Ft. Meade Procurement Successes Sought
Howard County’s successful Base Business Initiative put out a call this month for successful government procurement stories.
Since 2009 the BASE Business Initiative (BBI) has focused on the mission of lending transparency to the defense contracting environment by documenting the barriers, best practices and big ideas of small businesses navigating the Fort Meade region, writes Kellyann Few, BBI Director, in a recent e-mail sent to BBI partners.
Howard County launched the BRAC Business Initiative in 2005 to maximize small and minority business access to the Ft. Meade economy. Success allowed it to re-christen itself in 2011 as the Base Business Initiative and continues to build bridges between industry and the still growing Ft. Meade economy.
The BBI developed and continues to expand an extensive database, freely available and accessible for any businesses seeking interface with the Fort Meade economy. Connecting to the database requires completion of a lengthy on-line application. The organization is now trying to capture the procurement successes of BBI Test Companies, Volunteers, Advisory Agencies/Companies, and small businesses.
The BBI is asking companies to send in Government Procurement success stories in a half-page summary. Include your company, website, and if available links to related press releases and articles and send them to .Kellyann Few, BBI Director [email protected]
Example BBI Success Stories
1) Versa Tech, former BBI Test Company, wins 25 Million Dollar Contract at the Food and Drug Administration | Press Release
2) Edwards and Hill, former BBI Test Company, featured front page article in the July 11, 2014 edition of the Baltimore Business Journal |
The BBI is largely grant funded from local and federal sources and conducts ongoing mentoring and tracking studies designed to identify obstacles and improve federal access to small, minority- and women-owned companies.
Through an ambitious agenda of briefings and networking events, the BBI facilitates face time between companies and agencies. Opportunities are made available in large general meetings and also honed, small group opportunities bringing small businesses to the attention of Primes. “Networking on steroids,” reads one of BBI’s descriptive information sheets.
Typically a representative of one of the Primes or of a government agency headlines BBI’s general meeting, open to the public without RSVP and held every five or six weeks throughout the year. The next meeting is September 25 at 8 am in Columbia, Maryland. Details in the MeadeLead. Unisys opens the agenda.
