Scope of Services The Contractor shall perform Trade Development assistance services (Services) as further described in this Section 2.1. For the purpose of this RFP and any contract (the Contract) resulting from it, Services shall mean the promotion of increased exports of goods and services by NYS small and mid-sized companies (SMEs) to the Designated Area. The Contractor shall render the Services in accordance with the highest professional standards. The Contractor shall coordinate with the Project Manager who shall represent the Departments interest in coordinating with the Contractor regarding the Services. The Department shall identify the Project Manager prior to commencement of the Contract. The Services performed by the Contractor under the Contract shall include the following: Export Market Preparation: - Review the competitive advantages of the NYS SMEs targeted and/or being recruited for participation in trade development activities (trade missions, trade shows, and other specialized export events) in order to effectively target companies in the Designated Area for matchmaking meetings with NYS SMEs. - Confer and advise as to trade development activities approach for the given market and sector(s), objectives to be achieved, regions/cities to be included in planned efforts/events. - Discuss market prospects with NYS and with SMEs via conference call, email, etc., including which companies would be the most-suitable targets to meet during the mission, and about how to screen prospective meeting candidates. - Provide an Action Plan with a preliminary schedule and content related to objectives. - Finalize Action Plan based on dialogue with NYS. Trade Development Planning, Matchmaking and Activities Support: - Confirm the objectives for each element of the trade development activities, such as number of meetings, format of the meetings including individual, group, business networking receptions, and any scheduled events to speak about and promote NYS, its industries, and its SME exporters. - Formulate, in close coordination with NYS, details of trade development activities with a detailed project plan covering all relevant elements, including the itinerary, profiles of targeted companies and sales channel partners, protocol for official business-to-business meetings, logistics, lodging preferences, etc.4 - Review NYS SME profiles and export market objectives, and outline plans for customized meetings to meet such objectives. - Address and make recommendations on trade mission content and logistics issues. Implementation of Trade Missions and other Trade Development Activities: - Prepare event, visit and meeting schedule for delegations of 5 to 10 firms for trade missions of 7 to 10 days to two to three cities in China and/or South Korea. - Include for each participating firm customized one-on-one meetings (matchmaking) with 10-12 pre-qualified Chinese and/or South Korean companies across 2-3 cities. - Prepare brief profiles for each NYS SME of the targeted companies for matchmaking meetings. - Ensure that for each firm, in each city, matchmaking meetings and business networking events effectively target those companies with specific needs for the given firms products and/or services, within the targeted industries of focus, and/or meetings are arranged with suitable prospective distributors, agents or partners. - Arrange and coordinate all in-country logistics for the trade development activities, including hotel rooms, train tickets, plane tickets (if necessary), local transportation in each of the cities, and method of payments for the NYS delegation. - Provide staff in country, dedicated to implementation of the trade development activities, to provide services including translation, note-taking and overall trip coordinator during the visits. - Assist with formulating and implementing brief customer satisfaction survey for NYS SME participants to gather information on event results, comments, leads, etc. Follow-up to Trade Missions and other Trade Development Activities: - Prepare a trade development activity report after implementation to highlight performance objectives, outputs and outcomes, including meeting details, business networking events, leads generated, projected export sales, and recommended next steps for NYS and for NYS SME participants. The Contractor will perform the services described above as requested, and the Department may request that the Contractor perform other trade development services as necessary to effective project implementation. NYS DED anticipates using the Contractors services for up to five trade development missions, trade shows or other activities under this contract.
