Meet the Buyers Conference Makes Important Connections

On November 4, the Nebraska Business Development Center (NBDC; nbdc.unomaha.edu) hosted the 2015 Government Contracting Conference: Meet the Buyers at Embassy Suites Downtown, Omaha bringing together federal agency buyers and prime contractors with small businesses. The event was envisioned by NBDC as an effective way to increase opportunities for Nebraska small businesses to participate in the government marketplace.

The conference offered two tracks of workshops covering issues relevant to contracting from the marketing and the operations perspectives. General session speakers included keynote speaker Jeff Beals, Diane Vanderzanden, National Park Service; Sharon Spohn, VA; Mike Hall, Offutt AFB; and Michael Orr, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A panel presentation was given by small business owners and primes who have been successful in government contracting: Mark Santo, Mark VII Enterprises; Nancy Brandon, HDR; Mark Spadaro, Dyna-Tech; and Steven Wolf, JEO. The afternoon sessions were introduced by City of Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert.

One-on-one meetings with federal buyers and representatives of prime contractors were scheduled throughout the day. “We wanted this meeting to deliver needed how-to-do business information, but more importantly to facilitate highly productive networking and to generate actual leads,” says Veronica Doga, conference administrator. Doga, director of NBDC’s procurement technical assistance program, began organizing the conference last spring and plans to make this an annual event.