DES Procurement Event Playbook

How to work a WA Department of Enterprise Services (DES) procurement event. The goal at a DES event is simple and narrow: meet procurement officers and contract holders who can route real work to us. It is not a generic networking event. The state has procurement budget; we want a piece of it.

Why this matters: DES holds the Statewide Contracts that route most state-agency purchasing. Procurement officers at these events are the gatekeepers who decide what gets purchased off-contract vs put through full RFP. Building relationships with them is the long game.

The two-week prep window

Most DES events are announced 2-6 weeks ahead. Once an event is committed, this is the prep timeline:

Two weeks out — confirm the angle

What's this event about? DES does general-purpose events, but also targeted ones (small business outreach, MWBE-focused, marketing-services-focused, IT-services-focused). The angle drives everything downstream.

Decision: which capability statement variant goes in the folder? Marketing? TA? Small Business Support? Maybe two variants if the event is broad.

Two weeks out — register + check the attendee list

Register at the DES events page (des.wa.gov → Events)
If they publish an attendee list, scan it for specific procurement officers we want to meet. Make a personal hit list of 3-5 names.
If they publish a vendor or agency list, identify any contract holders or primes we want to network with

One to two weeks out — generate capability statements

Per the Capability Statement Generation SOP. For a generic event, bring two variants:

Marketing-specific (lead with Statewide Contract + WBE/DBE)
Small Business Support (lead with breadth + cert mix)

Print run: 25 of each variant for a half-day event, 50 of each for a full-day event.

One week out — refresh the table kit

If we have a table at the event, confirm:

Tablecloth (LIDS-branded, in office storage)
Pop-up banner (red diagonal one, in office storage)
Capability statements stacked by variant
Business cards (Launch corporate + LMC if cannabis adjacent)
One-pagers for any active program we're recruiting consultants for
iPad with LIDS-branded slide loop (loaded with the Launch overview deck on auto-play, no sound)
Pen + signup sheet for "want a follow-up email?" leads

If no table, just the materials in a folio.

Three days out — brief whoever's representing

The person attending (often Monica, Andrea, or Stacia) gets a brief:

The 3-5 target procurement officers (with brief notes on what they buy)
The 1-2 capability statement variants and which to use when
The active contract vehicles to mention (Statewide Contract numbers, where applicable)
One or two recent wins to use as anchors in conversation
A reminder to leave with names, not just handouts

Day of — the conversation framework

The goal in any procurement officer conversation is three minutes long:

Who they are (let them introduce themselves first — listen)
One-sentence pitch: "Launch Industries — we're a multidisciplinary consulting firm based in Seattle, certified MWBE/DBE/WOSB, currently holding the Statewide Marketing Services contract, with active work for [a relevant peer agency or program]."
Specific question: "What's currently on your team's procurement list?" or "What kinds of contracts are you fielding the most RFPs on right now?"
Hand them the right capability statement based on their answer
Get their card and ask permission to follow up

What we don't do: monologue, oversell, or hand someone the wrong variant. If the procurement officer cares about IT services and we hand them the Marketing variant, we've burned the contact.

Day of — capture leads

Every meaningful conversation gets one of:

Business card collected (preferred)
Note in phone with name + role + agency + topic
Email captured via the table signup sheet

Don't trust memory. Five contacts in, you will not remember who said what.

Day of — debrief by EOD

Before the day ends, send a Slack message to the team with:

Who attended for Launch
3-5 highest-priority contacts captured
Any active RFPs or upcoming RFPs heard about
Any concerns about how the event went

Follow-up: the 48-hour rule

Every captured contact gets a follow-up email within 48 hours of the event. This is the difference between an event being worth it and not.

Standard follow-up email template

Subject: Following up — [Event Name]

Hi [Name],

It was a pleasure meeting you at [event] on [date]. You mentioned [specific topic they brought up — a procurement need, an upcoming RFP, a current pain point]. I wanted to follow up with:

Our [Marketing-specific / Small Business Support / TA] capability statement (attached)

A quick note that we're currently holding [relevant contract vehicle] — happy to walk you through that if useful

[Specific offer relevant to what they mentioned — a 30-min intro call, a referral to a related Launch service, an introduction to one of our consultants]

Best, [Sender name] [Sender title] [hello@launchindustries.biz / phone]

The "specific topic they brought up" line is what makes this not feel like a mass email. If you didn't capture a specific topic, your conversation wasn't long enough.

Adding contacts to Nutshell

Every captured contact also gets:

A Nutshell contact record created (or updated if existing)
Tagged with the event name (event:des-2026-q2-marketing)
Tagged with their agency/role
A note with the conversation summary and any committed follow-up

Active RFPs heard about

Anything the contact mentioned as an upcoming RFP gets its own row in the Supabase procurement_opportunities table:

Agency
RFP topic
Expected release window
Contact name + email
Estimated value (rough)
Launch's likely angle (which service line)
Decision date for whether to bid

What we DO NOT do at DES events

Hand out the wrong capability statement variant just because we ran out of the right one
Lead with hourly pricing — DES procurement thinks in contract awards, not hourly rates
Promise something we can't deliver in scope or timeline
Stay at the table — circulate
Forget to follow up within 48 hours (the contact has met 30 vendors, we have one window)
Get into a sales monologue with one person while the room is moving

The longer game

A DES event isn't a single sale. The pattern that works:

First event: meet a procurement officer, hand them paper, follow up
Second event: they recognize the name, ask a real question, ask for our SOW template or pricing
Third interaction (often via direct outreach a quarter later): they have an actual purchase to make and call us
Fourth interaction: they refer us to a peer agency that has a similar need

Track this over time. The follow-up email is what makes the difference between (1) and (2).

Active contract vehicles to mention by name

Below are the contract vehicles Launch holds or has access to. Confirm with Monica before using one in a pitch — these change.

WA DES Marketing Services Statewide Contract — current Launch hold
City of Seattle Roster Contract — active
Sound Transit Subcontractor List — active
King County SCS #5241 — active
WA DOR Approved Vendor — relevant for tax/finance discussions

Event preparation checklist

Use this for every DES event:

Item	Owner	Done by
Registration submitted	Stacia	2 weeks out
Attendee list reviewed, target list built	Whoever's attending	1 week out
Capability statement variants generated	Whoever's attending	1 week out
Capability statements printed	Lorena	3 days out
Table kit pulled + verified	Lorena	2 days out
Brief delivered to attendees	Monica	3 days out
Day-of leads captured	Attendees	day of
Debrief in Slack	Attendees	EOD day of
Follow-up emails sent	Attendees	within 48 hours
Nutshell contacts created/updated	Attendees	within 48 hours
Procurement opportunities logged	Attendees	within 48 hours

Related: Capability Statement Generation covers the artifact. Company Info has the cert numbers and contract vehicle references.

⚠️

v1 draft. Verify the current list of active contract vehicles with Monica before using them in a pitch. Last updated 2026-05-27.

Capability Statement Generation Email Signature