Website Redesign and Development Services

The vendor is required to provide website caters to a variety of audiences, including meeting planners, exhibitors, event attendees, sponsors and advertisers, media, the local community, job seekers, and third-party organizations.
- Goals include increasing website engagement through search engine optimization, multi-language or localization, and well-positioned prompts for audience conversion actions.
- The website must serve multiple audiences, each with distinct needs:
• Meeting planners: seeking floor plans, catering information, RFP forms, marketing materials, virtual tours, event policies, contact details, other services, and logistical information.
• Exhibitors: looking for event details, exhibitor services, parking info, and online service ordering.
• Event attendees: searching for event schedules, directions, parking, food and beverage options, and FAQs.
• Sponsors and advertisers: interested in promotional and partnership opportunities.
• Media: seeking press kits, photos, press releases, and contact details.
• Local community: looking for event calendars and local advertising opportunities.
• Job seekers: exploring career pages and job listings.
• Third-party entities: interested in venue statistics, facts, and data.
- Website design requirements:
1. Design themes to incorporate
• Innovation, luxury, convenience, sustainability, flexibility as largest convention center in country
• Center unique positioning on city lakefront; green and outdoor spaces
• Center unique location next to city
• Incorporation of brand colors
2. Key features
• Home page: prominent image sliders, video, dropdowns, and testimonials. audience-specific landing page tiles, parking and directions, virtual tour, social media feed, and scrolling sponsor and partner logos. 
• Interactive homepage elements: options for countdown clocks, announcement boxes, and rotating ad spaces with internal and external linking capabilities. 
• Mobile and tablet responsive design: the website must be fully optimized for mobile and tablet devices. 
• Content management system (CMS): easy-to-use CMS (e.g., WordPress, Drupal, Jooma – vendor may recommend), for staff to update content without coding knowledge. 
• Incorporation of content from authority website: this should be presented in the form of a dropdown, with the ability for internal staff to upload and download documents; house monthly spend reports and contract lists; send vendor emails from within the CMS; share procurement policies and current bid opportunities; and house content related to authority diversity program. 
• SEO optimization: full SEO setup with proper metadata, keyword targeting, and content structure to ensure high search engine rankings. 
• E-news sign-up integration: prominent sign-up form with integration to constant contact or similar CRM tools for email marketing campaigns. 
• Event calendar: option to manually add events, integrate with external calendars, and set publishing and removal dates. 
• Food and beverage: dedicated space to host menus, feature catering updates, share blog-style content about culinary offerings and integration with momentous to provide information about campus which restaurants and eateries are open this day and week for what hours. 
• Interactive maps: venue and district maps with clickable points of interest and links to content (pop-ups as needed).
• Expanded social media integration: ability to embed real-time feeds from Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest. 
• Social share buttons and “follow” links should be present on all key pages. 
• Pinterest support: pages should include “pin it” functionality to support cross-channel engagement. 
• Custom campaign tools: capacity to feature temporary homepage “splash” pages or alert banners (e.g., ticket sales, construction updates, seasonal promotions). 
• Forms and downloads: ability to create custom forms, contact submissions, and downloadable content (pdfs, photos, etc.). 
• Advanced multimedia support: compatibility with embedded video, hosted b-roll, html5 animations, image sliders, and sound files across content pages. 
• Search engine and accessibility: internal search engine, site map, ADA-compliant features, and multilingual support (Spanish). 
• Content scheduling: ability to edit/update pages/content on pages in advance of need and schedule the updates to go live at a preset date/time.
3. Content strategy and optimization
• Editorial content platform: framework to support the creation of blog-style content, news articles, and audience-specific resources, enhancing SEO through regular content updates, keyword integration, and internal linking. 
• Content landing pages: ability to build new SEO-optimized pages for marketing, event highlights, or community engagement with interactive features such as polls or multimedia. 
• Content personalization opportunities: optional tools for tailoring homepage or content blocks by user segment (planner, exhibitor, etc.).
4. Website maintenance and support plan
• Full administrative control: the McCormick place team will retain full administrative access to the content management system (CMS), including the ability to:
o ADD, remove, or edit content and media
o MANAGE SEO settings, meta descriptions, and page URLs
o CREATE and manage forms and downloadable
o Assign or remove user roles and permissions
• on-demand content updates
o The website will be built to empower internal staff to make updates at their discretion without the need for vendor intervention.
o All content areas must be editable through a visual CMS dashboard.
o Training and documentation must be provided to enable non-technical team members to
make changes confidently.
• Ongoing maintenance plan: vendors must include a clearly outlined maintenance plan that
addresses:
o Monthly software updates (CMS, plug-ins, security patches)
o Scheduled performance reviews, including page load speed and uptime monitoring
o Quarterly CMS audits to evaluate stability and potential feature enhancements
o Backup and recovery protocols, with minimum daily automatic backups
• 24-hour support response
o Vendor must guarantee a response to support inquiries within 24 hours during business days.
o High-priority issues (e.g., site outages, broken features) must be triaged and acknowledged within 2 hours.
o A dedicated support channel (email or ticketing system) should be included in the plan.
o Optional: include access to emergency weekend support at a predefined hourly rate.
- Requirement:
1. Initial discovery and project planning
• Meetings with staff, review of project management roles, analytics, etc.)
• Information architecture (IA) and sitemap development, including a detailed project management plan
2. User interface design and development
• Content design and development
• Three (3) wireframes and mockups of redesign options
3. Content management system implementation
• Migration of existing content
• Loading of newly created and edited content
• Integration with third-party applications.
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: June 11, 2025