Summary

The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) is seeking to identify a qualified pool of expert event and travel management vendors to support various international training courses, meetings and APHL Infectious Disease (ID) programmatic efforts.

Requirements

International event management contractors will support the travel and meeting logistics associated with international events. As events requiring vendor support are identified, APHL will select a vendor from the established vendor pool to perform the work. Proposals will be evaluated based on the vendor’s experience and capacity to provide the services outlined in Appendix A and summarized as follows:

  • Travel management and coordination including booking transportation and transferring participant travel information to a third party as described in Appendix A.
  • Hotel accommodations
  • Event venue identification and contract negotiation
  • Meeting materials including print production and translation
  • Onsite support
  • Stipend disbursement

Timeline

October 13, 2016 - RFP issued
October 25, 2016 - Informational teleconference for RFP questions and answers
November 1, 2016 - Letter of intent due
November 12, 2016 - Vendor proposal due
November 21, 2016 - Proposal review completed
November 28, 2016 - If needed, follow-up interviews and updated proposals due
November 29, 2016 - Final review completed and awardees selected
November 30, 2016 - Draft contracts submitted to APHL Legal Dept. for final internal review

Any modification to this anticipated schedule will be posted here (www.aphl.org/rfp).

Request for Proposal Materials

The International Event Management Contractor RFP provides details on how to complete this RFP. The RFP contains a copy of the scoring criteria that will be used for evaluation of proposals in Appendix C. The expectations for contractors is outlined in Appendix A.

Questions And Answers

Are applicants expected to source hotels for the meeting examples in Q0 or are budgeted allowances sufficient?

A: Either option is acceptable. We encourage you to build your budgets as accurately as possible and hotel prices should be representative of the local markets at a minimum. Specific hotels certainly may be included in your proposal.​

My organization does not work in the regions listed in Q9, but we would like to be considered for work in other parts of the world. How should we proceed on the event response if we are declining the opportunity to bid on the 2 meetings outlined in the RFP?

A: Please still submit budgets for the 2 proposed meetings to the best of your abilities. You may use estimates from countries you have worked in previously or provide your best guess based on research you do over the next week. As long as you explain how you came to your figures, that will help the selection team evaluate your proposal and get an idea of how your company works. While the budgets will be compared and ranked among all applicants, the cost is not the only factor that will be considered. Please clearly describe the regions/countries your company is comfortable working in your proposal.​

How will the evaluation process and decision notification function?

A: APHL staff, led by the Influenza Program Senior Specialist, will conduct an initial review of all proposals for completeness. Complete proposals will be reviewed by a team of five subject matter experts (SMEs) familiar with international event planning. The evaluation team will consist of 2 APHL staff, 2 CDC employees and 1 APHL member. The evaluation team will evaluate proposals based on the responses to the questions above and will give a numeric score of up to 100 maximum points based on the scorecard template in Appendix B: International Training Event Contractor RFP Score Card. The reviewers may request follow-up interviews with all or some of the applicants, contact applicant references and, following these interviews, may request supplemental information on an applicant’s proposal. References will be contacted at the discretion of the review team if additional information is needed or to corroborate any part of an application. References may not be contacted for all applicants. Applicants will be notified directly via email with their selection status and it will be publically announced on the aphl.com/rfp website by November 29, 2016.

Would event contractors be responsible for contacting subject matter experts or providing content for these events?

A: No; APHL or CDC partner will provide the content and instructors/presenters for events. Contractors may be asked for provide translation services for print materials or onsite support (can be subcontracted).

Is it ok for a subcontractor to provide the direct data feed to the GDS?

A: Yes; please describe your plans for the arrangement in your proposal. APHL will likely only be able to cover the cost for 1 connection per awardee for multi-year award. Any additional data feed connections may be at the expense of the awardee.

Can the hotel location be in a different location than a proposed training location? For example, can hotels in Kimpala be considered for the Entebbe, Uganada training in the RFP Q9?

A: Yes; please describe your rationale for expanding the lodging location and plans for transporting participants between the meeting location and the hotel.

It is difficult to provide estimates for airfare in Q9 without knowing the departure locations of participants. How can we best address this in our budget proposals?

A: We recognize this estimate will not be accurate and encourage you to include an estimate with an explanation. For the Uganda course in Q9, all participants will be from Africa. The participants for the Senegal course in Q9 will be primarily from Africa and with a few from the Eastern Mediterranean.

When developing the budgets in Q9, can an additional column for cost per category be added?

A: Yes; you may add additional information as you see fit, but please be sure to address all of the items initially included in the budget template.

Must applicants maintain business travel accident and commercial liability insurance at all times or can this be provided as needed, such as during the length of an event and associated travel?

A: No; Successful applicants need not to maintain these policies at all times. Please provide documentation acknowledging you understand the insurance requirements, your plan for obtaining the necessary policies. Proof of these policies may be required prior to (or at time of) contracting with APHL for a particular course. Related, include any costs for this coverage in your proposed budgets if there is a per event cost. If you have a blanket policy, that is expected to be accounted for in your planning and coordinating fees.

Do you need any meeting room space at the hotel for the events in Q9?

A: No; neither event in Q9 require meeting space at the hotel.

What are the A/V requirements for the events in Q9?

A: The host institution will provide these amenities if needed. You will not need to source additional vendors for A/V.

Do you need interpreters for the workshops?

A: At this time, there are no requirements for interpreters at the events in Q9. We may request translation of course materials, but APHL has not fully outlined those requirements yet so applicants are not expected to account for this in proposals.

Will the contractor be collecting all the course material?

A: Yes, although APHL will identify the course instructors to provide content and course materials. APHL will communicate with course instructors to submit material directly to the contractor.

Will the contractor be designing the course material to meet branding requirements?

A: Contractors may be requested to use APHL templates for table tents, name tags and certificates. Individuals providing course material are responsible for using the appropriately branded presentation template and the contractor will not be expected to reformat presentations.

The RFP states that “Award amounts will depend on the scope of the proposed event with the minimum award per event of $25,000." Is the $25k the minimum contractor payment or event budget, including contractor fees?

A: The $25,000 minimum award is the minimum budget amount that would be sent out to a contractor. This is inclusive of reimbursable expenses and your company’s fees. Any events that APHL projects will fall below that threshold amount will be organized in-house by APHL. While the minimum is set at $25K, we anticipate total expenses for our courses will fall in the $60-100K range.

Can my submission exceed the 8 page limit? Would it be suitable to keep my written responses to less than 8 pages and attach an addendum/appendix with the budgets and notes?

A: Your numerical score will not be penalized by exceeding the 8 page limit, however it is at the discretion of the evaluation team whether they choose to review documents beyond 8 pages. We recommend keeping your written responses for questions 1-8 and budgets for question 9 within the page limit. You can certainly include your notes for the budget as an appendix. You may also include details for long answers in an appendix, such as reference lists or policy terms. We want all applicants to be able to best represent their work in a way that is still digestible for the evaluation team.

Where you ask for the cost per item, we assume this would be our cost for managing the individual element of the event and not the cost of the element? Or would you need us to provide the actual element cost?

A: Correct; The question was written to discourage costs from being broken down per participant. For example, please do not list transportation as $100 per day per participant. Instead, you would list the cost as $6500. You may include your cost of managing the element in the element itself or list all of your managing costs as a line item at the bottom. You may also add additional line items to your budget, but please do not remove any.

Although you don’t actually request flights for instructors and staff, this is something we could manage for you, would you like us to provide costings for this?

A: At this time APHL and CDC plan to manage their respective staff travel internally. Your proposal does not need to include costing for managing flights for instructors and staff.

Is a full proposal submitted over email sufficient or would you like this mailed to you as well?

A: Yes, an email submission is sufficient. You do not need to mail a copy as well.

Are you expecting us to actually source hotels for this meeting example or is budgeted allowances sufficient and expected?

A: Either option is acceptable. We encourage you to build your budgets as accurately as possible and hotel prices should be representative of the local markets at a minimum. Specific hotels certainly may be included in your proposal.