IA-IL CHAPTER HOSTS 11 th ANNUAL MIDWEST GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING SYMPOSIUM

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1 IA-IL CHAPTER HOSTS 11 th ANNUAL MIDWEST GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING SYMPOSIUM Our 11th Annual Midwest Government Contracting Symposium was again a resounding success with over 600 attendees at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline. The event again provided government contractors, both large and small, an opportunity to hear from senior Army leaders, learn techniques to better perform government contracts, and to meet with Army contracting personnel. Time was also made available for large and small contractors to meet and consider future collaborative efforts. Once again, based on feedback, we rearranged the basic elements of our symposium. The morning of the first day of the symposium used the full conference center to receive briefings from senior Army Sustainment Command and Department of the Army leadership, as well as a Cyber Security panel discussion. The conference center was then divided into two rooms for the balance of the symposium. The afternoon of the first day and morning of the second day were devoted to information/training type sessions relevant to businesses and focused on hot topics of the day. With the sessions done in two tracks and in duplicate, participants were given the maximum opportunity to attend each of the training events. The afternoon of the 2 nd day was the actual Team Rock Island Center of Excellence Advance Planning Briefings for Industry (APBI). In addition to the Army Sustainment Command (ASC), the Rock Island District Corps of Engineers (COE), the RIA Garrison, the PEO- IS, the RIA JMTC, and Joint Munitions Command (JMC) all discussed their requirements. The ASC Command Group, as well as senior members of the other activities, participated in both days of the symposium. Registered attendees totaled 616 compared to 693 last year. The break-out, based on self-reporting during the registration process, was approximately 309 government, 307 Industry/Committee/Sponsors/Speakers. Still impressive and very balanced numbers! The data indicates 32 states were represented, with the bulk from Illinois (381, followed by Iowa (69), and Virginia (54). Of those identifying business type, 87 were large/prime contractors and 254 were small businesses (all types). There were 45 exhibitors, both large and small, including government small business office, the Chamber of Commerce, and Quad Cities SCORE. More than 50% of the attendees were NDIA members. Presentations/briefings given during the conference may be viewed elsewhere on our IA-IL Chapter website, along with the list of attendees. Below are several photos from yet another successful event. Following brief remarks by George Rivard, Chapter President, Presentation of the Colors by the ASC Color Guard (below left) and a Welcome/Introduction from Ms Liz Tallman, Chief Economic Development Officer of the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce (below right) set the stage for our symposium. 1

2 MG Duanne Gamble, Commander, US Army Sustainment Command, kicked off the actual Symposium with a broad overview of his operations, the importance of a strong, nimble, responsive industrial base to meet the switch in strategic direction, and how we should posture collectively and in unison to meet these changing requirements. Truly a packed house to hear MG Gable,as evidenced in the two photos below: Below left, Mr, Jay Carr, Executive Director & Principle Assistant Responsible for Contracting, Acquisition Command- Rock Island, provides some overview remarks about contracting initiatives. Below right, a DoD Cyber Security Panel provides the latest information on the enhanced cyber requirements associated with government contracting. 2

3 Mr. Tommy Marks (pictured below), Director, Small Business Programs, Office to the Secretary of the Army, completed the morning session with a discussion of DA Small Business Objectives and Goals. The afternoon session of the first day and morning session of the second day were a series of educational panels and speakers. The main conference room was divided into two sections to offer concurrent presentations. Since every learning event was repeated a second time, attendees were able to catch each of the six modules. These modules addressed online tools, resource partners, preference and protégé programs, lessons learned, and subcontracting all extremely topical and current information - beneficial to small and large businesses alike. The afternoon of the second day was dedicated to the actual APBI presentations, continuing to utilize the two room configurations. Conference Center Room A covered Logistics (ASC), Manufacturing (JMTC), IT (PEO-EIS) requirements. Conference Center Room C covers Ammunition/Organic Industrial Base (JMC), Facility Requirements (RIA-Garrison), and Construction (COE-RI) requirements. Below is the JMC APBI session, with Ms Rhonda VanDeCasteele, Executive Director, Joint Munitions Command, providing their planning requirements to a large audience. 3

4 The reception following the sessions on the first day included more networking as well as a Wine Pull opportunity to benefit Healing on the Fly. This HOTF organization provides a multitude of opportunities and a continuous schedule of events and offerings that are so critical to veterans reconnecting with the civilian world and especially those suffering from PTSD. This network of support is available to all of the veterans in the greater QCA and provides a 'one stop shop' for volunteers, for non-profits and most importantly for veterans! Numbered corks matching the numbers on the wrapped and unknown bottles of wine were sold for $10 each. The bottles of wine were donated by various attendees and guests, with stipulation that the value of the donated wine be no less than $15. A total of $675 was raised thru the wine pull. To that amount, the Chapter donated another $500. Presenting the check to Mr. Paul J. Ricciuti, President /Founder, Healing On The Fly, Inc., are Chapter board members, John Masengarb and George Rivard. Also shown on the right below are some of the service dogs that are used in the support program for the veterans. 4

5 Some other candid photos of the event, including some of the board members (Mert Sach, Jan Masamoto, John Masengarb and Joy Fleming) who worked to make this as smooth an event as possible, are shown below: 5

6 Many thanks to our generous sponsors! Our Chapter s objective is to facilitate the open exchange of ideas and information between government and industry. From the feedback surveys from both the conference attendees and the exhibitors, the 11th Annual Symposium was again a great success, meeting that objective. Events such as this could not occur without the contributions of our many sponsors, and the time and exhaustive efforts of the planning committee members from throughout the Quad Cities community. Thank You! 6