Supplier Spotlight - Arc Theatre
Arc Theatre was commissioned by the Olympic Delivery Authority to develop and deliver an educational theatre programme for school children aged 9-11 keeping themselves safe in and around the Olympic Park in Stratford. The theatre company based in Barking was awarded the contract through CompeteFor, a web based procurement tool used by London 2012 to advertise their supply chain opportunities.

Arc Theatre is a professional theatre company and social enterprise with over 25 years experience. It specialises in creating high impact drama and theatre-based learning tools for both public and private sector clients. Arc also works on community based projects engaging with young people on a variety of themes from drug awareness, through to careers choices, gender and relationships.

Artistic Director, Carole Pluckrose, was told about CompeteFor at a business event hosted by the London Business Network and the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Based in East London for over 20 years, Carole was keen to do work in relation to the 2012 Games, with a particular interest in arts based opportunities generated by the Cultural Olympiad.

Carole registered on CompeteFor and to her delight, soon discovered that there were a number of arts based contracts her company could bid for. “I was highly surprised to see an educational theatre based contract on the website from the Olympic Delivery Authority, which I knew was responsible for the construction work in east London. This was refreshing – if unusual”.

The registration process took Carole 20 minutes, which included creating a business profile that allowed her to bid for multiple contracts quickly and easily. Since registering, Arc has applied for several opportunities, including project funding from the Arts Council as part of their 2012 Cultural Skills Fund.

The benefits of CompeteFor, says Carole, is its appeal to small businesses. “It’s useful to be alerted by email of opportunities that match my profile. It also has a good search tool and saves our information so we don’t have to re-enter it every time we apply for a contract. This makes pre-qualifying questionnaires so much quicker to fill out. We may not win every contract but at least we are in the game.”
 
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