For contractors and professional service firms tracking federal construction, infrastructure, energy, and environmental work across the Southeast, the most valuable commodity is clarity: what is coming, who owns it, how it will be acquired, and what partners will be needed to deliver it. That is the business case behind the 2026 Southeast Region Federal Construction, Infrastructure & Environment Summit, scheduled for April 14 - 16, 2026, at the Wilmington Convention Center.  

Organized by the North Carolina Military Business Center in partnership with the Offices of US Senator Thom Tillis and US Senator Ted Budd, the Summit is designed as a working forum for “what’s next” in federal construction and infrastructure: pipeline visibility, acquisition strategy, compliance expectations, and relationship building that often determine outcomes well before a solicitation drops.  

A long-standing forum built for decision quality

Now firmly in its second decade as an annual gathering, the Summit convenes government and industry at scale, typically drawing 800 to 1,000 attendees and over 100 exhibitors.  Its structure is intentionally practical: two full days of agency workload information, program and procurement dialogues, “hot topics” shaping delivery, and networking designed to support real teaming decisions.

The event’s agency footprint reflects the reality of how federal facilities and infrastructure are planned, procured, and executed across the region. Expected participation includes multiple districts within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (spanning from Baltimore to the Caribbean), Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command and its regional field offices, Marine Corps Installations East, and major installations in North Carolina (Fort Bragg, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base) and outside of North Carolina, alongside federal agencies that round out the market picture including U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Institutes of Health, General Services Administration, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and many more. 

Who NCMBC is and why the Summit fits the mission

NCMBC is a statewide business development and technology transition entity embedded across the community college system and headquartered at Fayetteville Technical Community College. Its mission is to help North Carolina businesses pursue military and other federal opportunities in ways that expand the economy, grow jobs, and improve quality of life across the state. 

In practice, that mission shows up in concentrated access to decision makers, structured insight into future demand and acquisition approaches, and an environment built for relationship driven partnering across primes, subcontractors, designers, specialty trades, suppliers, and professional services. 

Why the keynote lineup matters

Big federal construction decisions are shaped by the leaders who set priorities, approve investment strategies, and steer execution through readiness demands, contingency response, and delivery risk. The 2026 keynote roster is tightly aligned to that reality.

• Rear Admiral Jeffrey J. Kilian, Commander, NAVFAC and Chief of Civil Engineers, brings a career built around the exact lifecycle Summit attendees care about: delivering, sustaining, and modernizing facilities under operational pressure. His background spans early Marine Corps service, civil engineering and construction management education, contingency deployments supporting disaster assistance and overseas operations, and senior command roles across major NAVFAC regions.  For industry, this keynote matters because NAVFAC is one of the nation’s largest buyers of design, construction, energy, and facility support services, and leadership perspective at this level is a direct window into how the Navy is thinking about recapitalization, resilience, energy performance, and execution at scale. 
• Major General Jason E. Kelly, Deputy Commanding General for Civil and Emergency Operations, USACE Headquarters, sits at the intersection of two major realities for the Southeast: sustained infrastructure programs and the contracting surge that follows disasters. He assumed his current role on September 9, 2024, after serving as Commanding General of Fort Jackson, and his career combines deep technical training with strategic planning and large organization leadership, including West Point engineering roots, multiple graduate degrees, and command experience across USACE and operational deployments.  The relevance is straightforward: when USACE sets enterprise level expectations for civil works and emergency operations, those signals propagate into how districts buy and execute work, how risk is allocated, and how industry must prepare.

The Summit also opens with welcome remarks that reflect local execution realities, including Colonel Brad A. Morgan, Commander of USACE Wilmington District, whose background includes leading engineer units, supporting contingency response, and serving in multiple command and staff roles across USACE and the Army’s engineering enterprise.

Sessions built around what contractors actually need to know

The Summit’s programming is designed to help firms answer the questions that drive bid and teaming decisions: what projects are on the horizon, which organizations own them, how they plan to acquire them, what vehicles will be used, and where suppliers and subcontractors should align early. 

A few session examples illustrate the depth:

Government and Industry Perspective and Challenges Dialogue is positioned as an open forum on issues that are actively reshaping federal acquisition and execution, including the FAR 2.0 rewrite, use of Other Transaction Authority, emerging alternative construction methodologies, shifting small business set asides, and the newly enacted CMMC requirements, with specific attention to how agencies define and manage Controlled Unclassified Information.

Program and Procurement Dialogue sessions function as the event’s pipeline engine: interactive briefings and discussions covering upcoming projects and priority issues for FY 2026 and beyond, planned acquisition and execution processes, and the practical “how to engage” guidance firms need across the program lifecycle. Topics span MILCON, SRM, civil works, energy and environmental programs, horizontal infrastructure, A&E and service contract requirements, public private partnerships, and common vehicles such as MATOCs, MACCs, IDIQs, and BPAs.

Lessons Learned from Emergency Response Contracting Efforts: Hurricane Helene and Florence focuses directly on disaster readiness contracting, examining preparation and execution, the roles and responsibilities across FEMA, state agencies, and federal partners, and the practical “Do’s and Don’ts” that improve response performance and contractor readiness for future events. 

Energy and Environmental “Hot Topics” features the fast moving requirements driven by regulation, installation readiness, and resilience risk, highlighting emerging issues such as PFAS and microgrids, and how agencies are balancing compliance, cost, schedule, and mission assurance, with a close on “how industry can support” through solutions and delivery models that reduce risk. 

For more information on the Summit or to register, visit summit.ncmbc.us or contact Tim Malone at malonet@ncmbc.us.