Event Management Platform

The Maryland State Department of Education is soliciting proposals for a Software as a Service event management platform for the Maryland Center for School Safety's annual School Safety Conference, with proposals due October 5, 2026 at 5 p.m. through eMMA, a pre-proposal conference scheduled for September 22, 2026, and questions due September 28, 2026.

The solicitation carries mandatory MBE and VSBE participation goals: 2.5 percent of total contract value for Minority Business Enterprise subcontractors and 1 percent for Veteran-Owned Small Business Enterprise participation. Offerors must complete MBE Utilization and Fair Solicitation Affidavit (Attachment D-1A) and VSBE Utilization Affidavit and Participation Schedule (Form E-1) with their proposals and, if recommended for award, submit waiver documentation within ten business days of notification if unable to meet goals after good faith outreach. The contract is classified as a Tier 1 service contract subject to Maryland living wage requirements; bidders must identify service performance locations and submit the Maryland Living Wage Requirements Affidavit of Agreement (Attachment G).

The platform must support minimum 1,000 registrants and deliver registration management, kiosk-based check-in, name badge printing, attendance tracking, continuing education credit tracking and certificate generation, exhibitor and speaker profile management, surveys, and digital venue mapping. Bidders must demonstrate minimum five years of documented experience delivering event platform services to federal, state, or local government agencies and identify a project manager with minimum five years managing enterprise-level SaaS implementations and at least three years supporting event management platforms. The platform must comply with Maryland Digital Accessibility Policy requiring WCAG 2.1 AA Success Criteria compliance and Non-Visual Access standards; vendors must conduct accessibility testing including screen readers (JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver) and mobile testing.

The contract term is three years with two optional one-year renewal periods. The contractor must provide 24-hour technical support seven days per week at 365 days per year, with emergency issues responded to within one hour and non-emergency requests within three hours or next business day. Data security requirements include daily incremental backups and weekly full backups retained for three years; no international storage or processing of state data is permitted. Apparent awardees must provide current certificates of insurance within five business days of notification of recommended award: commercial general liability of $1 million combined single limit and $3 million aggregate, and cyber security/data breach insurance of $5 million per occurrence. The contract contains no federal funding. Invoicing is bi-annual ahead of each conference, with payments by electronic funds transfer unless exempted. Bidders must submit the mandatory Contract Affidavit (Attachment U), Bid Proposal Affidavit (Attachment A), Conflict of Interest Affidavit (Attachment I), and complete Attachments D (MBE), E (VSBE), G (Living Wage), K (Location of Performance), L (Reference Checks), M (State Contracts), N (Legal Action Summary), P (Subcontractor List), and Y (Data Use Agreement).