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2007 Presenter Bios and Abstracts
Rapid Response to Omnibus and IDIQ Task Orders
Who should attend? Advanced-Level and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
Government contracting has been moving in the direction of omnibus and IDIQ contracts requiring rapid response to task orders. Many Government contractors no longer have months to respond to an RFP—the response time is often a few weeks or less. Omnibus contracts, unlike IDIQ contracts, cover an entire solution to the Government rather than just specific elements of a requirement. This session will discuss the challenges this trend presents to proposal teams and suggest tips and tricks for abbreviating your proposal process and differentiating your solution on quick turn-around task order responses.
Mary Ann Anelli, senior consultant for Shipley Associates, an LSI Company, has 22 years' federal government and industry experience. Her expertise includes helping organizations successfully capture new and existing federal opportunities, creating and delivering business development training curriculums, coaching senior executives unfamiliar with capturing federal business, and leading capture/proposal strategy development for more than 100 opportunities. Mary Ann has a BSBA from West Virginia University and is an APMP member.
50 Ways NOT to do an Oral Proposal Presentation!
Who should attend? Advanced and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
This is a light-hearted, mostly tongue-in-cheek, but essentially serious talk about the verbal, visual and vocal dimensions of an Oral proposal, and how a presenter's competence (or incompetence) in one or more of these dimensions can critically support (or undercut) his or her believability and persuasiveness. Audiences at previous APMP national conferences have raved about this talk, so by popular demand we're doing it again! Along the way, we'll be entertained by a Rogue's Gallery of Visual, Vocal and Verbal "No-No's" with which some real presenters have sabotaged themselves. We'll also have fun again with our "World's Most Awful Oral Presenter" contest, where folks from the audience will volunteer to recreate for us some truly awful Oral presenter "No-No's" they’ve actually witnessed, and the audience will pick the winners. No purchase necessary to enter! Come ready to laugh…and learn!"
Dr. Arthur Bass, an APMP Fellow, provides custom training, facilitation, and coaching to proposal teams in the DoD, intelligence, national security, human services, and other markets. Over the years he's coached hundreds of proposal teams, with more than $2B in winning proposals to date, and has presented at eight APMP annual conferences to enthusiastic audiences. He holds an MS in Physics from Yale and a PhD in Meteorology from MIT.
Building Storyboards 101: A Hands-On, Interactive Workshop
Who should attend? Advanced and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
This workshop was a big success at last year’s Conference, so it's back! We'll take you through key elements of a generic storyboard, then present a funny, but challenging and realistic, storyboarding scenario with lots of competitive intelligence about the bidder, customer, opportunity, and competitors. Much of this information will be useful, but some won't be—you'll have to decide, just like in a real proposal! You'll build a storyboard, share your successes with others, and learn key secrets of how to succeed in storyboarding. Come to learn, work hard, and have fun—no storyboarding experience needed!
Dr. Arthur Bass, an APMP Fellow, provides custom training, facilitation, and coaching to proposal teams in the DoD, intelligence, national security, human services, and other markets. Over the years he’s coached hundreds of proposal teams, with more than $2B in winning proposals to date, and has presented at eight APMP annual conferences to enthusiastic audiences. He holds an MS in Physics from Yale and a PhD in Meteorology from MIT.
Results from the 2006 Green Sheet Survey
Who should attend? Advanced, Entry-Level, and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
Ruth Belanger administered a survey on green paper at the 2006 APMP Annual Conference in New Orleans. The survey was to provide data perhaps validating some of the premises found in Thomas J. Allen's 1979 work, "Managing the Flow of Technology: Technology Transfer and the Dissemination of Technological Information Within the Research and Development Organization." While her work focused primarily on aerospace business development, Ruth surveyed the attendees at the conference hoping to have a variety of proposal management professionals to study. Ruth will report her findings by industry type to provide insight for all who attend this session.
Ruth Belanger has been a Proposal Process Manager with Northrop Grumman Space Technology for six years. She has 10 years' experience as a manager of technical publications, document control, and research services with a federal contract to license the Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository. She is a graduate student of library and information sciences at San Jose State University. Ruth is accredited at the Foundation Level.
Creating a Proposal Resource Center: A Case Study
Who should attend? Advanced, Entry-Level, and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
A proposal center allows you to automate the process of creating proposals. Utilizing the most up-date-date information on your offerings, the goals of a proposal center is to track the life of the proposal, including revisions and win/loss data, to help improve your future proposals. This session uses a real-life case study and looks at what drives the formation of a proposal center, how the design of a proposal center affects the organization, lessons learned along the way, and most importantly, the end results. Learn and understand the signs and symptoms experienced, the business processes affected, and the available solutions.
Lynda L. Benjamin is Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at Octant. Lynda brings more than 25 years' experience to the Product Development and Management of Octant’s Enterprise Proposal Management Suite™. Using her vast business experience, she delivers industry-focused software products that enable highly effective information sharing; increased productivity; and strong, long-lasting relationships between users of applications and the value businesses receive from these applications.
Terri Horn is Director of the Proposal Resource Center at American Institutes for Research (AIR), one of the largest behavioral and social science research organizations in the world. Founded in 1946 as a nonprofit organization, AIR is a carefully designed institution motivated by the desire to enhance the human experience. We are committed to contributing to the science of human behavior and the development of man’s capacities and potential.
Getting Results through Negotiations
Who should attend? Advanced, Entry-Level, and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
After attending this presentation, you will be able to understand the four phases of the negotiation process: preparing, opening, bargaining, and closing; plan more effectively for successful negotiations: agreeing your negotiating range, knowing what you want to GET, knowing what you want to GIVE, and knowing what you will NOT ACCEPT; conduct negotiations in a professional manner; and close negotiations appropriately.
Tony Birch is the founder and Managing Director of Shipley Limited in the UK. Prior to setting up Shipley in 1993, he spent 20 years in sales the defense and IT industries. Tony is a serving member of the Board of the APMP and is a Board Director of the Business Development Institute, International.
Institutionalizing Proposal Best Practices into ISO and CMM Processes
Who should attend? Advanced-level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
A well thought-out process can dramatically improve proposal quality and reduce proposal development work and stress. A poorly thought-out process contributes nothing to proposal quality while adding unnecessary work and stress. The goal of ISO 9001:2000 is to create and maintain a quality management system to manage, track, and improve quality performance for products and services. A goal of the Capability Maturity Model is to guide business development organizations in selecting high-priority improvement actions based on the maturity of their current practices. Find out how these two concepts are intimately intertwined and will improve the quality of your proposals.
Mitch Reed, PPM.APMP, is Capture Manager for DataPath Inc., which provides federal satellite communication solutions. He built DataPath's proposal group, creating ISO procedures for initial certification. Mitch supported ISO certification in a previous position, is a trained ISO 9000:2001 internal auditor, and has more than 15 years’ proposal development experience. He authored the book Developing Successful Internet Request for Proposals and presented What Proposal Managers Should Expect from an RFP to the Atlanta Chapter .
David Bol is Director of Quality at Shipley Associates. He has more than 20 years’ proposal management experience, focusing the last 5 years on business development process re-engineering using the business development CMM framework. He has co-authored three publications for APMP: Proposal Management Benchmark Study, Proposal Management Best in Class Practices, and the original Proposal Management Salary Survey. David serves on the APMP Board of Directors and has presented at many APMP annual conferences.
Proposal Prestidigitation: Lessons from the Magician’s Art
Who should attend? Advanced-Level, Entry-Level and Intermediate-Level Proposal ProfessionalsAudience: Proposal Writers
Magic is about entertainment and illusion. Proposals are about establishing trust and communicating clearly. Yet the similarities between the two art forms go well beyond conjuring up something huge under impossible conditions. We will explore tricks of the two trades, including engaging the audience effectively, using words for greatest effect, and, of course, the grand finale. We will see why it is possible to get no applause for making an elephant* disappear, but cheers for failing to make a donkey* disappear, and why an ordinary paper bag isn’t what it used to be (*Actual historical examples, not a political statement).
Mitch Boretz directs contract and grant proposal operations for the Bourns College of Engineering at the University of California, Riverside. He has been an exceedingly amateur magician since age seven (having performed most recently several years ago at his twin daughters’ sixth birthday party) and a dazzlingly professional proposal manager for more than 10 years. Mitch has been a member of APMP since 2001 and is a board member of the SOCAL chapter.
Quantifying or Qualifying Your Bid/No-Bid Decision
Who should attend? Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals
Many companies fall into the trap of depending on software tools and techniques to develop Win Probability (Pwin) numbers to support bid/no-bid and teaming decisions. These tools and techniques tend to use statistics based on probability theory that link dependencies between variables. These methods require a defined set of questions where the answers are converted to numbers. Although this approach does make decision making easier by quantifying a combination of options, it tends to miss important qualitative decision making criteria. This presentation will discuss the use of a blended approach of quantifying and qualifying bid/no-bid decisions.
Tim Budzik has more than 20 years’ experience in capturing and managing large programs for industry and government, ranging from multimillion-dollar programs to $9B acquisitions. He is currently a Senior Capture Manager with United Space Alliance, where he develops business markets. Formerly, Tim was Director of Capture and Proposal Consulting for Shipley Associates, where he was responsible for the client delivery, process delivery, and new consultant training.
Coaching for Capture Management Success
Who should attend? Advanced Proposal Professionals, Senior Management
Constella began 2006 with a vision for pre-eminence. To achieve that vision, significant competencies had to be developed within their client-facing personnel. One key competency identified was capture management. A course was developed and implemented, but immediate ROI was limited. Then a coaching program was proposed. Come hear how the program was proposed in a way that overcame objections to the significant time commitments, course corrections were made during the implementation, and the significant results of the coaching commitment. Explore both the pitfalls and benefits of a coaching program and begin a roadmap to propose and implement your own coaching program.
Melissa Church-Lawton, Senior Manager, Bids and Proposals, has more than 12 years’ professional proposal experience. She supported APMP as Co-Chair of the 2006 Southern Proposal Accents Conference and as past Carolina APMP Chapter Executive Committee member. Melissa has presented at both annual and SPAC APMP conferences. Commitment to individual and group coaching is her management-style guiding principle. Melissa is Chair of Alumni Giving for UNC Asheville and sits on UNCA’s National Alumni Advisory Council.
Performance-Based Logistics Statements of Work
Who should attend? Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals
This presentation will define what a performance-based contract is, detail what should be included within a performance-based SOW, and describe how the information should be communicated to the Government. Specifically, the presentation will cover the following topics: a description of a performance-based contract, a high-level outline of a performance-based SOW, the level of detail that should be used when preparing the SOW, and the establishment of metrics to effectively measure the program.
Ms Edith Crane retired on 30 June 2006 after serving 37 years in various civilian positions at Ogden Air Logistics Center (OO-ALC). She was the former USAF Supply Chain Management (SCM) Squadron Director for F-16, A-10, and Mature and Proven Aircraft (MAPA) unique avionics, structural and mechanical items. Her most recent assignment was as the Deputy Director of the 84 Combat Sustainment Wing (CSW) Material Support Group. As Deputy Director, Ms Crane was responsible for all Supply Management Activity Group (SMAG) funding, the Business Transformation Office, Requirements Determination and Technical Order (TO) management.
Tips and Tools II: The Best of Utility Software
Who should attend? Advanced, Entry-Level, and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
A follow-up to last year's presentation, Tips and Tools II highlights the best tools available to budget-conscious proposal management professionals. Combining the best of last year’s utilities with additional leading products, this presentation addresses how to modernize a range of proposal processes and streamline redundant tasks, including creating acronym lists, transferring documents from Acrobat to Word, and "shredding" RFPs.
Heather Deavers is a proposal manager with CACI participating in full lifecycle proposal development. She works closely with business development, capture managers, technical experts, and proposal team members to consistently produce winning proposals. She has extensive IT and government writing experience, including technical reports, marketing materials, software documentation, and graphic design. At the 2006 APMP Annual Conference, Heather received acclaim for her presentation, Temps D'Economie: Tips, Tools, and Shortcuts for Streamlining Proposal Process.
So, What Part of "Instruction" Don’t You Understand
Who should attend? Advanced-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
It may happen sooner; it may happen later. But, nonetheless, it will happen! Authors, regardless of how may times they are reminded that the PPI means “instructions,” will wrench the proposal into a response to the SOW ignoring the customer’s guidance. This presentation illuminates this phenomenon, surfaces the causes, and presents some methodology to mitigate this behavior. Factors such as proposal management style, buy-in from the Capture Manager, proximity of the proposal development team, the extent to which the team understands the procurement process, and a commitment to compliance are addressed. Examples of a disciplined approach to compliance are amplified.
Dr. Lynn Diamant, an Associate with SM&A, enjoyed a career in the US and Japanese Space industries. He held positions with TRW, IBM, General Dynamics, and Lockheed Martin Development as Vice President, Business Development. He holds a Ph.D. in Astronautics and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the NASA Astronauts Flight Safety Award, the NASA Distinguished Service Award, the President's Award (IBM), and the Chairman's Award (General Dynamics). He has published more than 30 papers.
Introduction to the BD-KnowledgeBase™
Who should attend? Advanced-Level and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
The BD-Institute and APMP have created a body of knowledge for the business development profession. This repository is known as the BD-KnowledgeBase. It contains practices, process elements, and tools that are generally recognized as key practices. This presentation includes an introduction to the system, discuss how members can use it, and share plans for its advancement. The BD-KnowledgeBase will provide APMP members a managed resource of key practices—a foundation for certification and practical applications of the BD-CMM model. The initial jumpstart version was built using publicly available sources such as the APMP Journal and presentations at annual/international conferences.
Charlie Divine, PMP, serves as Chairman of the KnowledgeBase Working Group responsible for building the BD-KnowledgeBase. He is a certified BD-CMM appraiser. As an independent consultant, his focus is to coach and teach business development professionals how improved processes can provide their organizations a competitive advantage. Charlie has served on the APMP Board of Directors as the Commercial Director .He has been honored as an APMP Fellow. He is also a Certified Proposal Professional.
Understanding E-Sourcing
Who should attend? Proposal Professionals
To win in today’s business environment requires new skills and knowledge for the proposal professional. Online reverse auctions, electronic RFPs, and other sourcing management automation (e-sourcing) technologies are becoming more frequent in both the commercial and federal marketplace. Sourcing is here to stay, and all of us in the proposal profession will be increasingly engaged in all forms of e-sourcing opportunities in the future. The evolution and rapid growth of e-sourcing has brought forth successes, challenges, and disappointments for our customers. From these customer experiences, we can learn to anticipate and respond to gain competitive advantage.
John Doodokyan is currently a Senior Global Bid Strategy Manager for Hewlett-Packard. John has more than 25 years' experience in proposal management, business development, contracts administration, and procurement. John has been an instructor in the areas of marketing, contracts administration, and business development. He has a BS in business administration from California Polytechnic University and an MBA from Santa Clara University. John was a presenter at last year’s APMP conference in New Orleans.
Wordman’s Microsoft Word Q&A
Who should attend? Proposal Professionals
From the pages of the APMP Perspective, Wordman returns to answer your questions and solve your problems using Microsoft® Word for proposal production. This session has been immensely popular at the last four annual conferences and is suitable for all levels of expertise with Word and Microsoft Office in general. There is no formal agenda—bring your questions! From one attendee at the 2005 Annual Conference in Phoenix: "...an excellent session. I was reminded of some powerful features of Word that I’ve had difficulty with before, and now feel comfortable being able to use."
Dick Eassom is Vice President of Knowledge Management at SM&A in Newport Beach, California. An APMP Fellow and current COO, he has presented at the last five Annual Conferences on the trials and tribulations of using Microsoft Word for proposal development. Dick authors the "Production Corner" in the APMP Perspective under his pseudonym, "Wordman," and has led or contributed to numerous proposals in the USA, UK, Canada, Germany, and Australia.
Getting Your Story Straight: The Path to Blue Team
Who should attend? Advanced, Entry-Level, and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
Building critical elements of a customer-centric proposal story is the focus of Pre-Blue Team activities. These elements span the "Elevator Speech," "Pain Table," and "Annotated Outline," and address stated and unstated customer evaluation criteria. Customer knowledge (the unstated criteria), gained through the Business Development process, is integrated into the proposal framework, along with the stated criteria from the solicitation document. Assessing, enhancing, and approving these three critical elements through the Blue Team Review process provides the proposal writing team a solid foundation upon which to craft a fact-based, carefully integrated story. The results—sustained, enhanced proposal win probability.
Robert S. Frey, a 2006 APMP Fellow, is a Principal in the newly formed consultancy, Successful Proposal Strategies, LLC. Mr. Frey’s 20 years of proposal development success includes a win rate of 67% over the past 8 years. He authored the book, "Successful Proposal Strategies for Small Businesses." He is a candidate in the Doctor of Management Program at the University of Maryland. Mr. Frey has taught Proposal Development to 1,150 small business entrepreneurs.
Banzai!! A Small Business’ Approach for Shaping Their BD Pipeline
Who should attend? Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals
Growing in today’s highly competitive government contracting space has become increasingly more challenging. The constraints that all small companies face in this market space, such as few (if any!) full-time BD and proposal professionals and constrained discretionary budgets, require more agile, innovative, and insightful approaches to build and sustain an opportunity pipeline to enable WINS! This presentation will discuss our many lessons learned, both positive and negative, as we explored alternatives to identify, qualify, and manage opportunities, and why we were ultimately forced to create a tailored database tool to enable a more robust and meaningful BD pipeline.
Dennis Gilbert is the Director of National Space, Intelligence, and Information Operations, and also leads (on a part-time basis) the Business Development and Capture Management efforts for FGM Inc.’s Integrated Intelligence Systems. He has more than 20 years’ Defense Department acquisition and systems engineering experience as a career Air Force officer, and he is a certified program manager.
Body of Knowledge Hits from the 80s, 90s, and Today
Who should attend? Advanced-Level and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals
This presentation uses three or four case studies from major Federal procurements won over the last three decades and traces how best practices for capture, business development, and proposal management producing these wins form the rudiments for a true Body of Knowledge. This approach approximates applying fundamental laws to success and will demonstrate that an effective Body of Knowledge must have proof and be able to withstand the test of time to be considered effective. A true Body of Knowledge will also generally apply to the future.
Eric Gregory is Senior Vice President of Proposal Development at CACI International Inc. He has served twice as CEO of APMP, has served as Conference Chair for two annual conferences, is an APMP Fellow, and is a recipient of the APMP William C. McRae Founders Award. He has 30 years’ proposal experience and has fulfilled all roles in the business development lifecycle, from marketing through capture management and proposal management.
Turning Sales Knowledge Into Sales Results
Who should attend? Advanced-Level and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
In the most effective selling organizations, knowledge is power … but only if it is used correctly. Today we often think in terms of documents—RFPs, proposals, presentations, and data sheets. In a customer-driven world, these are all just pieces of information that can be assembled dynamically to deliver the right information to the right person at the right time in the buying cycle. The session will talk about the roadmap that can help companies turn sales knowledge into sales effectiveness results, while at the same empowering proposal professionals to be seen as agents of change within their companies.
Kym Harrington has been a highly successful technology sales executive for more than 15 years. As head of Pragmatech’s Corporate Sales Department, Kym has led her team to five years of consecutive growth through strategic internal deployment of Pragmatech’s own personalized communications solutions, resulting in a more effective sales cycle, increased revenue, and happier customers. Kym holds an MBA from Boston University and a BA in business administration from Southern New Hampshire University.
Campaign to Win!
Who should attend? Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals
This topic is based on Herther’s ground-breaking innovative APMP Journal article, “Campaign to Win!” Most political candidates who campaign lose. The same can be said for proposal efforts. So, what are the differences between winning and losing? A full-fledged political campaign is a good model for a winning capture process. Many of the techniques for winning in the political arena are very similar to those in competitive procurement, such as, starting early, developing a sound campaign strategy, delivering the right messages, and getting the votes. Learn how campaigning will bring you and your company into the winners’ circle.
Jay Herther has 20 years’ experience leading capture teams to achieve a 78 percent win rate totaling more than $10B. He has two masters’ degrees from MIT. A member of APMP Nor’easters Chapter, Jay has contributed three APMP articles: “The Difference between Winning & Losing Capture Efforts,” “To Bid or Not to Bid,” and “Campaign to Win!” A dynamic and entertaining speaker, more than 80 percent of last year’s APMP audience scored his brief “excellent.”
Effective Oral Presentations: A Live Demo
Who should attend? Those Seeking APMP Accreditation in Communications and Persuasiveness
The process of preparing for oral proposals to the Government entails developing the message (content) and honing presentation skills. We will give a live demonstration that provides tips/techniques for two aspects of orals: orals presentation coaching and question and answer preparation. Part One will include a demonstration of orals coaching for developing a more confident, energetic, convincing, and connecting voice. Two individuals will be coached in a variety of presentation skills.
Helane Jeffreys, MA, President of Voice for Success, Inc., has focused her company resources on oral presentations for large corporate proposals since 1996. She has been a member of APMP since 1998. Her client list includes major prime contractors and small businesses. Helane is a licensed speech language pathologist and an executive presentation coach. The VFS Website has lessons learned about orals at: www.voiceforsuccess.com
Sally Ann Lentz, JD, is a Senior Orals Coach with eight years’ experience supporting Federal and state government oral proposals with Voice for Success. She brings more than 20 years’ prior experience in the legal profession and has provided legal analysis and oral argument on international and domestic public policy, including testimony before Congress.
Proposal Pictionary! How to Turn Your Words in Pictures!
Who should attend? Entry-Level Proposal Professionals
Visuals increase success rates up to 43 percent, communicate 60,000 times faster than text, and give ideas 22 times more impact than text alone—so why are there so few pictures in proposals? Learn how to visually design your proposal to maximize audience perception AND how to turn your ideas into clear, communicative, compelling visuals. Using the new tools you learn from the presentation, we will break into teams and play Proposal Pictionary!—literally practicing our new skills to communicate common proposal ideas through graphics to win prizes. No previous graphics skills necessary—just a sense of fun!
Mike Parkinson and Colleen Jolly are both owners of 24 Hour Company, the premier proposal graphics company in Falls Church, Virginia. They are frequent speakers at APMP conferences around the world. Mike presented at the annual conference in 2004, 2005, and 2006; SOCAL in 2005 and 2006; SPAC in 2005; and the North Carolina Chapter in 2006. Colleen presented at the annual conference in 2006 and UK APMP and SPAC in 2006. They are frequent contributors to the APMP Journal on proposal graphic and general management topics. Combined they have more than 15 years’ proposal experience and have helped their clients win more than $20B in business. Both have extensive knowledge in art/graphic design and their translation into proposals. Mike has recently published two books on the topic of conceptualizing graphics that can be ordered at www.billiondollargraphics.com. Colleen is a docent at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
Past Performance Volumes
Who should attend? Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals
The past performance volume has become one of the most important parts of a proposal. This session will present techniques that should be used to ensure that the past performance volume is selling the most relevant experiences and successes of the company. Specific topics include: identifying the most relevant contracts and presenting them as such; extracting the appropriate information for existing contracts—hard numbers, documented successes, creative techniques used on the contract, and specific results of various initiatives; and obtaining the required information from the subcontractors (including subcontractor questionnaires).
Catherine Hall has served as the General Manager of the Logistical Support Division at Logistic Specialties, Inc. for the past two years. Prior to her current position, she held many leadership roles with the Goodrich Corporation. In her current role, Catherine oversees a division that provides logistical support to various government agencies. Additionally, she has a team of consultants that serves as performance-based logistics subject matter experts.
The ABCs of Writing Letter Proposals
Who should attend? Entry-Level and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals
To be effective, proposals don't need wordy, lengthy, and voluminous detail. First, the prospective customer may request a short proposal. Second, if the proposal is unsolicited, you may determine that a "less is best" approach is appropriate to sell your product or service. Chuck will describe a three-part structural approach for effectively outlining and developing letter proposals, short proposals that by definition are no more than about five pages in length. Both solicited and unsolicited letter proposals will be addressed.
Chuck Keller, owner of Keller Proposal Development and Training (KPD&T) in Pensacola, FL, has been in the proposal profession for more than 23 years. Since forming KPD&T in 1990, Chuck has served almost 320 proposal and technical communications clients. He is the co-author of the textbook "Proposal Writing: The Art of Friendly and Winning Persuasion". A charter member of the APMP and the Georgia APMP Chapter, and an APMP Fellow, Chuck was co-chair for last year's APMP Annual Conference in New Orleans.
Your Proposal’s Slip Is Showing
Who should attend? Advanced, Entry-Level, and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
For 15 years, Shipley Associates has been performing proposal assessments based on well-defined criteria. We’ve learned about many organizations in doing so, but we also uncovered some unintended messages. This presentation is designed to be a telling demonstration of the kinds of things that clients do not realize they are communicating. We will sanitize real results (the audience will only know it was your company if you say so) to provide a funny and sad, but true, survey of things NOT to say. Attend this session and sensitize yourself to the subliminal messages your proposals may be sending.
Nancy Kessler is Vice President, Process Consulting, at Shipley Associates. She holds a bachelors’ degree in business and a masters’ in technology management with graduate studies in creative writing. She has presented at numerous APMP annual conferences, NCA Chapter Roundtables and Professional Days, and NCMA Webinars and conferences. Nancy has more than 20 years’ experience in business development, is a certified ISO 9000 auditor, and cannot resist a good mystery novel or video puzzle game.
Getting Your Presentations to Truly Sell and Win
Who should attend? Advanced-Level and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
RFPs typically require the presenting team to consist of proposed key personnel who always bring strong credentials for performing the tasks ahead. As they have often done many presentations, e.g., program reviews, many have reasonable presentation skills. However, they are often weak in the capability to sell the team’s story. This presentation identifies specific ways to help presenters sell their story and team, including:
• Presenting the Program Director as the primary sales person
• Addressing true customer needs
• Focusing win themes
• Incorporating the power of success stories
• Getting sell into graphics
• Convincing reviewers at showtime
Tom Leech, author of How To Prepare, Stage & Deliver Winning Presentations, was named to Presentations Magazine’s “Top of the Class.” He has headed his consulting firm for more than two decades with a nationwide client base; coached more than 250 corporate speaker teams pursuing government contracts; and trained program managers, professionals, and executives in winning presentation techniques. Tom has a previous GD career in business development and engineering, and presented at many national conferences.
Knowledge Management and BD Excellence
Who should attend? Advanced-Level and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
Knowledge Management (KM) is essential for BD excellence. KM connects people to people and people to knowledge so business objectives are achieved. KM serves to transform an organization to focus on premium services and products and increase sales and revenue. This presentation describes an approach to implement a KM system and to assess the level of KM maturity in processes, tools, and techniques. It explains why KM is more than a collection of lessons learned, or a portal, and also how KM must be part of the each person’s daily work. It includes guidelines to implement or improve KM processes.
Dr. Ginger Levin is a Senior Consultant and educator specializing in project management, maturity assessments, maturity modeling, and metrics. She co-authored several books, including Project Portfolio Management, Metrics for Project Management, and Essential People Skills for Project Managers. She was a major contributor to the BD CMM and is a BDI appraiser. She was the keynote speaker at APMP’s Salt Lake City Conference and a feature speaker at APMP’s Conference in Hollywood, Florida.
Creating a Successful BD Metrics Program
Who should attend? Advanced-Level and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
As organizations strive for success, there is an increasingly heavy reliance on measurement practices that facilitate informed decision making. Such practices use indices that guide performance improvement and include historically based benchmarks by which to evaluate future performance. This presentation describes the purpose of metrics; discusses the three dimensions of metrics, i.e., things, people, and enterprise; and illustrates how metrics can manage BD capability as outlined in the BD-CMM. Participants will explore what processes and procedures an organization must embrace to establish a BD culture focused on metrics and take away a set of guidelines for implementing this approach.
Dr. Ginger Levin is a Senior Consultant and educator specializing in project management, maturity assessments, maturity modeling, and metrics. She co-authored several books including: Project Portfolio Management, Metrics for Project Management, and Essential People Skills for Project Managers. She was a major contributor to the BD CMM and is a BD-Institute appraiser. She was the keynote speaker at APMP’s Conference in Salt Lake City, and a featured speaker at APMP’s Conference in Hollywood, Florida.
Howard Nutt is Executive Director of the Business Development Institute International (BD-Institute). He is also a Certified Appraiser and trainer and has worked with numerous companies to develop their BD capability. Howard helped organize and is a charter member of the APMP, has served on the Board of Directors, and has received the APMP McRea Founders Award and APMP Vision Award, as well as being named an APMP Fellow.
The Church of Proposal Excellence
Who should attend? Advanced, Entry-Level, and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
Get ready for the most irreverent and entertaining session of the 2007 conference! Gather together to explore the people, processes, and pitfalls facing proposal teams as they strive for best practice. Presented in the original style that has brought the presenters such acclaim at previous APMP conferences, this unique session promises to provoke, challenge, and inform the audience—or should that read “congregation?”
BJ Lownie founded Strategic Proposals LLC (formerly known as P3 Consulting) in 1987. He brings years of experience in building proposal centers, developing and delivering training, and managing proposal efforts—"from Brazil to Bangalore." He is a founding member of the APMP and is an APMP-accredited Proposal Professional. BJ is a regular, acclaimed presenter at industry events. He co-authors the popular blog, The Proposal Guys.
Jon Williams is UK Managing Director of Strategic Proposals. He works with proposal teams worldwide, helping them to improve their capabilities and capture more business. Jon is a Fellow of APMP, an APMP Proposal Professional, and was the founding CEO of UKAPMP. Previously head of proposals for a major IT corporation, he started his career in purchasing. Co-author of the popular Proposal Guys blog, Jon is one of the most acclaimed presenters at APMP conferences.
When Your Team is VIRTUAL: How to Effectively Use SharePoint in Support of Your Proposal Team
Who should attend? Virtual Proposal Managers/Teams
As more companies limit team member travel, proposal managers must use cost-effective methods and processes to support their teams and dynamically respond to client requirements. Collaborative tools are great, but how effectively are they used? This presentation will share some of HP’s North America Strategic Proposal Development Center’s (SPC) best practices for using the SharePoint collaborative tool in support of remote teams with consistent, effective, and repeatable proposal document management processes. In this presentation you will learn practical hands-on methods for when and why to use SharePoint, steps to create and customize a site, and a process for team communication.
Sandy Luttrell is a member of HP's North America SPC, bringing more than 17 years’ proposal management experience with Unisys, Digital, Compaq, and HP in the commercial and public sector arenas. In her role as a Senior Proposal Manager, Sandy supports product-led and services-led proposal teams in a 100 percent virtual environment.
What Do They Want? An Inquiry into Understanding the Drivers of RFPs
Who should attend? Advanced, Entry-Level, and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
So you get that BIG RFP, and our questions come in terms of can we, should we, and will we give them what they want? The real question comes down to whether we fully understand the drivers that inform RFPs. Those real drivers make the proposal more like a dance of courtship, with success dependent on our understanding the dance steps and listening to the music. To win, our question might be better asked as what transcendent visions can we share that illuminate possibilities?
Martin Moller has more than 25 years’ experience in marketing, business development, and proposal management, concentrating in the areas of sales and key account management, proposal development/management, and channel partner management. As a senior member of Lore’s faculty team, he serves as consultant, facilitator, and director of client certifications. Martin earned his BS in marketing and finance from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is a member of the APMP.
Government Says… Industry Says… Government Thought… Industry Thought…: What’s Requested, What’s Heard, What’s Expected
Who should attend? Advanced, Entry-Level, and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
Disconnects between government’s source selection and industry’s business development processes create unnecessary delays in acquisitions. Neither side clearly understands the other’s motivations or expectations, the effects of their actions on the other, or the misalignment of activities, which can result in miscommunication, poor planning efforts, and unrealistic schedules. The Industry-Government Task Force has drafted process flowcharts that show where activities link, creating interactions between industry and government. Evaluating common touch points can produce efficiencies and reduce process time, benefiting both. Identifying clearly understandable processes can improve the planning capabilities of all parties and enable setting a clear continuous improvement path.
Jessica Morgenstern, General Dynamics Senior Manager, Business Development, has more than 25 years’ experience as a software engineer, senior business developer, capture manager, and senior proposal manager. An APMP member for more than five years, Jessica is Director of Strategic Initiatives on the Board of Directors. She received the 2004 APMP Compatriots Award for work on the Early Industry Involvement Survey. Jessica will be joined by representatives from the Acquisition Integrated Process Task Force.
Keys to Successful Capture Management
Who should attend? Capture Managers, Proposal Managers, and Business Development Managers
This presentation will provide an overview of the capture management process and discuss the keys to achieving capture excellence and success, using real-life examples to demonstrate various aspects. The presentation will address typical problems and issues, discuss an organized approach to successful capture management, address capture process elements and considerations, and summarize the discrete steps needed to achieve capture excellence and success.
Bruce Morton is Manager, Capture Excellence, at Lockheed Martin Information & Technology Services. Concurrently, he is an Adjunct Professor at George Washington University. He has held positions as Principal Consultant, Lohfeld Consulting Group; Vice President, Capture Management, CACI; Director, Corporate Capture Management, Titan; various business development positions at Lockheed Martin; and System Design Engineer, GE Aerospace. He holds MS and BS engineering degrees. He led an APMP Annual Conference Panel and Presentation in 2004.
Incumbent vs. Challenger: Who Has The Advantage?
Who should attend? Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals
Too often incumbents believe they are so entrenched they can’t lose their re-compete. Challengers believe the customer is afraid of change. Who has the advantage—incumbent or challenger? In reality, each has an equal opportunity to win if an appropriate strategy is applied. The difficulty lies in objectively evaluating the opportunity and gauging the needs, wants, and desires of the customer. This presentation addresses the value of an objective customer analysis and competitor analysis using an incumbent/challenger strategy checklist, a key component to the successful strategy determination process.
David Murphy, a Senior Consultant at Shipley Associates, specializes in cost volumes, price-to-win analyses, Earned Value Management, and IMP/IMS/WBS/BOE preparation. David has 28 years’ experience in proposal writing, business development, and system development with the BDM Corporation, Lockheed Martin, and Sybase. A 1976 graduate of the University of Maryland, David is experienced in system/software development, system/software test and evaluation, and risk assessments/risk management.
The Key to Career Independence for Proposal Professionals
Who should attend? Entry-Level and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals
Corporate layoffs appear to be the norm for conducting business in today’s economy. As a proposal professional, come and learn what you can do to manage your career toward financial stability and career independence. Using her first-hand experiences with multiple layoffs since 2001, Michelle will share key points to maintain your income, increase your marketability, enhance your experience and skill levels, and project a positive attitude during uncertain times. After attending this presentation, you will have: 1) techniques to manage and prepare for uncertainty, 2) a plan to keep the money flowing, and 3) the confidence to aim for more.
Michelle Norman is a proposal manager contracting with Genesys Labs. With more than 20 years’ experience in the Telecommunications, IT Software, and Healthcare industries, Michelle specializes in proposal management, database content, IT business requirements, and online writing. She is chapter chair for the APMP Georgia Chattahoochee chapter. Michelle is a mother of four and has a six-year-old grandson. She is native to Atlanta, Georgia and resides in Lithonia, Georgia.
The Vital Link between BD Maturity and Reduced Program Risk
Who should attend? Advanced-Level and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
Acquisition organizations and contractors alike struggle with the issue of how to mitigate program risk. For example, acquisition organizations analyze past performance, mandate certain standards, and implement acquisition best practices. Still, they experience unpredictable results. Missing from consideration are the BD best practices that bridge the gap between acquirers’ and contractors’ goals. Mature BD practices, described in the BD-CMM, ensure that contractors align solutions with customer needs, promise what they can deliver, and provide seamless transition into contract. Similarly, acquisition organizations can count on mature BD organizations to support acquisition strategies and partner to achieve complex goals.
Howard Nutt is Executive Director of the Business Development Institute International (BD-Institute). He is also a Certified Appraiser and trainer and has worked with numerous companies to develop their BD capability. Howard helped organize and is a charter member of the APMP, has served on the Board of Directors, and has received the APMP McRea Founders Award and APMP Vision Award, as well as being named an APMP Fellow.
Proposals: A Good Write (Not) Spoiled – Proposal Lessons from the Golf Course
Who should attend? Entry-Level and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals
Golfers spend $50B annually buying better equipment, hoping “With a new driver, I’ll instantly hit the ball straighter and farther.” As in golf, proposal tools matter, but they are not the whole answer. Your skills—and understanding the game—are as important as your toolset. No golfer ever finished a round without thinking about wasted shots or poor course decisions. Likewise, no proposal manager ever finished a proposal without thinking of ways the document or process could have been improved. Using lessons learned from golf, this presentation explores how to avoid the bunkers and water hazards of proposal development. “Fore!”
Keith Propst joined CA, Inc. as a proposal director in early 2006 to help rebuild the proposal program for a $4B software company. Previously, Keith spent 3 years as a proposal consultant and 16 years managing the HP North America proposal organization.
Keith is Promotions chair for the Georgia Chattahoochee APMP chapter and was chapter chair for 2004 and 2005. Keith misspent his youth on Savannah golf courses.
Create Career Paths for Your Proposal Team Members
Who should attend? Advanced-Level and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
Learn how to create career paths for your proposal team. It’s a journey that can lead to increased employee morale, motivation levels, and retention rates. Career paths can take many directions. Some professionals continue down one path; retrace steps along the same path; or start down a new one. By attending this session, you will learn how to:
• Assess employees’ skills, competencies, knowledge, and career interests
• Identify potential leaders and star performers
• Work with Human Resources to create the career path program
• Create educational and development programs
• Reward employees for their hard work and dedication
DeVon Rightley-Tucker is the Director of the Corporate Proposal Center at Humana Inc. She manages a proposal team that works together to produce proposals for both commercial and government business segments. DeVon has been with Humana for eight years. Prior to this, she worked for two hospitals as a manager in public relations and marketing. DeVon has a masters’ degree in public relations from Ball State University and a bachelors’ degree from Indiana University.
And the Survey Said… Solutions to Everyday Challenges
Who should attend? Advanced, Entry-Level, and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
This participative session will draw on a brand new survey in which APMP members worldwide offered their top tips for handling the most challenging situations we all face every day. Using a fun “Family Feud” format, we’ll identify best practices in proposal management and build our body of highly relevant, immediately applicable knowledge. Based on the survey results, topics and tips may include maintaining client focus, writing to the reviewers, expert executive summaries, staying on schedule, mitigating risk, managing your workload, facilitating power reviews, and leveraging lessons learned. This session is primarily focused on government, profit and non-profit, markets.
Robin Ritchey has supported business development efforts in commercial and non-profit firms—from AT&T to her own education consulting business—for more than 25 years. As co-proposal leader, she won the largest federal telecommunications procurement ever, valued at $2.4B. At RTI, International, Robin assists hundreds of research scientists in their quest to fund research projects worldwide in education, bioterrorism, health, survey, and the environment. A veteran presenter, Robin’s sessions are fast-paced, highly applicable, and FUN!
Killer Win Themes Every Time: A Disciplined Perspective
Who should attend? Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals, i.e. those who have some experience working with win themes
Win themes must grab the proposal evaluators’ attention quickly, credibly, and convincingly. They must reinforce and expand your win strategy. They must plainly present opportunity-specific discriminators: Why us? Why not them? Themes must be volume-specific and consistent across volumes, resonate with the explicit and implicit needs of all types of evaluators, and be synthesized and perfected quickly by writers and reviewers with varying writing skills and backgrounds. Proposal managers must make this happen consistently… So how are you doing? Let’s strengthen the Body of Knowledge, discover discriminators we may not even know we have, present them authoritatively, and win.
Bill Russo, Senior Proposal Manager for government services contractor MTC Technologies, Inc. (MTC), has been managing, writing, reviewing, and editing proposals since 1981. His career experience also includes engineering and program management for large and small aerospace firms. Bill earned BSEE and Master of Engineering degrees from Cornell University, has taught engineering and program management courses, and became a Certified Professional Manager in 1988. He delivered a presentation/workshop at the 2005 APMP Annual Conference.
Sharing a Chapter's Secrets: Inside the National Capital Area (NCA)
Who should attend? Those interested in starting, restarting, and running a successful APMP chapter.
Learn the secrets to developing and running a successful APMP chapter. We’ll share insiders’ tips for operating the chapter (Board of Directors size and scope, elections, format and content of monthly meetings, and bookkeeping), communicating with chapter members (newsletter development, electronic communications, Website development and content, body of knowledge, advertising, and mailing list development), holding standing-room-only roundtable events (planning, identifying topics and speakers, promoting the event, registering attendees, videotaping, and planning meals), and holding annual Professional Day events (planning, budgeting, selecting the site, selecting topics and speakers, promoting the event and speakers, and running the event).
Michael A. Scruggs, APM.APMP, has 20 years’ capture and proposal management experience. He is a Senior Proposal Manager at P3 Solutions, LLC, a proposal consulting firm in Vienna, Virginia. He has worked at large Washington area IT firms, including SAIC. He was recently re-elected to his second term as President of APMP’s largest chapter, NCA. Michael earned masters’ and bachelors’ degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University and completed APMP Accredited Proposal Manager certification in 2006.
Beth Wingate, AM.APMP, APMP NCA Board of Directors, Newsletter Chair. Beth has 19 years’ Federal and commercial proposal development and management experience. She develops and produces NCA’s newsletter, the Executive Summary. Beth is Proposal Center Director for MSD, Inc., a Fairfax, Virginia-based IT, business management, and scientific solutions firm. She formerly served as Marketing Services Manager for Learning Tree International. Beth holds a BA from the College of William and Mary in Virginia.
Customer/Program Requirements Identification
Who should attend? Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals
This course will provide attendees ideas and techniques on how to identify customers and program requirements as potential business targets. Our emphasis will be the DoD market, but many of the techniques can be applied to any industry and include:
• Customer Identification: fill a need; customer organizations; procurement policies, and barriers; environment for doing business; buying decision and influence potential for requirements
• Program Identification: sources (government opportunity Websites, forecasts, relationships); needs; trends—where is the market going?; helping develop requirements and provide solutions to problems; proactive vs. reactive.
Dan Shumway is the Consulting Division General Manager for Logistic Specialties, Inc. Previously, Dan was an Information Technology Manager at Iomega Corporation where his responsibilities included electronic data interchange, customer satisfaction, and quality systems. In addition, he worked 11 years with Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in positions where he supported customer service, training, electronic billing system development, project management, and marketing.
No More Late Nights and Cold Pizza
Who should attend? Entry-Level and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals
Do you have the tools and resources needed to put together professional proposals? Do you feel invisible in your company? Are you happy with your proposal process? This presentation targets small- to medium-sized companies that are interested in a better way. The presentation will provide a case study of the presenter’s company’s journey to a formal process, talking about the struggles and triumphs along the way. This empowering session will point participants to outside resources such as professional development groups, consultants, and peer collaborations to develop a formal process within their company.
Marlene Slusser serves as the RFP facilitator for MTM, Inc., specializing in state and local government proposals. She has more than five years’ experience participating in the full lifecycle of proposal development, including RFP analysis, outlines, win themes, compliance, and proposal production. Along with proposals, she oversees the development and production of all marketing materials, manuals, and newsletters for the organization.
Preparing and Conducting Highly Effective Kick-Off Meetings
Who should attend? Entry-Level, Intermediate-Level and Advanced-Level Proposal Professionals
This presentation will provide guidance on how to prepare and conduct highly effective kick-off meetings resulting in well-orchestrated and less stressful proposal efforts. It will cover such topics as preparing kick-off handouts, setting clear expectations, building the proposal schedule, parsing the RFP, building the proposal outline and proposal directive, types of just-in-time training and directions to proposal writers, effective ways of tying in remote attendees, and team building. At the end of the presentation, the audience will have the knowledge and the tools to design and conduct powerful kick-off meetings that set the tone for the duration of each proposal.
Olessia Smotrova-Taylor is a president of OST Global Solutions Inc., a Washington, DC capture and proposal management company. Her goal is to stay current with the best practices in winning proposals and collaboration tools and techniques that help build fully integrated proposal teams. Prior to supporting a number of Fortune 500 companies as a proposal consultant, she worked as a business developer for Raytheon and Lockheed Martin and wrote for the Financial Times of London.
Using Technology to Reinforce Best Practices
Who should attend? Advanced, Entry-Level, and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
This case study will explore technology’s role in managing the proposal centers at CTB/McGraw-Hill, First Data Corp, and Noel Levitz. Proposal center technology has advanced from simple search engines to powerful Web applications that incorporate best practices and make them second nature to team members. Using technology to incorporate best practices, these companies have increased the effectiveness of their proposal teams and increased their overall win rates. Join the discussion with Dawn Church from CTB/McGraw-Hill, Karen Bridgett from First Data, Trish Adair-Harp from Noel Levitz, and Brian Vass from Sant.
Brian Vass, Vice President, Marketing, The Sant Corporation, is a 10-year company veteran responsible for development and execution of Sant’s worldwide marketing strategy. He oversees advertising, PR, vertical campaigns, promotional materials, tradeshows, focus groups, and corporate identity. Brian’s expertise includes B2B marketing, marketing communications, event management, and online marketing. He is an iSPACE board member and ATP Masters Series tennis tournament committee chair. Brian holds a BS in finance and marketing from Miami University (Ohio).
Dawn Church, Director, Proposal Center, CTB/McGraw-Hill, has worked in every nook of educational assessment, beginning in test development and eventually becoming a National Accounts Manager, a Senior Accounts Manager and then Director of the Proposal Center for CTB/McGraw-Hill. The Proposal Center staff of 8 responds to up to 60 RFPs a year, puts out 600-800 page proposals in an average of four weeks and consistently wins technical. The question for us is always how to do it smarter.
As Director of Knowledge Services for The Staubach Company, a global commercial real estate advisory firm with 68 offices throughout North America, Linda Smalley identifies, creates through collaborative teams, and distributes the company’s intellectual capital through knowledge repositories such as Sant and MS SharePoint for use in business development. Linda has more than 12 years experience managing proposals for public and private sector clients. She holds a BS degree in Mathematics from Florida Atlantic University.
As executive director of sales, Tricia Harp is responsible for the development, coordination, and management of Noel-Levitz service proposals to higher education institutions. Under her leadership, improvements were made to proposal content, processes, and procedures, resulting in a 42% increase in proposal to sale conversion rates. Ms. Harp also oversees the day-to-day activities of the enrollment sales team and analyzes overall marketing and sales effectiveness. Ms. Harp holds an M.B.A. from the University of Iowa.
The Five Biggest Mistakes of an Oral Proposal—and How to Avoid Them
Who should attend? Advanced, Entry-Level, and Intermediate-Level Proposal Professionals; Senior Management
Oral proposals are technical presentations. You have to explain how you will respond to the customer’s request. They are also job interviews. The selection committee wants to know if you are the people they want to work with for the contract term. We will examine the most common mistakes teams make preparing and delivering oral proposals:
• Assembling the wrong team
• Lacking a winning strategy
• Telling the wrong story
• Developing incoherent slides
• Rehearsing in a way that brings out the worst in technical presenters
Participants will then learn to plan, create, and deliver winning oral proposals.
Chris Witt has worked on more than 85 oral proposals on projects ranging in size from $5M to $1B. His clients include SAIC, Cubic, IBM, AT&T, Serco, Booz-Allen-Hamilton, and Intuit. Chris has taught public speaking and communication skills at three universities and colleges. He is president of the San Diego Chapter of the Institute of Management Consultants.