The Winning Blueprint · for host cities and event organisers
Eight phases that take a host city from the first call to the vote. Choose the event that fits, build a bid that holds up, and win the people who decide. Your team runs the first decision with digital tools. I join for the rest when the stakes call for it.
01 / How it usually goes
A rights holder makes contact. A federation sees a chance. A local organiser gets excited. Political interest starts to grow.
Within weeks your team is expected to answer very big questions with very little information.
So people open an old bid. Start another spreadsheet. Ask five people for five versions of the truth. Or commission outside support before anyone knows whether the event deserves it.
The questions on the table
02 / Where it breaks
When I map a city's bidding work, the failures repeat. Most of them happen long before the bid book, in work nobody owns.
Nothing filters at the top, so weak opportunities travel a long way before anyone challenges them.
The city waits for calls instead of choosing which events it wants and going after them.
Federation rights are bid for the way they were 20 years ago. Commercial event concepts are not considered at all.
Each opportunity is handled by whoever picked it up, so nothing compares to anything.
Venues get checked, the organiser never does. Or the economics arrive after the enthusiasm.
The work lives in decks and spreadsheets that one person understands.
A strategy exists on paper. The day-to-day work ignores it.
Six files, four owners, three versions. Numbers move and nobody can say who changed what.
Good opportunities stall between departments because nobody owns the next step.
The people doing the work don't know who decides, on what basis, or when.
The event gathers supporters before it has been tested, and stopping it starts to look like failure.
There are checkpoints, but none of them has the authority to stop the work. So it never stops.
A funnel with no gate is just a list of hopes.
03 / What it costs
For scale: London approved £50,000 and six months for an initial Olympic bid feasibility study. That is the price of answering the first question the slow way.Greater London Authority, decision ADD2536, 2021
04 / The approach
Cities try to get more major events by bidding more, or by bidding better. Both help. Neither works if the event is wrong for the city. The approach rests on three rules.
Rule 1
Filter before you bid. Every opportunity ends in a Go, Conditional Go, Defer or No-Go, with the reasons written down. A No-Go on the wrong event is a good result.
Rule 2
Federation rights are decided by politics. Commercial event concepts are decided by business: a track record, an event manual and a price tag. When a city needs events fast, the direct route is often a commercial one. The question to answer: what do we bring to the table, and how does the event grow because of us?
Rule 3
The bid book, public opinion and national benefit rarely decide a vote. What decides it is whether you know the decision-makers personally, and what the bid does for each of them. That work starts at phase 7, and it is planned from phase 4.
05 / The Winning Blueprint
Three stages, each with one job. Each phase ends with something concrete in your hands, so the next phase never starts on a guess.
Decide what to bid for, before anyone writes a line of the bid.
A list of events that fit the city's goals, including commercial concepts, not only the calls that happen to arrive.
Strategic fit, rights holder trust, organiser, city readiness and venues. Gate 1: proceed or stop.
The facts behind the event, the real economic impact and the city's cost and benefit. Gate 2: Go, Conditional Go, Defer or No-Go.
Digital tools today: PreBid Playbook · Impact Calculator · Before the Bid
Turn a Go into a bid the rights holder can trust and the city can deliver.
The core theme, the decision-makers and what each of them needs to hear. The plan for phase 7 starts here.
City, state, organiser, venues and partners committed in writing, with owners and dates.
The document most cities start with. Here it is written from tested decisions, so every promise holds up.
With Jesse: consulting, coaching or co-working
Win the people who vote, and be ready for the day after.
Personal contact with every voter that matters, and a clear answer to what the bid does for them.
Won: the bid's promises become a delivery plan. Lost: a written lesson, and a decision on whether to come back.
With Jesse: consulting, coaching or co-working
06 / Start with stage 1
The costliest mistakes are made before the bid starts. These tools turn stage 1 into a process your team runs in days, without a consultant in the room. Inspect the finished examples before you pay anything.
PreBid Playbook: ten steps before you commit to a bid
PreBid Playbook
Phases 2 and 3 in seven days. Ten steps and two gates end in a Go, Conditional Go, Defer or No-Go, with the decision pack written from your team's work.
€997 / year + VAT · 5 users · 7 days free
Open the finished example → How it works · start the trial
Event Impact Calculator
The economic case for phase 3, and the real result after the event. Twelve steps from gross spending to the money that stays in the city.
€997 / year + VAT · 5 users · 7 days free
Try the free demo → How it works · start the trial
Before the Bid (book)
The thinking behind stage 1. 95 pages on deciding whether a major event deserves a full bid process, and how to defend the answer.
€49 + VAT · one-time · instant PDF
Get the book → Read a sample07 / Stages 2 and 3
Strategy, agreements, the bid book and the decision-makers. When the event matters, bring me into the bid in the way that fits your team.
Consulting
Opportunity assessment, bid strategy, stakeholder agreements, the economic case and the decision-maker plan. You get a recommendation and the reasoning behind it.
Coaching
Regular sessions with the bid lead and team. I challenge the assumptions and sharpen the decisions while you keep ownership.
Co-working
Hands-on inside the project: setting up the bid, the agreements, the bid book review, the presentation and the negotiation.
The event, the city and the decision date. You get a reply from me, not a sales team, with an honest view of where you are in the eight phases.
08 / Who built it
I have sat on both sides of this in Lahti. On the city side, and inside the city's event company. Opportunities kept arriving, more than we could ever host, and someone had to work out which ones were real.
The method ran on spreadsheets for years. It worked, but only when I was the one running it. Host City Strategy is that method, rebuilt so a city team can run it without me.
No logos or testimonials here. Open the finished examples and inspect every step, number and report yourself.
09 / Questions
At phase 1, even if an opportunity is already on the table. If it is, run it through PreBid Playbook first. If you are not sure where you are, email me the event, the city and the decision date.
Today they cover stage 1, where the costliest mistakes are made, plus measuring the impact after the event. Stages 2 and 3 are people work, and that is where I work with your team.
No. The blueprint applies to any major event a city is asked to host, including culture festivals, congresses and commercial event concepts.
Yes. PreBid Playbook has a finished example with no login, and the Impact Calculator has a free demo. Both full tools start with a 7-day free trial.
By scope: which phases, how much of the work, and the timeline. Email the three basics and you get a proposal.
Win the right bids
Test the opportunity on your desk with the tools this week. Or tell me about the bid, and we'll find out together where it stands.