Good news! Primes, subs, suppliers, and government customers are returning to in-person events now that the Covid pandemic concerns have been reduced.
Government contracting industry executives and major agency contracting teams are returning to in-person events in large numbers, following nearly three years of mostly online presentations. Several national small business-focused conferences have reported high attendance in recent months.
To name a few examples:
–The NCAIED (National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development) annual Reservation Economic Summit (RES) event was held in Las Vegas in March and attendance exceeded 4,000 over the three-day event;
–The National 8(a) Association’s National Small Business Conference held in New Orleans, LA in February grew substantially;
–The National Veterans Small Business Coalition’s VETS ‘23 Conference (I’m there this week) in Orlando, FL has been sold out for several weeks, with 1,100 registered, double last year; and
–The Federal Business Council’s Government Procurement Conference in Washington, DC in April had a full complement of federal agencies for the Matchmaking sessions that ran all day. There were more than 1,600 registered attendees, and 121 corporate exhibitors and 44 federal and state agencies staffed their exhibit tables for the event.
Several upcoming national conferences also are hosting in-person events in the coming months:
–The HUBZone Contractors National Council will host their annual meeting in Leesburg, Virginia on August 22-23; and
–The NVBDC (National Veteran Business Development Council) is scheduled to hold its National Veteran Matchmaking Conference and Vets Night for November 8-9 in Indianapolis, IN.
There are also numerous local and regional events sponsored and hosted by professional association chapters, regional economic development groups, state and local agencies and independent conference sponsors – all right in your back yard. Local chapters of SAME, NCMA, AFCEA, NDIA and other organizations of professional programming executives and contracting officials provide a comfortable setting for meeting and having discussions with key government customer personnel.
What can you gain from attending?
–Meet a large group of potential partners and providers in one place;
–Ample opportunities to hone your “elevator speech”;
–Programming on how to do business with government agencies and prime contractors;
–Exhibits to meet and talk to agency and industry representatives;
–Matchmaking forums with your choice of agencies and/ or primes; and
–Agency long-range acquisition plans.
Meet other BC2Match clients, network with large and small businesses, and build teams with those you meet, using BC2Match’s Build My Team function.
Successful federal contractors have learned that partnering and collaboration are key to success and contract awards. Use BC2Match to find opportunities, build team and win contracts!
[A more complete version of this tip appears in the May 12th issue of Set-Aside Alert, published by BC2Match co-founder Tom Johnson.]
To see BC2Match in action, register at https://bit.ly/3M1CEZ9 for our weekly webinar at noon on Thursdays, or Schedule a Demo on our home page.