The European Conference for Waste Management and the Circular Economy will take place from 18-20 April in Bergamo, Italy. ICLEI Europe is a partner of the conference, which is bringing together industry leaders, innovators, buyers, regulators and government to network, collaborate and debate the future of waste management and the sustainable eco-friendly solutions urgently needed by our planet.

WME 2022 took place in Bergamo with excellent participation for many leading experts in the waste management sectors, including government and policy representatives shaping legislation. It attracted more than 2,000 attendees, 100 exhibiting companies, dozens of partner associations and organisations, and over 200 conference delegates coming from Austria, Germany, Italy, Libya, Mexico, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Spain and United Kingdom.

WME presents the ideal opportunity to showcase products, technologies, innovations and solutions to the waste management and circular economy community. It is also a convening platform to engage in debate and thought leadership, share ideas and solutions to drive towards a greener and carbon neutral environment.

For more information, and to register, click here.

Central purchasing bodies (CPBs) conduct procurement procedures on behalf of other contracting authorities and play an important role in many EU Member States. So does framework agreements and dynamic purchasing. However, in the post-Covid reality, disrupted by the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, and emerging climate change, aggregated procurement is facing many challenges.

This public procurement conference – centralization and new trends aims to address new developments, innovation and sustainability as well as emerging issues in public procurement. The two-day Conference will bring together both practitioners and researchers working in the field from all around Europe, especially from Scandinavia.

The first day of the Conference is divided into three panels:

• CPBs in Scandinavia - trends and challenges
• Framework Agreements
• Dynamic Purchasing Systems

The second day of the Conference is divided into two panels followed by Danish and International Tracks:

• Public Procurement for a Green Transition
• The Future of Centralization
• International Track (held in English) / Danish Track on framework agreements (held in Danish)

More information on the conference can be found here

The Organic Textile Forum in Konstanz, taking place from 9-10 May, with an evening event on 8 May will have "Resources with future potential - sustainable materials and innovative raw material alternatives" as its main topic

Textile producers, dealers, organisations and authorities are always somewhere in a value chain between customers and suppliers. The pressure for social and sustainable management of all those involved as part of these supply chains is increasing. Not least because new legal regulations make it necessary and more and more customers, including consumers, are asking for sustainable products. The fact that the environment suffers from textile production and the working conditions in production countries are sometimes catastrophic calls for more responsibility on the part of business, civil society and politics.

The Organic Textile Forum will show the breadth of these challenges, but at the same time will also present solutions, good approaches and best practice examples. More information about the 2023 Organic Textile Forum and its programme can be found here.

The EU-funded CircularPSP project is carrying out an Open Market Consultation (OMC) in the form of a series of events, aiming to:

• inform potential suppliers (industry) about the CircularPSP pre-commercial procurement opportunity;
• explain in detail the pre-commercial procurement process;
• open a dialogue with potential suppliers about the scope of procurement envisaged in the project;
• facilitate matchmaking among potential suppliers in need of support in the forming of consortia;

The first of these events will be a webinar, taking place on 22 June 2023 (10 - 12 CET).

Agenda:

• Welcome & Introduction;
• CircularPSP Aim & Scope;
• Procurement of Innovation and Tender Process;
• Q&A on project and process;
• Next steps

The CircularPSP project is looking for a digital platform enabling and empowering entire municipal operations (city) and the local economy (market) to make use of existing information and knowledge of Circular Economy by integrating them into well designed workflows and knowledge nuggets. Suppliers will develop and make use of taxonomies, AI and NLP. Contracts are awarded in three competitive phases. The platforms are tested in by all procurers with the ambition to make the solution known across Europe.

More information about the project can be found here.

To register for the webinar, click here

The Global Procurement Conference 2023, taking place in Rome from 6-7 July, aims to raise awareness about the planetary implications of joint decisions regarding what is purchased, how and for whom in the public domain. The eight edition of this event will be organised by the University of Rome Tor Vergata, with support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The Global Procurement Conference is an event where experts from international financial institutions and regulatory bodies, policy-makers, economists, engineers, lawyers, procurers and other relevant stakeholders gather for a much-needed debate concerning issues related to innovation, competitiveness, sustainability and regulation in public procurement worldwide.

The conference will be centred around six topics: Procuring Food, Procuring Consultancy, Competitive Dialogue, Digital Procurement, Gender Aspects in Procurement, and Firms Training in Procurement. Additionally, The University of Rome Tor Vergata will host the Erasmus+ ProcToGo project to share practices and tools to boost the upskilling of procurement professionals.

For more information on the conference, and to register, click here

The 5th Interdisciplinary Symposium on Public Procurement will take place in Cagliary (Italy) from 28-29 September. The Symposium aims to bring together economists, engineers, lawyers, management scholars and professionals in the field of public procurement through dialogue and discussion. The organizers have the ambition to reduce the terminology barrier between all interested parties, bridging the cross cultural divide and reaching a joint wider understanding of practical issues in public procurement.

The Symposium will this year focus on the following topics:

• Preferences and Political Economy in Public Procurement
• Climate Change in Public Procurement
• Defence Procurement
• Human Rights in Public Procurement

The Symposium attempts to suggest reform measures for better rules of acquisition for Public Administrations and provides a platform for the discussion on the challenging issues of the modern practices in public procurement. While topics and references will certainly involve the European Union environment, the Symposium shall not be limited to this area, taking advantage of best practices worldwide

The Symposium is organised by the University of Rome Tor Vergata. Previous editions took place in Rome (2011), Budapest (2014), Belgrade (2016), and Paris (2018). For more information on this year's edition, visit the website.