Photo By Dustin Q. Diaz | Sandra Clifford, deputy director of the Small Business Administration’s Small...... read more read more
More than 180 members of private industry came to Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division in West Bethesda, Maryland, for learning and networking opportunities during the command’s annual Outreach and Industry Day on May 1.
The event, which welcomed all companies with a focus on small business, was held so industry partners could talk to Carderock leadership and learn the 2018 Acquisition Forecasting Opportunities, according to Carderock’s Small Business Officer Irene Katacinski.
“By hosting these events, the command will increase our effective competition, improve our small business goals and provide opportunity for subcontracting partnerships,” Katacinski said. “This forum provides a way to help meet our small business metrics, as well as for them to become familiar with our agency and how we do business.”
While in his previous role as Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, Acting Secretary of the Navy Sean Stackley said in a memo in 2015 that while the Department of the Navy (DON) leads the Department of the Defense (DOD) in maintaining a competitive healthy small business base necessary for long-term success and affordability, there is large variance throughout DOD in engaging consistently with this community, and deliberate stewardship, like that seen through events like this, would lead to greater return on investment from Navy research and development.
“The opportunity to further improve our performance with small business warrants appropriate priority across Department of the Navy program offices and buying commands alike,” Stackley said in the memo. “Those commands that design small business into their contracting strategies and that actively, directly engage small businesses in the course of addressing their requirements prove to be most successful in meeting not merely their small business goals, but their program requirements.”
Carderock leadership talked at the event about the command’s contracting needs that can be met by small business, from acquisition and corporate operations to the roles of the technical departments: Ship Signatures; Naval Architecture and Engineering; and Survivability, Structures, Material and Environmental. Evan Thomson, who works for a Mississippi-based company that provides services for Carderock and its Combatant Craft Division in Norfolk, Virginia, said he learned a lot that can be useful for his company moving forward.
“We came up here today to find out more about the opportunities and the trends that are developing within Carderock, and it was an excellent presentation,” Thomson said. “The fact that some larger contracts can be broken down into services we can provide for Carderock as a small company, that’s great for us and I think there are some opportunities for our company to take advantage of that and to do more work for Carderock.”
Following the command’s presentations, representatives from the Small Business Administration gave briefs on other opportunities for small businesses to make use of, such as the Woman-Owned Small Business Program and the All Small Mentor-Protégé Program. The day concluded with a networking session, with industry partners able to engage directly with personnel from the relevant technical and business codes to introduce their companies and capabilities to explore future work requirements. Katacinski said industry and technical managers will be able to follow up to provide more information on these requirements.
| Date Taken: | 05.01.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 05.08.2017 14:46 |
| Story ID: | 233043 |
| Location: | WEST BETHESDA, MD, US |
| Web Views: | 62 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Carderock Outreach and Industry Day informs industry partners, improves relationships, by Dustin Q. Diaz, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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