communicate / competitive bid-writing in the age of AI
TLDR
For public sector bid teams navigating the AI era. Shows you how to keep bids original, human and persuasive, using AI for speed and structure, but winning through authenticity and voice.
This team-based training programme is designed to help public sector bid and grant writing teams sharpen their competitive edge in a world where AI is transforming the way we write.
As organisations work out how to harness tools like Copilot within strict security guidelines, this course focuses on what sets winning teams apart when deadlines are tight and competition is fierce: the ability to articulate with clarity, credibility, innovation and strategic thinking, all delivered with a unique, unified voice.
-
Strengthen your team’s ability to write with a common voice and shared standards.
Understand how to leverage AI tools effectively without losing human insight and originality.
Build a shared writing process your team can lean on under deadline pressure, using the POWER framework - Plan, Organise, Write, Edit, Review.
Develop skills in editing, summarising and structuring content against a word or character limit.
Explore how to differentiate your bids in a world where AI is ubiquitous.
-
A unified, confident team that writes with one voice and shared purpose.
Clear understanding of team roles in the writing process, from content leads to editors.
Practical strategies for using AI as a support tool, not a crutch.
A peer review habit built around a shared checklist - not just gut reaction - that keeps improving your bids long after the workshop.
Renewed focus on what makes your team’s bids stand out.
-
Full-day core workshop (in-person or virtual)
A full-day session, delivered face to face or virtually, focused on your team’s live challenges and objectives. For smaller teams or focused topics, the workshop can sometimes be run as a half-day.
Follow-up virtual meetup (2 hours, 3 months later - OPTIONAL)
Review commitments and progress
Share embedded practices and lessons learned
Identify any new support or development needs
-
9:30 – 10:00
Welcome, introductions and pre-course review
Trainer welcome, overview of the day and review of pre-course questionnaire. Participants share expectations and team goals.10:00 – 10:45
Planning for success
A practical session to build a compliance-mapped checklist for your next ITT - covering method and delivery plan, team experience, risk and quality assurance, and social value - using the POWER framework your team can reuse on every bid.10:45 – 11:30
Supporting the writing process
Using the Rhetorical Triangle - Ethos, Pathos, Logos - to combine input from multiple contributors into a single, persuasive voice that answers the evaluation criteria.11:30 – 11:45
Break11:45 – 12:45
Structuring and storytelling
How to structure content clearly and persuasively, using document templates drawn from submissions, business cases and ITT responses. Before/after rewrites - turning a line like "this will make a real difference" into a claim with a number and a date attached - plus narrative arc techniques and AI tools to support, not replace, your thinking.12:45 – 13:30
Lunch13:30 – 14:15
Writing to be read – readability, tone
Plain English, active voice and scannable structure, checked against tools like Hemingway and Flesch-Kincaid.14:15 – 15:00
Explaining to, educating and persuading your reader
Writing credible, evidence-based arguments that answer the question - building an options appraisal with costs, benefits and risks, scored against the same criteria your evaluators will use.15:00 – 15:15
Break15:15 – 16:00
Ruthless editing and peer review
Editing for word and character count using the 5W1H scaffold for concise executive summaries and a shared editing checklist for peer review - plus a group writing exercise using real or simulated bid content.16:00 – 16:30
Commitments and close
Review team goals and learning. Set commitments for embedding.
