Global Revolution VIII
12 and 13 June 2017
The 8th “Public Procurement: Global Revolution” conference was held in Nottingham on 12-13 June 2017.
This year PPRG celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the Public Procurement: Global Revolution conference series, the largest event yet. The conference saw several hundred delegates and speakers from academia, international organisations, government and industry gather at the East Midlands Conference Centre on campus, from 51 countries as far away as Argentina, Mongolia and New Zealand.
The key note presentation was delivered by Professor Steven J. Kelman, Albert J. Weatherhead III and Richard W. Weatherhead Professor of Public Management at Harvard Kennedy School, who reflected on the state and development of procurement reform, while other plenary session speakers provided further perspectives on the last 20 years of regulation.
Four parallel streams of workshops covered topics such as Brexit, modification and termination of contracts, abnormally low tenders, electronic procurement in action, and human rights and procurement.
We were delighted to see friends who were with us for the very first conference, and continued to forge new relationships and friendships, including with some of our new collaborators.
The conference was sponsored by The Achilles Group.
Conference themes
Procurement in the EU and UK to include:
- Brexit and Its Implications
- A Third Country Perspective on Brexit
- The Future of Enforcement
- Live Issues with Enforcement
- Modifications and Termination of Contracts
- Abnormally Low Tenders
- Defining Concessions
- Award Methodologies
Procurement in Practice to include:
- Cross-border Collaboration
- Working with Flexibility
- Electronic Procurement in Action
- Procurement and SMEs
- Governance and Procurement
- Sustainability and Procurement
- Human Rights and Procurement
- University Procurement
Current Issues in the International Arena to include:
- Global Reform Roundup
- Implications of the Trump Presidency
- Country Experiences with Global Procurement Revolution
- Carrots and Sticks
- Conflicting Policies
- Challenges with Financing
- The Revision of MAPS
- Procurement and Aid Effectiveness
- Fair Returns vs Offsets
Corruption and Debarment to include:
- The World Bank Study
- Anti-corruption Tools
- Country Experiences
- The Effect of Global Events
Sessions included speakers from the following organisations:
- Crown Commercial Service
- EU Commission
- WTO
- The World Bank
- UNCITRAL
Organisation and collaborators
The conference was organised by the Public Procurement Research Group (PPRG) at the University of Nottingham. The conference was supported by a number of collaborators, including:
- World Trade Organization
- Procurement Lawyers Association
- African Public Procurement Research Unit (Stellenbosch)
- University of Lagos
- Centre for Procurement and PPP (Lodz)
- Dongbei University of Finance and Economics
- University of Tartu
- Stockholm University
- Catolica Research Centre for the Future of Law (Lisbon)
- Utrecht University
- The George Washington University
- University of Durham
- Forum Vergabe
- Achilles
Professor Sue Arrowsmith opens the conference with keynote speaker Carl Baudenbacher
Plenary session Day 1 of the conference with keynote speaker Carl Baudenbacher
The Public Procurement Research Group School of Law
Speaker and delegates at Public Procurment Global Revolution IX