NUWC Keyport Builds Relationships During Industry Day Event

Photo By Frank Kaminski | Industry partners meet with professionals from across the Navy during the networking portion of Keyport Industry Day. Leaders and professionals from across the Navy gathered with small business owners and entrepreneurs on March 14 at the U.S. Naval Undersea Museum for the first in-person Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Keyport Industry Day event to be held since the COVID-19 pandemic. (US Navy photo by Shayna Gosney)  

KEYPORT, WA, UNITED STATES

03.16.2023

Story by Frank Kaminski 

Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Keyport

Leaders and professionals from across the Navy gathered with small business owners and entrepreneurs on March 14 at the U.S. Naval Undersea Museum for the first in-person Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Keyport Industry Day event to be held since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event was aimed at making connections between the Navy and small businesses looking to collaborate with the Navy. It featured presentations by representatives of NUWC Keyport, the Naval Sea Logistics Center, the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, the Northwest Tech Bridge and Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Squadron One, which were intended to provide a better understanding of these organizations’ missions and how they might be able to partner with private industry.

The presentations covered technical program information, near-term procurement requirements, long-range plans and strategies, and initiatives for collaboration between government and industry.

David Walz, Deputy for Small Business Programs at NUWC Keyport, described Industry Day as “an introduction and a conversation starter. It is a way to introduce our organization to government industry partners, and to share about our requirements, needs and our challenges.”

The first presenter, NUWC Keyport Acting Deputy Technical Director Bill Carlson, highlighted the wide range of areas in which private industry can contribute to the Navy mission, which include everything from manufacturing to procurement to obsolescence management to cyber systems security engineering. “It’s a [wide range] of things that we might be asking you to partner with us to do,” he said.

A theme that came up in several presentations was the Navy’s need to develop new strategies to counter the challenges posed by the steady decline of the defense industrial base in recent years. Carrie Lawson, Contracts Department Head for NUWC Keyport, noted that the number of small businesses in the defense industrial base has shrunk substantially over the past decade.

But Lawson added that a number of initiatives have been launched to address this problem, including the 2023 Department of Defense Small Business Strategy, which seeks to the strengthen DoD’s engagement with and support of small businesses and to reduce barriers to partnering with small businesses.

The presentations were followed by a networking event in the museum’s Mary Bonnin Room and an adjoining classroom that provided industry attendees a chance to meet with technical personnel, requirement generators, contracting officer representatives and small business deputies, among others.

James Davis, who serves as Economic Development Manager for the Kitsap Economic Development Alliance—which was among the vendors at the event—said he believes the networking that happens at events like Keyport Industry Day is crucial in building partnerships between government and the private sector. “These types of events are where business happens and contracts happen,” he said.

Juliet Roske, Deputy Director of the Office of Small Business Programs for PSNS & IMF, added, “I think Industry Days in general are just the biggest opportunity that we have to be able to find different contractors out there to accomplish the work that we need done, because otherwise we would never know that they exist.”

That feeling was echoed by Charles Seipt, Deputy Director of Small Business Programs for NAVSUP Fleet Logistics Center Puget Sound. "I met a lot of local manufacturers," said Seipt. "I didn't realize we had so many, so that was definitely eye-opening. They were all small businesses, which is good because I'm here to try and advocate for small businesses. So I'm pleased that I came; it exceeded my expectations.”

Small business owners like Brian Hampton, who co-founded the Poulsbo, Wash.-based water jet cutting service Olympic Waterjet two years ago, also were glad they came. “It's been really great to be able to come to this place, speak with everybody, and get to know more businesses around the area, because it's not even just about who came here to present, it's about all of the other small businesses that are coming here also to procure work, but network as well,” said Hampton.

Events like Keyport Industry Day are a tremendous asset to the Navy. The lasting, mutually beneficial relationships they foster between the Navy and private industry are vital in ensuring our capacity and readiness to conduct our national security mission.

-KPT-

About Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Keyport
NUWC Keyport provides advanced technical capabilities for test and evaluation, in-service engineering, maintenance and industrial base support, fleet material readiness, and obsolescence management for undersea warfare to expand America’s undersea dominance.

• Date Taken: 03.16.2023
• Date Posted: 03.16.2023 16:46
• Story ID: 440594
• Location: KEYPORT, WA, US