Most event technology RFPs ask the wrong questions

Feature matrices flatten the differences that matter

The standard RFP asks whether the supplier offers on-site badge printing, RFID access control, a mobile app and analytics. Every credible supplier answers yes to all four.

You now have five identical responses and a price column, so you choose on price, and you discover the differences on the morning of the event.

The questions worth asking are about failure, capacity and accountability — where suppliers genuinely differ and where the answers are hard to fake.

Ask what happens when things break

"The venue uplink fails at 08:40 with 400 people queuing. Walk me through the next ten minutes."

This single question separates suppliers more reliably than anything else in a typical RFP. A supplier with offline-first architecture describes a system that keeps working. One without describes a mitigation plan, and you can hear the difference.

"What is your spare ratio on printers and scanners, and where are the spares physically kept?"

The good answer is a ratio and a location. A vague answer means the spares are in a warehouse two hours away.

"When did you last fail to deliver something, and what changed afterwards?"

Any supplier who has run enough events has one. A supplier claiming none has either not run many or is not being straight with you.

Ask about the people, by name

"Who is on site, what is their role, and how many events have they run at this scale?"

Sales teams pitch; delivery teams deliver. Ask for the named on-site lead and whether they will be there, and put the answer in the contract if it matters to you.

"What is the escalation path at 08:00 on a Sunday, and what is the response time?"

A support portal with a next-business-day SLA is not an answer for an event.

Ask them to size it, and show their working

Give them your delegate count, arrival window and venue constraints, and ask how many counters they recommend and why.

A supplier who returns a number with the arithmetic — arrival curve, throughput per counter, peak rate — is thinking about your event. One who returns a number that matches your budget is thinking about the sale.

This question is also the most useful thing you will get out of the RFP regardless of who wins, because you end up with several independent sizings to compare.

Ask what is not included

Explicitly, in writing:

• //Overtime, and at what rate
• //Additional counters added on the day
• //Data export in a format you can use, at no charge
• //Who owns the delegate data, and what happens to it after the event
• //What the price does if delegate numbers move by 20% either way

That last one comes up on most events and is much better agreed in advance than on the day.

Weight the scoring honestly

If you weight price at 60%, you have run a price auction with extra steps, and you should not be surprised by the result.

A defensible split for an event where failure is visible: 30% price, 30% relevant delivery evidence at your scale, 25% failure handling and support model, 15% technical fit. Adjust it, but decide it before the responses arrive rather than after.