Public Spend Forum (PSF) is a public sector procurement global community and market intelligence platform dedicated to improving public buying everywhere. GovShop is its free-to-use global government market research tool for finding and connecting with suppliers. Read more from PSF and GovShop founder Raj Sharma here: Working towards a more open and accessible public sector marketplace – for suppliers and buyers.

This week’s latest from PSF:

The quality of your coffee may soon be determined by a robot

A newly-innovated artificial intelligence platform compacted into a handheld rectangular battery-shaped machine can determine the quality of beans with its own sensory capabilities. Demetria is the Columbian-Israeli company that’s uprooting the traditional methods (known as cupping) we have to grade coffee beans. Demetria has created a way that once humans input the quality parameters into the device, it will be able to classify coffee before it is even roasted.

The rapid expansion of technology’s capabilities is increasingly replacing what were once laborious and tedious jobs into something that can be done with a few clicks of a button. AI is changing the way producers and consumers conduct business. As part of the ongoing effort of Public Spend Forum to connect buyers and suppliers in emerging technology fields, GovShop’s list of opportunities in artificial intelligence is accessible here, on the free supplier and contract intelligence platform that provides comprehensive data across all markets.

Opportunity Spotlight: Time to invest in the next generation of students

Within GovShop opportunities there are hundreds of solicitations you can respond to in the government market —  like this one: Developers for the Elearning and Instructional Design of Continuing Education Courses. It’s an ongoing project to to design and assemble the programming and media necessary to carry out design plans, as assembled in collaboration with the PACE instructional designer and/or SME. Ideal candidates have solid experience in the development of media-rich online learning solutions, are detail-oriented, well versed in instructional and visual design principles and best practices, know how to execute accessible content, and are adept at creating instructionally and technically sound interactions. For more information on the qualifications, deadline, and application, visit GovShop.

Ask Me Anything with Raj Sharma

Ask Me (Us) Anything is an exclusive hour-long opportunity for GovShop Government users to learn how to conduct more efficient market intelligence research for superior acquisition outcomes. You can meet directly with Raj Sharma, Founder & CEO of GovShop to get answers to all your questions: whether how to match with emerging, non-traditional suppliers more efficiently, or how to meet your socio-economic goals. Raj and team will be on hand to help you learn how to:

• Identify suppliers and understand the market
• Connect with an ecosystem of emerging, non-traditional suppliers across markets
• Build world-class market intelligence skills
• Increase visibility into spending and suppliers
• Save time, money and resources

Registration available right up until Thu, Apr 29, 1:00 pm EDT/6pm BST/CET

And in other news …

Service sector unions call on the European Commission to change €2 trillion public procurement rules

Exclusive Master Class on the fundamentals of building a strong public sector business

Urban Agenda Partnership on Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement aims to use procurement as a strategic driver to help public authorities solve their social, economic and environmental challenges

Singapore planning  a $90m Maritime Decarbonisation Centre to fund research into cutting shipping CO2

MPs push for public procurement to back British farmers

EFRA report urges public procurement of UK produce

Analysis of the recent UK government Green Paper on transforming public procurement, focusing on the support available to SMEs

Swedish defence giant Saab awards major public affairs and corporate comms account

French defence group Thales to sell signalling business 

The European Commission proposed new rules covering the impact of AI on humans and businesses

Contact support@publicspendforum.net if you’d like to understand more about public procurement, the effect of the pandemic, where to find suppliers for a specific category, or any other burning issue you have.

PSF would also love to hear from you if you have a success story within your organization you’d like to share. If you’d like to share your opinions or insight on a public-procurement-relevant issue please see the Guest Author Guidelines here.

Schedule a free GovShop demo

You can book a free consultation and demo to learn how to best leverage GovShop! You’ll learn how to build your market research skills and use GovShop to search across 2 million traditional and non-traditional suppliers, quickly generate lists and reports in minority and small businesses, and find contracts that match your needs.

Contact Frank McNally from the Government Success Team