Digital book · for host city directors & major event organisers
Before your city chases the wrong event, read this first.
How host cities decide whether a major event is worth pursuing, before time, money and political capital are spent.
For the person who has to bring back the recommendation, and defend it at city hall.
€49 + VAT · one-time purchase · instant PDF
If we had known this earlier, we would have skipped this bid entirely, and not burned the money, time and political capital defending it.
The costly mistakes don't start with the bid. They start in the decision before it, when a city confuses enthusiasm with readiness and drifts into bid mode before anyone asked the hard question.
01 / The moment that matters
The wrong event drains your city long before a bid is submitted.
A rights holder reaches out. A local partner gets excited. Political interest builds. Before long the city is spending time and credibility on an event that may never have deserved serious pursuit.
Cities move from interest to effort too fast. They collect information instead of shaping a recommendation, so leadership ends up with more material and less clarity.
That is the question this guide helps you answer, with a defensible Go, Conditional Go, Defer or No-Go.
02 / What you'll learn
Turn loose interest into a recommendation leadership can act on.
Not a generic event-management book. A focused guide for one critical decision: whether your city should move forward with a major event bid at all.
- Test whether an event is a real strategic fit for your city
- Assess organiser credibility and rights-holder trust
- Spot weak readiness before it becomes expensive
- Review venue and infrastructure fit more honestly
- Separate real value from wishful thinking
- Structure a clear Go / Conditional Go / No-Go recommendation
- Avoid the 10 early mistakes that cost cities most
- Give leadership something they can actually use
03 / Inside the book
Eight chapters. One clear path from opportunity to decision.
The real decision is not “Can we win?” It's “Should we pursue this at all?”
What bid readiness actually means
The 4 questions every host city must answer before starting a bid
The 7-day Go / No-Go process: turning an event idea into a decision
The 10 most common pre-bid mistakes host cities make
What a decision-ready Go / No-Go report looks like
A host city scenario in practice
What to do after the decision: turning a recommendation into the right next move
04 / Read a sample
See how it reads before you buy.
Open the Introduction & the opening of Chapter 1
If you work in a host city, you already know how major event opportunities tend to arrive. Sometimes through a federation, rights holder, organiser, local promoter, or existing partner. Sometimes through a conversation, a conference, a contact, or a piece of momentum that suddenly feels too interesting to ignore. A possible event appears on the table, people get curious, and very quickly the room starts leaning toward action.
That is normal. What is not normal enough is stopping early to ask the right question. Not can we win this? Not would this be exciting? Not what would this say about our city? The first real question is simpler, and more important:
That question sounds obvious. In practice, it is where many cities struggle. A major event opportunity can create excitement long before it creates clarity. One person sees tourism. Another sees visibility. Another sees local pride, regeneration, investment, or political momentum. Before long, the opportunity starts gathering energy of its own, and that is exactly when weak decisions get made.
There is a moment in almost every host city event conversation when the opportunity starts to feel bigger than the evidence. You can feel it in the language. People begin saying: “This could be huge for us.” “We should not miss this chance.” “This could put us on the map.” “We need to move quickly.”
None of that is irrational. Major events can create real value. But none of those possible benefits remove the need for discipline. In many cities, the first phase of an event opportunity is not really a decision phase. It is an energy phase, and the event starts gathering supporters before it has been pressure-tested.
This is why the first discipline of event strategy is not bid writing. It is bid filtering. Strong host cities do not just know how to pursue events. They know how to qualify them.
05 / Who it's for
Written for the person expected to make sense of the opportunity.
06 / Built from real major event experience
Jesse Kiuru
A full-stack event strategist with 25+ years helping host cities and organisers bid, plan and deliver major events more strategically. He has supported projects including the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, IMGA Winter World Masters Games, MXGP Finland, UCI events and B2B conferences.
The belief behind this guide is simple: major event decisions should be shaped by clarity, logic and practical action, not unnecessary complexity.
07 / Get the guide today
One weak early decision can cost your city far more than €49.
For less than the cost of a single wasted meeting.
- The full digital e-book, 95 pages
- A practical host city decision framework
- The 7-day Go / No-Go process
- The 10 most common early-stage mistakes
- A clearer way to assess fit, delivery, venues & economics
- A better structure for a recommendation leadership can use
Secure checkout by SamCart. Invoicing questions: jesse@bonacube.com
Run the seven days with your team
The book explains the process. PreBid Playbook is the same process as a shared online workspace: ten steps, two gates, and the decision pack written from your team's work.
See PreBid Playbook →7-day free trial. Separate from the book.
08 / Questions
Before you buy
Is this a bid-writing manual?
No. This is deliberately not about writing bid books or selling the dream to rights holders. It covers the moment that comes first: deciding whether a major event deserves a full bid process at all.
Who is it really for?
Host city and destination directors, major event organisers, and anyone advising a board or council who has to bring back a recommendation, and defend it.
What do I get, and how fast?
The full 95-page digital e-book as a PDF, delivered instantly after checkout through SamCart.
What does it cost?
€49 + VAT, a one-time purchase. For less than the cost of a single wasted meeting.
Before momentum becomes commitment
Ask the right question before the city commits.
Not “Can we win this?” but “Should we pursue this at all?” 95 pages on how to answer it, with a recommendation leadership can act on.
€49 + VAT · one-time · instant PDF