On April 19, 2007, the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, along with other federal agencies, sponsored the 17th Annual OSDBU Small Business Procurement Conference. This year's conference took place in the Washington, D.C., area at The Show Place Arena, located in Upper Marlboro, Md.

Annually, this national conference fosters business partnerships between the federal government, and its prime contractors, and small, small-disadvantaged, women-owned, 8(a), HUBZone, veteran-owned, and service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses.

The federal government originally established the conference in 1990 as the Procurement Opportunities Conference and Exposition. Though the name has changed, the conference's purpose remains the same: Provide networking and educational opportunities to all participants. For approximately 15 years, federal agencies have successfully fulfilled this purpose by using the conference to bring small businesses, large corporations and government agencies together in one place.

This year, in addition to the networking opportunities on the conference's massive exhibit floor, federal agencies hosted working seminars and procurement matchmaking with program managers and procurement representatives. The matchmaking sessions offered possible on-site procurement opportunities to a limited number of registered companies on a first-come, first-serve basis. Procurement matchmaking “matches” small-company “sellers” with participating “buyers” who represent government agencies and their large-business prime contractors. These buyers and sellers convene for a series of one-on-one meetings that occur throughout the conference.

At this year’s event, OSDBU focused on several issues identified in the department’s forecast for fiscal year 2007, as well as possible upcoming small-business contract opportunities.  More than 2,000 attendees packed the arena floor and visited the department’s exhibit booth. The following departmental business utilization development specialists and OSDBU representatives managed the booth:

• Sally   Stephens, BUDS, USGS
• Neal   Ray, BUDS, FWS
• Terry   Grush, BUDS, MMS
• Cynthia   Adonoo, BUDS, NPS
• Frank   Gisondi, procurement analyst, OSDBU
• Barbara Gaines, business development management specialist/service-disabled veterans and program manager, OSDBU
• Gary   Wade, deputy director, OSDBU

As we at OSDBU prepare for next year’s event, we look forward to the full participation of the department’s bureaus and offices. For more information about next year’s conference, questions about the department’s Business Economic Development Program or to obtain a list of qualified small-business contractors with which to do business, please call (202) 208-3493 or visit the OSDBU Web site at www.doi.gov/osdbu.

Remember, small business is the cornerstone to our economy and doing our share to support it goes a long way for generations to come!