If by any chance you failed to attend our Eventex B2B Match this April, we’re delivering the live sessions essentials to help you discover solutions and strategies to elevate your work. Our Eventex B2B Match highlights series continues with Evan Babins, event manager at Inuit, who takes an in-depth look at vendor management. 

Navigating The Vendor Galaxy: Strategies for Effective Vendor Network Management

Evan’s session offers insight into the intricacies of vendor management, offering guidance on how to identify the right vendors that align with your objectives, how to cultivate strong relationships with vendors, as well how to leverage technology to streamline vendor management.

Vendor selection 

Selecting a good vendor has multiple benefits, including: 

• Better rates — this starts by shortlisting vendors and having them RFP for your event, which gives you the option to select the best price for the services offered, ultimately resulting in better margins for your event.    
• Strong relationships — vendor management helps establish long-term relationships, improving communication and overall event collaboration and nurturing trust. 
• Being proactive vs. reactive — you remain proactive by staying on top of vendor management, which enables you to troubleshoot in the case of any issues, ang gives you the opportunity to bring trendsetting new items to the table. 

Being proactive, you’re able to think ahead of the curve, you’re able to take a look at step 10 when you’re on step 5. 

Relationship building  

Vendor collaboration is essential for any event producer and is built on the following pillars: 

• Consistent communication — it can be achieved through a detailed work-back schedule to encourage accountability on both sides and keeping vendors in the loop about event plan changes. This will keep you on top of your deliverables and key event milestones. 
• Expectation management — setting clear expectations helps with starting partnerships off on the right foot, making sure that there is no overpromising or underdelivering. 
• Connection — taking the time to to connect and learn about your vendors and their business can help you determine whether they are a good fit for a long-term partnership.

We want everyone to win. We want our vendors to win, we want our clients to win. So, being able to work together and build each other’s businesses by cross-referring [...] it really helps everybody win together.  

Technology integrations 

Streamlined event tech can aid vendor management, with some examples including: 

• Vendor database apps or websites where vendors have been vetted and you get to check case studies, examples, etc., without having to speak to anyone. 

For more event technology integrations and further insight into vendor management, watch the live session for free. 

About Evan Babins 

Evan Babins is a trendsetting event & experiences producer with over a decade of corporate and private event experience working on events around the world. He has worked on events for cutting edge global brands like: Nissan Canada, Kia Motors, Manulife, Bristol Myers Squibb, Ford, EasyFinancial, and Intuit Canada.

About Eventex B2B Match 

Eventex B2B Match lets event professionals network seamlessly with participants spanning the globe, attend live sessions by industry superstars, and discover solutions to elevate their work.