TL;DR

The Bid & Proposal Conference (BPC), hosted annually by the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP), brings together leaders in business development, capture, and proposal strategy. This year in Nashville, Briljent’s Chang Sanders, CF APMP, joined professionals from across the country to explore how the proposal field is evolving. From AI and evaluator-centered strategies to inclusive teamwork and powerful storytelling, the lessons we brought home are directly shaping how we craft proposals that help you make sound, confident award decisions.

What It Means for You

BPC is where experts in capture strategy, writing, and proposal operations share what’s working, what’s changing, and what’s next. Much of what we learned applies directly to how we support your procurement efforts—whether we’re helping you write a clear, well-structured RFP or crafting a proposal that’s easier to evaluate, more aligned with your mission, and ultimately more successful for both sides of the process.

When we improve how we write to your scoring criteria, tell better stories about your impact, and streamline how we structure solutions to meet your goals, it means:

• You get better proposals to evaluate.
• You spend less time interpreting vague language.
• You’re empowered to make confident, defensible award decisions.

5 Key Takeaways That Elevate Our Proposals

1. Turning Ideas into Evidence

Buyers are tired of vague promises. They want proof—measurable, tangible outcomes that align with their mission. We’re responding by tying our proposed work to real metrics like learner engagement, go-live success, and adoption rates, making it easier for you to assess value and fit.

2. Writing with the Evaluator in Mind

Evaluators aren’t looking for flashy language or vague themes—they’re assessing strengths, weaknesses, risks, and differentiators. One of the most practical lessons from BPC: Don’t make evaluators connect the dots. Draw the line. Circle the evidence. Label the benefit. We’re embedding this clarity throughout our proposals to make your job easier.

3. Prioritizing Plain Language

Christoph Mlinarchik’s keynote drove this point home. As a government contracting expert and former Air Force JAG attorney, his plainspoken approach to complex topics underscored a key principle we bring to every proposal: strip out the fluff. Clear, direct language makes it easier for you to understand our solution, assess our fit, and move forward with confidence.

4. Using Stories to Strengthen Impact

Data matters, but stories resonate. Stories help evaluators see not just what we’ve done, but who we’ve helped. When we include meaningful examples and emotionally resonant storytelling, we help evaluators envision who we’ve helped and how. It makes proposals more human, more relatable, and more grounded in real-world relevance.

5. Supporting Our Team to Serve You Better

Proposal development is intense work—and so is procurement. Sessions on self-care emphasized the importance of protecting time, energy, and mental health. When our team is supported, you benefit from a more focused, responsive, and resilient partner.

Purpose-Driven Work: Keynote Insights

The conference wasn’t just about tools and templates—it was also a reminder of the deeper purpose behind the work.

Princess Sarah Culberson, a nonprofit leader and member of Sierra Leonean royalty, opened the conference with a heartfelt keynote. Her message—“Just showing up is enough”—offered a reminder of the courage, community, and empathy that sit at the heart of public service. It resonated deeply with our team and reaffirmed how we approach proposal work: with care, collaboration, and commitment to doing right by our clients and communities.

👉 Learn more about Princess Sarah’s inspiring story and work at https://sarahculberson.com/.

Briljent’s Commitment to Proposal Excellence
We believe every proposal should make your job easier, not harder. That’s why we stay sharp on national trends, evaluator expectations, and storytelling strategies that help your evaluation teams feel confident in their decisions. The takeaways from BPC Nashville 2025 will show up in the proposals we submit—clearer structure, stronger evidence, more human-centered storytelling, and greater alignment to what matters to you.

We’re grateful to Chang Sanders, CF APMP, for representing Briljent at this year’s conference and bringing back actionable insights that elevate our entire team.

Need Help Writing Your Own RFP?

Creating a clear, well-structured solicitation can be just as challenging as responding to one. That’s why we offer vendor-agnostic RFP development support—helping organizations define technical requirements, evaluation criteria, and scopes of work that attract the right responses. Recent projects include helping a nonprofit design an RFP to support cross-sector data sharing and assisting a health information exchange in developing a solicitation to integrate behavioral health providers and sensitive data into its platform.

If you’re navigating a complex procurement, we can help you get it right. We bring the same clarity, strategy, and empathy to your side of the procurement process.

About Chang Sanders, CF APMP

Chang Sanders is a Proposal Manager with over 9 years of experience in healthcare, information technology, and management consulting industries. She currently serves as Treasurer on the Board of Directors for APMP’s Greater Midwest Chapter. Her favorite part of the proposal process is collaborating with subject matter experts, learning about new topics, and winning new business.

About Briljent

Briljent is a Woman-owned Business Enterprise (WBE) specializing in human-centric professional services to optimize performance, systems, and data. Since 1998, Briljent has engaged with people to understand their challenges and develop strategies to help them adapt to new policies, systems, and programs. We support everything surrounding the successful funding, planning, and implementation of new initiatives through training, organizational change management, health strategy and innovation consulting, project management, and staffing solutions.