Procuring Innovation with Confidence: Workshop for Local Councils

Are you a local council team or someone who works in the public sector exploring how innovation can help solve complex challenges in the built environment, transport, or digital and data services? This session is tailored for you.

Join us for a practical, collaborative workshop designed to build your confidence in innovation procurement. You'll gain practical knowledge of the innovation procurement process (including challenge definition, pre-market engagement and trials), hear from peers tackling shared challenges and prepare to scale innovative solutions. This session will focus on creating the right foundations to enable innovation procurement. In future sessions we will look at “engaging the market” and “deploying and scaling innovation”.

Why Attend?

-Learn from real council case studies that demonstrate successful innovation procurement.

- Explore various topics on innovation procurement including challenge scoping, pre-market engagement, and trial preparation.

- Build connections with teams across local government working on similar problems.

Agenda:

1:30 PM – 2:00 PM – How to use the new procurement act

2:00 PM – 2:15 PM – The barriers to innovation procurement

2:15 PM – 3:15 PM – Create Problem Statements ready for innovation procurement

3:15 PM – 3:30 PM – Wrap Up & Next Steps 

For those that attend you will be able to schedule an optional drop-in session. These sessions will on a first come first serve basis, and a link to book these sessions will be shared. You will be able to book a session on either:  

- Art of the possible - A session to understand procurement tools that help attract innovative suppliers of all sizes & build new growth hubs.

- Internal Allies & Stakeholder management - Practical guidance on how collaborative efforts can address internal barriers and how to gain buy-in and alignment for procuring innovation across the council teams, leadership.

Who Should Attend?

This session is ideal for:

- Local councils engaged in or curious about innovation procurement

- Local government teams working on challenges in the built environment, transport, or data & digital

- Service, procurement, legal, finance, transformation, policy, delivery and innovation teams

The session will be run by:

Rikesh Shah – Head of Procurement Technical, Connected Places Catapult

Joined by service designers and procurement specialists.

FAQ for attendees:

Can I join even if I missed the earlier sessions?

Yes, you’ll have access to all prior content and can catch up at your own pace.

What support will I receive?

As IPEC Empowerment council, you’ll be supported across topics such as challenge scoping, pre-market engagement, trial preparation, and more. This includes three in-person sessions (to be scheduled in July, October, January), with plenty of opportunities to learn from and with other councils.