Column: In-Person GovCon Industry Meetings Are Back!

By Tom Johnson, publisher, Set-Aside Alert

      Good news! Primes, subs, suppliers and government customers are returning to in-person events now that the Covid pandemic concerns have been reduced.

National Conferences

      Government contracting industry executives 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 was very well-attended;
• The National Veterans Small Business Coalition’s VETS ‘23 Conference this month 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.

      See our Events Calendar on Page Five of every issue to get dates and registration links for upcoming major conferences.

Local/regional networking

      There are numerous local and regional events sponsored and hosted by professional association chapters, regional economic development groups, state and local agencies and independent conference sponsors. The latter group frequently affiliates with a lead sponsor or supporter in one of the three other groups to add heft to the event.

      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.

      For example, SMARTProc, held in Frederick MD, is a regional event bringing together representatives of many military facilities in the state as well as the National Cancer Institute. The all-day event has training sessions led by agency program managers, as well as exhibits by companies and agencies.

      Similar events are held around the country and deserve your consideration as a participant. The cost is generally low, and in a day or two you can connect with many targets for successful contracting.

      The Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) chapters in various cities host annual small business-focused networking events. The agenda frequently includes speakers from the Veterans Affairs Dept. and General Services Administration, who contribute updates on their projects, thus supplementing the Defense Dept.-focused activities. SAME’s membership umbrella includes the Army Corps of Engineers, whose responsibility for civil works projects involves construction and building and grounds work related to ports, waterways, dikes, dams, beach erosion, flood risk, hydropower and navigation. Emergency response to catastrophic events is also in their mission purview so everyone from telecom and IT to transportation to food to health to engineering and beyond should be able to gain knowledge about finding opportunities in their market. What can you gain from attending?

      Consider several reasons why these types of events are advantageous:

• They bring together a large group of potential partners and providers in one place;
• They provide ample opportunities for you to hone your “elevator speech”;
• They usually include educational programming on how to do business with government agencies and prime contractors;
• They generally have open exhibit space where representatives will meet and talk with you one-on-one;
• They often include specific match-making forums with scheduled appointments with your choice of agencies and/or primes;
• They usually have the agency long-range acquisition plans on-hand, or information on how to locate the plans on the web; and
• They often have special discount prices for the lodging costs as well as the event.

Not interested in in-person?

      With the introduction of Zoom and other platforms, some conferences are moving to hybrid formats, enabling both in-person and stay-at-home attendance and participation. DC’s local Capital Business Development Association is a regional group of federal contractors. It holds monthly events alternating between in-person dinners and virtual networking. Participation has grown to sell-outs at most in –person events and high participation in the alternate Zoom events. The Zoom platform makes it easy to continue connections with those you met at previous events, whether in-person or online.

Conclusion

      Successful federal contractors have learned that partnering and collaboration are key to success and contract awards.

Tom Johnson can be reached at tjohnson@setasidealert.com.

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Column: In-Person GovCon Industry Meetings Are Back!

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