The North Carolina Military Business Center (NCMBC) is hosting a slew of webinars meant to prepare local businesses for emerging and current government and defense industry demands.
The NCMBC, located at Fayetteville Technical Community College, is tasked primarily with increasing federal revenues for businesses in North Carolina. The center acts as a facilitator that connects state firms with current government contracting opportunities in two ways: with a team of business development specialists across the state who also provide technical services, and electronically with www.MatchForce.org.
The U.S. Department of Defense has an annual impact of $66 billion and is the second largest sector of North Carolina’s economy, as it accounts for 12% of the state’s gross domestic product. With six major military bases, over 100 National Guard and Reserve facilities and the third highest number of uniformed military personnel in the country, North Carolina is a prime location for services like the ones provided by the NCMBC.
“When contractors join the webinars, they gain early visibility into agency priorities, forecast future solicitations and then the agencies that are participating can also promote industry days or upcoming contract vehicles, share their small business utilization goals, mentor-protege programs, and then their socioeconomic set-aside guidances,” said NCMBC’s Director of Operations Courtney Smedick.
Smedick said contractors and businesses with aspirations to contract with the federal government receive industry feedback in real time during these webinars. Agencies and other government entities, she added, are present to answer questions.
“It’s really connecting government and industry,” Smedick added.
The list of webinars through December include:
“A lot of these help contractors stay current with legal updates and any cybersecurity mandates that are going on,” Smedick said. “They help businesses understand how their capabilities can support national defense infrastructure or services that are needed by these federal agencies, and an educated federal contractor is better equipped to meet the mission and needs more efficiently.”
The NCMBC has relationships with federal agencies like the U.S. Department of Defense to stay up to date on the latest policies, procedures and trends.
“They do reach out to us frequently when they’re just looking to have a touch point with industry,” Smedick noted. “We host these webinars for them because, as a state agency, we are a neutral player for them. We are not selling anything. We’re just trying to help the federal government to receive the best price, the best product, the best service that is available out there to support national security and whatever the mission set is for that particular agency.”
An example of this communication and cooperation between the NCM BC, the industry side and the federal government is a webinar the center hosted in May with the Defense Logistics Agency. That agency wanted to host a COG 4 – the name of a geographic region that includes North Carolina – industry day to discuss a ground fuels delivery contract.
“They reached out to us, and were really interested in putting this on to get more people interested in that solicitation that’s coming out,” Smedick said. “So we actually ended up hosting a webinar for them. That was a two day webinar and industry was able to come in, they listened to the material, and they were able to ask in real time to DLA questions about the solicitation, or questions about just how to do it in general. That’s really critical.”
While part of the center’s mission is to spur economic development for North Carolina companies, the webinars are open to anyone in the 50 states to participate.
“Our overall goal is national defense and to make sure that the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines get what they need, where they need it, and how they need it,” Smedick said.
Interested parties can visit www.ncmbc.us to register for the webinars.
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