In July 2025, the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) put its community work out to tender. The open procedure covered the EIC (European Innovation Council) Community and its platform, community events, matchmaking with ecosystem partners and a women leadership programme, with an estimated value of EUR 7 million over a maximum of 48 months (EISMEA, call for tenders EISMEA/2025/OP/0024, July 2025). Bidders had from 23 July to 9 September to respond. The platform was only one part of the contract.
Smaller programmes face similar questions when preparing a tender. A cluster, a chamber or an agency running a funded programme has to buy an event or community platform before it knows which vendor fits. Much of the outcome is settled before any vendor writes a proposal: by what you buy, how you describe it and how you score it.
This guide explains how to connect the specification, scoring criteria and implementation timeline. Describe the tasks participants and organisers need to complete, decide how bidders will demonstrate them and agree the assessment with your procurement team early.
This is practical orientation, not legal advice. Procurement rules depend on your country, your status as a contracting authority and your funding conditions, so involve your procurement office from the first draft.
Decide what you are buying
The EISMEA example shows the first decision. You can tender software alone, or software plus the people who run it: setup, community management, event days and reporting. Each option attracts a different set of bidders:
- Platform licence only: you buy the software and support, and your team runs the community. This suits programmes with a community manager on staff.
- Platform plus operating services: the vendor also sets up each event, imports participants, configures the matchmaking rules and staffs a support desk on event days.
- Full service including events: one contractor delivers platform, community management and events, as in the EISMEA tender. You get a single point of accountability, but the contractor chooses the platform.
Bundling looks simpler. It also narrows the field. The EU procurement directive encourages authorities to divide contracts into lots, and an authority that decides not to divide must state its main reasons (Directive 2014/24/EU, Article 46). A common split is one lot for the platform and one for community management and events. A platform vendor can still bid on both, and a specialist agency can compete for the second. A platform tender is a different document from the request for proposal you send to venues and destination management companies; that one is covered in our guide to the event RFP.
Estimate the value and check the threshold
The scope you choose sets the contract value, and the value sets the procedure. Count the full contract: every year of the term, optional extensions, setup, training and support, all excluding VAT.
EU procurement figures that shape a platform tender in 2026
Here is what that means in practice. A platform at EUR 45,000 a year over four years, plus EUR 30,000 for setup and event support, is a EUR 210,000 contract. For a regional agency that is just below the threshold. For a ministry it is well above it. If events are the main subject of a bundled contract, the higher threshold of EUR 750,000 for social and other specific services (Directive 2014/24/EU, Article 4(d) and Annex XIV) may apply instead.
Below the thresholds, national and sometimes regional rules apply, and many authorities still require a simplified competition or several quotes. Some buyers follow other frameworks altogether. EU institutions and agencies such as EISMEA buy under the EU’s own Financial Regulation (Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509), and in England, Wales and Northern Ireland the Procurement Act 2023 has governed new procurements since 24 February 2025. If your programme runs on an EU grant, check the grant agreement too, because it can set conditions for purchases made with project money.
Talk to the market before you write
Once you know the rough value, find out what it buys. The directive allows preliminary market consultations before a procedure starts, provided the advice does not distort competition or break the principles of non-discrimination and transparency (Directive 2014/24/EU, Article 40).
A useful consultation is short. Describe the programme in one page, add four or five situations the platform has to handle, and ask three to five vendors for a 45-minute demo and an indicative price. Give everyone the same information and keep a note of what you shared. Ask each vendor which of your situations their standard product covers and which need custom work. The price difference usually sits there.
You will also see things a feature list hides. A demo where an investor declines twelve meeting requests in under a minute tells you more than a page of claims about “intuitive matchmaking”.
Write the specification as scenarios
Feature lists invite ticks. Every vendor will tick “matchmaking”, “reporting” and “GDPR compliant”, and your procurement officer will rightly ask how you plan to score three identical ticks. Scenarios make the differences visible, and the directive allows you to set technical specifications as performance or functional requirements (Directive 2014/24/EU, Article 42).
Write each block as a situation with a clear test, for example: “An investor wants requests only from seed-stage startups in two sectors. Show how this rule is set up and changed during the programme.” Seven blocks cover most programme platforms:
- Roles and rules: startups, investors, corporates, mentors and your team; who can see and request whom; who may change the rules mid-programme.
- Meetings and event days: online and on-site meetings, time slots, table allocation and caps on incoming requests for groups in high demand.
- Data protection and security: a data processing agreement under Article 28 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), hosting location, subprocessors, deletion periods and certificates such as ISO 27001. Our checklist for GDPR-compliant event software lists the questions to ask.
- Accessibility: for anything used by people, the directive requires specifications to take accessibility into account except in duly justified cases (Article 42). Name a standard, such as EN 301 549 (version 3.2.1 references level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1; version 4.1.1, published in September 2026, moves to WCAG 2.2).
- Data in and out: import from your application system, exports by role and reporting period, and a full export at contract end with a defined handover to the next contractor.
- Reporting: the figures your funder asks for, from profiles and introductions to meetings held and collaborations reported. Which figures funders find convincing is the subject of our guide on reporting to funders.
- Service and people: support hours on event days, a named contact, onboarding time and training for your team.
Mark each requirement as a minimum (pass or fail) or as scored. Minimums keep unsuitable offers out, and scored items separate the rest. Set too many minimums and you may be left with a single vendor.
If you are still deciding what the community should do between events, start with our guide to community platforms for innovation programmes. It covers the operating side that these scenarios have to test.
Award criteria you can actually check
With the scenarios written, most of the scoring follows from them. The directive asks for the most economically advantageous tender, which can be assessed on the best price-quality ratio. Quality criteria may include the organisation, qualification and experience of the staff assigned to the contract (where staff quality can significantly affect performance), and after-sales service and technical assistance. The weighting of each criterion has to be stated in advance (Directive 2014/24/EU, Article 67). For comparison, Deutsche Bahn’s January 2026 tender for a digital event platform weighted price and quality at 50 per cent each (notice 48295-2026 in TED, Tenders Electronic Daily, the EU’s tender journal).
A scoring grid for a programme platform could look like this. The weights are an example, not a recommendation; your procurement office will know what is usual for your organisation.
| Criterion | How you check it | Example weight |
|---|---|---|
| Scenario demo | Same script, same test data, same scoring sheet for every bidder | 30 % |
| Operating concept | Written answer on onboarding, event-day support and reporting, with a page limit | 20 % |
| Data protection and security | Minimums as pass or fail, detail scored (hosting, subprocessors, deletion) | 10 % |
| Team and support | Named staff, relevant experience, response times on event days | 10 % |
| Price | Total cost over the full term, including optional years | 30 % |
The scripted demo carries the most weight for a reason. A scripted demo makes the offers easier to compare and reduces the influence of different presentation styles. Give every bidder the same scenarios and the same sample participants, and score the result with the same sheet.
Price needs the same discipline. Ask for a price sheet that follows your scope: licence per year, setup, each event day, support hours and optional years. Without it you compare packages that include different things. The pricing models vendors use, from per event to annual licences, are explained in our overview of event matchmaking software pricing.
Plan the timeline back from your first event
The last design decision is time. Start from the date of your first programme event and count backwards.
A platform tender planned back from the first programme event
- 9 months Consult the market Demos and indicative prices from three to five vendors, with the same information for all.
- 7 months Finish the documents Scope and lots, scenarios, minimums, award criteria with weights, price sheet.
- 6 months Publish the notice Allow at least the 35-day minimum for an open procedure, and more if bidders need to prepare a demo.
- 4 months Evaluate and run demos Score written offers, then run the scripted demos with the same sheet.
- 3 months Award and wait Inform all bidders and observe the standstill period before signing.
- 2 months Set up the platform Import participants, configure roles and rules, train your team.
- Event Open the programme Profiles are filled and meeting requests are running before the first event day.
The month numbers are a working plan, not a rule. The legal minimums are the short part of it. Under the EU remedies rules, a contract can be signed at the earliest ten calendar days after the award decision is sent electronically (Directive 89/665/EEC as amended by Directive 2007/66/EC, Article 2a). Internal sign-off, funder approval and bidder questions often take longer, so build your buffer before publication rather than after it.
For multi-year programmes, think about the end as well as the start. A framework agreement may run for up to four years, except in duly justified cases (Directive 2014/24/EU, Article 33). Schedule the follow-up tender about a year before expiry and write the data handover into the contract. Otherwise your third cohort may start on a new platform with empty profiles, weeks before its kick-off.
Converve is an event platform for targeted networking at programme events and in year-round communities. Meeting requests follow rules you set in a meeting matrix, by role, topic or region, and the same profiles carry over from online sessions to the event day. For the data protection part of a tender, Converve is certified to ISO 27001:2022, hosts in Germany and includes a data processing agreement as standard. How the rules are configured is shown on our page for B2B matchmaking.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a public programme have to tender its event platform?
Often yes. If your organisation is a contracting authority and the contract value reaches the EU thresholds, an EU-wide procedure is required. For 2026 and 2027 these are EUR 140,000 for service contracts of central government authorities and EUR 216,000 for sub-central authorities, excluding VAT (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2152). Below them, national rules apply. Your procurement office decides which procedure fits.
How do you estimate the value of an event platform contract?
Add up the whole term, including optional extension years, setup, training, support and any event services, without VAT. A platform at EUR 45,000 a year over four years plus EUR 30,000 for setup and support is a EUR 210,000 contract, even if each annual invoice looks small.
What should a tender for an event or community platform include?
The scope and any lots, scenarios the platform must handle, minimum requirements such as a GDPR data processing agreement and an accessibility standard, reporting and export needs, an exit and handover clause, a price sheet that follows your scope, and award criteria with their weights.
Can we talk to vendors before we publish the tender?
Yes. EU law allows preliminary market consultations, provided they do not distort competition and respect non-discrimination and transparency (Directive 2014/24/EU, Article 40). Give every vendor the same information, document what you shared and avoid writing the specification around one product.
How long does it take to tender an event platform?
The legal minimums are short: 35 days for tenders in an open procedure, five fewer with electronic submission, and a standstill period of at least ten calendar days after an electronic award decision. In practice, plan six to nine months from market consultation to the first event, because preparation, approval, evaluation and setup take most of the time.
Which award criteria work best for event platforms?
Criteria you can check in the same way for every bidder: a scripted demo with your scenarios, a written operating concept, data protection and security, the team and support, and the total price over the full term. EU law requires you to publish the weighting in advance (Directive 2014/24/EU, Article 67).
Conclusion: align the requirements and assessment
Clear tender documents explain what the platform needs to do in practice and how you will compare the offers. Link realistic scenarios to assessable criteria and the reports you will need later. Leave enough time for setup and testing before the first event.
If you are preparing a platform tender and want to see how roles, rules and meeting days work in a live demo, get in touch with Converve.
