Small Business Training Week is the most prestigious annual training event organized by the Defense Department’s Office of Small Business Programs for employees of its acquisition staff.
In this year’s conference in Baltimore this month, over 700 participants from 72 organizations and from 45 states took part in workshops to build skills. Topics included improved acquisition strategies including legislative and regulatory updates and rebuilding the defense industry base using HUBZone’s crucial functions and small-sized disadvantaged companies as well as women-owned small companies and much more.
A total of 30 presenters shared the knowledge of top officials from the DOD and the White House, the Small Business Administration, General Services Administration and the Minority Business Development Agency.
Farooq Mitha, the director of the DOD’s Office of Small Business Programs gave attendees an overview of DOD’s small-business strategy and goals during the first general-training session.
There are three main goals of DOD’s strategy for small businesses He said:
- Increase opportunities
- Small business should be aligned with national security and defense mission goals
- Give more resources to small-scale businesses.
“I’m excited about the partnerships here to meet our small business objectives,” Mitha said.
He also spoke about the advancements DOD have made such as making the Mentor-Protege Program after the success of a pilot program since 1990.
Mitha pointed out the Mitha highlighted the APEX accelerator locations that offer technical assistance to companies who are interested in selling their items or products to local, state, and federal governments. She also noted that they function “as the front doors to industry.” Previously known under the name of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers. The accelerators changed this in the year to be part of Defense Logistics Agency to DOD OSBP.
He also provided an update on the progress on the status of the Market Research Center of Excellence and noted that the tools will be released to the community of acquisition this fiscal year in order to facilitate an efficient process that will take users from the beginning of requirements to the identification of suppliers to market research report development.
Training Highlights
With more than 30 break-out and general sessions the training program covered subjects that ranged from specific training programs to hot subjects such as clearance of facilities, small business risk, subcontracting strategies as well as intellectual property.
Bianca Henderson, director of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Office of Small Business Programs, attended the event along with staff members from her office which included their assistant director, who is located in Guam. “We have not been together in person since 2019 and this training is important to learn the nuances of small business programs and engagement. This year I was especially looking forward to the legislative update and learning more about the change from PTACs to APEX Accelerators.”
DOD Small Business Vanguard Awards
The second event was held on the same day. the winners from the eighth annual Vanguard Awards were honored. Every year, the Vanguard Awards program recognizes the outstanding contributions of individuals in defense acquisition teams, as well as an organization of components that impact small-scale businesses’ participation in defense acquisitions. They contribute significantly to the readiness of warfighters and DOD.