Showcasing AEDC at Small Business Industry Day in Nashville

  • Published
  • By Deidre Ortiz
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, TENN. --  AEDC was on display at the 6th Annual Small Business Industry Day on March 15 at the Tennessee State University Avon Williams Campus in Nashville.

Cindy Dixon, a small business advocate at AEDC, represented just one of more than 200 businesses to participate in the event. The Small Business Industry Day was organized by Roy Rossignol, chief of Small Business with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District, and this year’s theme was Service Disabled Veteran-Owned.

According to Dixon, the objective of these yearly conferences is to explore business opportunities and build new business relationships.

“The goal is to educate vendors on how to do business with the government and inform them of future business opportunities,” she said.

Dixon was able to speak with many vendors who expressed their interest in doing business with AEDC in the future.

“Most of the day was fast paced with over 50 vendors stopping by my booth to review literature and review the products and services list to determine if their business was capable of providing any products or services we need,” she said. “If our capabilities matched, the vendors would schedule appointments to meet one-on-one with me during matchmaking sessions.

In the one-on-one sessions Dixon met with 12 to 15 vendors. She mentioned the meetings were beneficial in that she was able to get a more in-depth look at how a company would be able to assist with the AEDC mission.

“I was able to provide recommendations for vendors to be successful, which is the ultimate goal for both us and our vendors,” she said.