prompter operator, or the guy who hangs. They're not employees, right? The agency goes out and hires the best teams that they can get, especially at those times of the year. We're not the only show in town. There are at least 10 other shows happening in Vegas that week, which means there are at least 10 other teams that are out there working.

I want the best. I want the varsity on my show. The way I treat my agents and the way we treat everybody on site is going to go a long way toward ensuring that if we didn't get the varsity in year one, we're going to get them in year two. That is because word is going to spread that the show is one you want to be on. They don't have crazy hours. They don't treat people poorly backstage. They don't yell at graphic designers. They don't come to the show site without having any clue yet what they want to do and the whole team is just in the back waiting for an executive to figure out what he or she wants to say. Those shows exist. We know it.

We know that there's demand for the best talent and the best talent gets to choose which show they want to work on. And so, we make sure very early that we're working with somebody who treats each other well. They see that we're going to treat them well and hopefully, they can go out and bring the best team to us for our show.

JEREMY: That's incredible advice, Michael. That's worth the price of the admission to this podcast right there. That's exactly right.

Bethany, in terms of the standup, is there anything you want to add in terms of why you like them? Why do you need them from your perspective?

BETHANY: It's always nice when the client’s side values, appreciates, and understands that we did have to fly out. We didn't have to spend money in addition to everything that we've already spent, much like with any sort of a process like this.

Michael, you also talked about this. It's a chance for us to see how the client works and how they operate to get a better feel for them. I think we've covered most of the pieces.

JEREMY: Great. Hypothetically speaking, what do you wish was different about this process? What do you think, Michael?

MICHAEL: It's hard to answer that question. It's tempting to say, let's shorten the timeline from the moment we decide we're going to do an RFP, to the moment we get it out, and to the moment we get them back and make our decisions. For us, that was about a three-month process, and I don't know if that's good or bad. All I knew was that it was three months that I wasn't working on a show that was coming up.

Here's the one thing I would absolutely make a part of the timeline. We included things that mentioned that we need to hear by this date, we're going to make first-round cuts by this date, and we hope to bring our finalists to Charlotte by this date. We want to bring our winner in a second time to onboard them. When we awarded the business to Proscenium, we said to come back to Charlotte, we want to do onboarding, and we want you to get to know us. We put them through full corporate onboarding. We took them to stores. We did store walks. We introduced them to store managers who were really the bulk of the audience for that particular show.

We wanted Proscenium to leave, a second time, feeling like now I really understand Lowe's, I know their business, I've met the audience, I know what's on their mind, and can now work that into our timeline. I'm very glad that we did that, and if you're not doing that with your RFP, including that detailed timeline because you know when you want them working on a show. What happens from the time you hire somebody to the time you arrive on site?

JEREMY: Yeah, I completely agree that onboarding makes a huge difference. Bethany, how about you? Is there anything you wish was different about the process?

BETHANY: I would say that companies should be hiring agencies for their thinking and for their alignment on how they work. We always tell clients that we can come up with ideas on our own, but we create the best result when we collaborate with you and come up with ideas together. Sure, we can design you a set. We can come up with creative ideas. We can do anything you want, but is it going to be right for you?

I wish that was a little bit more part of the process. Maybe, it's not so much of what we want and then we give them something. Maybe, a more procurement style, as well.

The first round gets some of those, understandably, important pieces regarding budget and how they charge for different things. Then having a part that's like, how do we work together? Do we jive? Do we like their vibe? Do we like how they think about things and how they brainstorm?

That would be a really interesting thing. I think that some people take that to heart when we say it, but some people kind of forget that even. If we do say, “I didn't like their specific design or I didn't like these things,” it's okay. We can change them. We can come up with something different. We can't read your mind, but if we work with you, we can really tailor something that hopefully you would love.

I would say, also, something I wish people did a little bit more during the process is reaching out to our references. We always are encouraging clients to talk to the people we're working with and ask them how it is working with us. What is that like? What do they like about working with us? This is to help them gauge from someone who worked with us. Sure, they're working with us, but they're going to have a different perspective than just me telling you, “Yes, we’re great.”

The last thing I'll say on this is, please respond with what your decision is. We have been left hanging before, and we put all this time, energy, effort, and heart and soul into these responses. It would be nice to be given that little bit of respect to say, “We're really sorry, but we went with another agency.” That alone would be really nice.

MICHAEL: From my side, we did that with both sets of cuts. We reached out by phone because ultimately, even though we were so excited about the direction we were headed, there was no guarantee that it was going to work out with Proscenium. We may be back in the same boat a year later. Did you just burn 23 bridges by not treating those people? If you end up in a worst-case scenario where you got to go through the process again, do you want people to participate? Word gets around with the way you treat them in the process.

Bethany, I am so glad that you said to hire somebody for how they think. We got so many proposals that really focused on the warehouse. For instance, we have plywood in every shape and size. What do you want to do with the plywood? We got so much feedback like, “You've got to come to our gigantic campus in Ohio and you got to check this out.” I don't know why we need to do that but sure. We wanted to find somebody who had a sense of, here's an idea, here's how we were running your show, and this is what it would look and feel like.

I love that Proscenium was upfront and said, “We don't own any equipment. We're a very small shop. You're hiring us for what's between the years, we can get you plywood, we can get the right color paint, we can put carpet on it, and we can do all those things, but we don't need to have it. That's not what you're hiring us for.

JEREMY: This is amazing. I would love to move on to our Lightning Round if we can. These are three quick questions. We can just move through these fast.

Bethany, maybe I'll start with you for these three. The first one is, who's your biggest get? A speaker, entertainer, or subject matter expert that you would either love to see at a live event or someone who you would love to coach.

BETHANY: Hands down, Janelle Monae. I think that she is so stylish, and the way that she plays with fashion, her music, her as a person, and what she represents is just really inspiring.

JEREMY: Michael, how about you? Who is your biggest get?

MICHAEL: She was a surprise. Her name is Becky Halstead. She's a retired general. She was the first woman general to serve in a combat theater. She was in Iraq and Afghanistan.

MARK: This is not behind the scenes Bethany breaking with a fact check. Actually, everything Michael said about Becky is true. I just wanted to say hi. Hello everyone, carry on.

MICHAEL: Her lessons on leadership and team building were just terrific. As I said, not the biggest name in the business, but give her a look, U.S. army retired general Becky Halston.

JEREMY: Okay, we will link to her in the show notes. Second question, what is one thing you wish presenters did more of or less of?

BETHANY: I would say involve the audience more, whether that be through stories that are more tailored to them or asking for questions in a way where you can get responses. There's a myriad of other ways you can do that but involve the audience more.

JEREMY: Well, we just kept talking and talking, but we're trying to keep these episodes on the shorter side, so I'm fading this out. I’ve got to say it getting to talk with Michael and Bethany about how to make the most of the RFP process was so great.

For me, there were about a dozen takeaways, but these are the top four.

            • Number four, the secret to a good RFP is writing it in a way that everyone who reads it will understand exactly what you're looking for.

            • Number three, factor in how an agency thinks into your decision-making process, it's much more important than what sort of gear they own.

            • Number two, if you're presenting a standup of a pitch, make sure your team is well rehearsed.

            • Number one, treat your whole team with respect in order to attract the best people to your team.

Look, I could talk about this stuff all day. If you want to talk to us about today's topic or anything about live events, check out our episode notes for more information or just go to proscenium.com to drop us a line. Send us a guest suggestion or tell us why you would make a good guest. We would love to hear from you because at Proscenium, we help presenters do their best in front of their most important audiences. As we like to say, we help brands perform. I have a sneaking suspicion that we can help your brand perform.