I see in last week's Gazette ad advert for a "pre-tender meeting" for the extension of the CLS Specialist Telephone Advice Line services. It reminds me of a similar meeting I went to at The Law Society about six or seven years ago when my last firm were thinking of pitching for the redevelopment of The Law Society's website/CRM project.
As a professional salesman and marketeer I understand the need for these meetings in the public sector, but at the same time find them strange and not at all productive. In many cases you can only get the information you need from the tender document and meetings like these, which means it's really hard to get under the skin of an organisation, the challenges, the people, the culture etc.
So if you are going, good luck!