PreBid Playbook · for host city event teams
Is this event worth bidding for? Know in seven days.
An online workspace for the city team that has to bring back the recommendation. Ten steps take one major event opportunity from the first call to a board-ready Go, Conditional Go, Defer or No-Go, with the decision pack written from your team’s work.
7 days free · then €997 a year + VAT where applicable · 5 users on one licence
01 / How it starts
Nobody decides to bid. It just starts happening.
A federation calls. A local partner has been talking to someone. A politician saw the event abroad last summer and came back with an idea.
None of it arrives as a decision. It arrives as interest. And interest is not free.
This is where the money goes: the weeks before any bid book, when the city collects material instead of forming a recommendation.
If we had known this earlier, we would have skipped this bid entirely.
A sentence I have heard in more than one city. Always too late, and always after the money.
02 / What a late no costs
Every week you wait, the no gets more expensive.
Your city filters event opportunities whether anyone planned it or not. The only question is where the filter sits.
For scale: London approved £50,000 and six months for an initial Olympic bid feasibility study. That is what the second stage costs. The question in front of it can be answered in a week.Greater London Authority, decision ADD2536, 2021
03 / Why it goes wrong
Six places where pre-bid work breaks.
When I map a city's pre-bid work, the failures cluster in the weeks nobody owns, long before the board meeting. Each one has a fix built into the Playbook.
Wrong events get in
Nothing filters at the top, so weak opportunities travel a long way before anyone challenges them.
Every bid is run differently
Each opportunity is handled by whoever picked it up. Nothing compares to anything.
Steps get skipped
Venues get checked, the organiser never does. Or the economics arrive after the enthusiasm.
The work lives in spreadsheets
Six files, four owners, three versions. Numbers move and nobody can say who changed what.
Unknowns get assumed away
"We can solve that later" goes into the deck. Nobody is named to solve it, and no date is set.
No gate can stop it
There are checkpoints, but none of them has the authority to end the work. So the work never ends.
04 / The real question
Should we pursue this at all?
Most cities start with the first question. It is the exciting one. It also assumes the answer to the second.
PreBid Playbook is built for the second question. It lets the city filter the opportunity before it spends money, people and political capital on it.
05 / How it works
Ten steps. Two gates. Seven days.
One guided workspace. Steps 1 to 5 test whether the opportunity stands up at all. Steps 7 to 9 build the economic case. Steps 6 and 10 are the gates, and either one can stop it on paper.
Strategic fit
Rights holder trust check
Local organiser reality check
Ecosystem readiness
Venue fit scorecard
Feasibility report
Desk research
Real economic impact
City cost and benefit
Go / No-Go pack
Every page has a guide built in. Open "How this works" on any step: how the step works, why it matters, what the outcome is, and exactly what to do, in order.
The judgment stays with your team. The Playbook keeps the order, the rules and the paper trail.
06 / What you get
Four possible answers.
Yes or no is where most bid discussions get stuck. Four answers break the deadlock, because two of them let a city move without committing.
The evidence holds. Move to a full bid process, with the case written down.
Proceed, but named conditions each have an owner and a verify-by date.
Not now. Here is what has to change, and the date we look at it again.
Written up properly, so it does not quietly reopen in six months.
One number tells you whether the recommendation is finished: open conditions with no owner. If it is not zero, it is not ready for the board.
07 / Inside the app
The report writes itself from the work.
Nothing is retyped at the end. Every score, gap, condition and number your team enters lands in the reports. Screens below are from the finished example.
The whole assessment on one screen. Progress, the current signal computed from steps 1 to 5, open conditions and how many have no owner, and the board date it has to be ready for.
Scored, not argued. Zero, one or two on every row, weighted, with an evidence link required for a two.
Venues side by side. Eight domains, upgrade needs with early cost signals, and an owner on every gap.
A guide on every page. How the step works, why it matters, the outcome and what to do, without leaving the work.
Export it and make it yours. Word or PDF, into your own city template, in your own language.
No login. Two cities, fully worked. Nothing you change is saved.
08 / Where it fits
Run it before you commission the study.
A full feasibility study is the right tool when deeper analysis is justified. PreBid Playbook is how your team finds out whether it is.
| Option | Good for | What it misses |
|---|---|---|
| A meeting | Discussion | Missing evidence, open conditions, who owns what |
| A spreadsheet | Storing information | Whether every critical question was asked |
| A slide deck | Presenting the opportunity | It can make the case look finished before it was tested |
| A feasibility study | Deep analysis | It spends serious money before the city decided the event deserves it |
| PreBid Playbook | Testing the opportunity, recording the evidence, exposing the gaps and producing the recommendation, in one place | Seven days. Then you know whether the study is worth it. |
09 / Who built it
I built it because I needed it.
I have sat on both sides of this in Lahti. On the city side, and inside the city's event company. Opportunities kept arriving, more than we could ever host, and someone had to work out which ones were real.
So I built a way to qualify them. It ran on spreadsheets for years, and it worked, but only when I was the one running it. PreBid Playbook is the same logic, rebuilt so a city team can run it without me in the room.
No logos or testimonials here. Open the finished example instead and inspect every step, number and report before you start.
Jesse Kiuru · jessekiuru.com · LinkedIn
10 / Price
Test it on a live opportunity. Seven days free.
Take the event on your desk right now through the first steps. If it does not earn its place in a week, cancel and pay nothing.
- 5 users: you plus 4 colleagues from your organisation
- Unlimited projects and assessments
- All ten steps, with a built-in guide on every page
- Conditions register and live decision signal
- Feasibility report and Go / No-Go pack, Word and PDF
- Two finished examples: a sport event and a culture festival
- Updates during the licence year
Card at checkout. Nothing is charged for 7 days. Renews at €997 a year. Invoicing or procurement questions: jesse@bonacube.com
- Create your loginUse your work email. Your colleagues will join with the same domain.
- Start the trialSecure checkout. Seven days before anything is charged.
- Open your first opportunityName the event, set the decision date, and start Step 1. Or copy a finished example and edit it.
Want to look first? Open the finished example. No login.
11 / Questions
Asked before starting
What is PreBid Playbook, in one line?
An online workspace that takes one major event opportunity through ten steps and produces a Go, Conditional Go, Defer or No-Go recommendation, with the feasibility report and decision pack written from your work.
Does the tool decide whether we should bid?
No. It structures the evidence, assumptions, risks and conditions, and it computes a signal from them. Your team owns the final judgment.
Is this a replacement for a feasibility study?
No. It is the step before. It tells you whether a full study, and the money behind it, is justified.
What if we do not have all the information?
You never will at this stage. Anything unknown becomes a condition with an owner and a verify-by date. The process does not ask for false certainty. It asks for the gaps to be visible.
How does the free trial work?
Create your login, then start the trial at checkout. Nothing is charged for 7 days. To cancel before day 7, email jesse@bonacube.com and you are not billed. After that the licence renews at €997 a year.
Can my colleagues work in it?
Yes. One licence covers you and up to four colleagues with the same organisation email domain. You invite them inside the app, they get an email, create their own login and land in the same shared workspace. Every edit is stamped with who made it and when.
Can we edit the reports?
Yes. Export to Word or PDF and adapt them to your own city template and language.
Who can see our data?
Only you and the colleagues you invite. You can export a full backup of the workspace at any time.
Can I see it before I sign up?
Yes. Open the finished example: two cities taken through all ten steps, every verdict, condition, number and report already there. No login.
Before momentum becomes commitment
Get the answer before the city commits.
Ten steps, seven days, one recommendation leadership can act on. Start with the opportunity already on your desk.
7 days free · then €997 a year + VAT where applicable · 5 users