AEDC contracting experts educate local businesses on doing business with base

  • Published
  • By Philip Lorenz III
  • AEDC/PA
Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn. --  Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) representatives participated in a Federal Funding Seminar at the Manchester-Coffee County Conference Center Aug. 5 to educate local businesses on doing business with the base. 

Alan Fudge with AEDC Contracting said it was important for him and Aerospace Testing Alliance's Commodity Manager Jeff Foster to speak at the event since AEDC is the area's largest federal employer with a large local economic impact, which exceeded $697 million last year. 

Factoring in economic impact from the the center's two geographically separated operating locations, AEDC's economic impact soars above $728 million. 

The Federal Funding Seminar, hosted by congressman Lincoln Davis, the University of Tennessee Center for Industrial Services and the Procurement Technical Assistance Center, provided local vendors and services with information on how they can do business with ATA and the federal government in support of AEDC operations. 

Fudge said the seminar, the sixth one held to date, provides a unique service to both AEDC and the small business community. 

"I think it's a really good value in helping companies that might not otherwise have an opportunity to do business with AEDC learn a little more about us and gauge the extent of their potential with us," he said. "By being able to hear from Jeff [Foster] and myself in the same type of environment, it helps them know how to direct their marketing efforts towards AEDC and hopefully simplify the process for them, making it less cumbersome and less frustrating and more of a positive experience." 

Fudge, who has participated in similar seminars in the past, described what often happens afterwards. 

"Typically after an event like this, a number of the businesses will have follow up questions or want to explore opportunities a little bit further," he explained. "So, what we will do in those cases will be to try to help those businesses further identify more specific areas of AEDC they may want to target their marketing for, this is just intended as a first step to give them a general idea and an overview of what we do and then the next step would be for them to follow up, whether going online or contact us in person to start to develop some further leads." 

Russ Parker, ATA subcontract administrator, agreed with Fudge about the significance of the seminar. 

"I think the best value with this type of event is in making the small business community aware that there are opportunities at AEDC," he said. "I think people just want to know how they get their name in the hat or how they can get information to make themselves available for services or materials that we need to buy."

Parker added, "On the government side, there are several Web sites where they publicize their procurements and we have a Web site where folks can fill out their vendor data information sheet and that makes that information available to us." 

He said vendor applications are loaded into a key word searchable internal database that can be viewed by all the buyers in ATA purchasing. The application form can be found on the ATA Web site. 

The conference featured interactive workshops, keynote presentations, networking opportunities and also recognized company successes and acknowledged conference supporters. 

The two-fold purpose of the seminar "Working to Address the Challenges of the 21st Century" was one for businesses that are looking to expand or contract with the federal government and the other for community organizations and elected officials who are interested in federal grants and programs. 

Past participants have included Homeland Security, Tennessee Valley Authority, Foundation Center, Small Business Administration, IRS, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Missile Defense Agency, NASA, Department of Energy, UTSI and many others. 

For more information on business opportunities at AEDC, contact Alan Fudge at (931) 454-4406, or Jeff Foster at (931) 454-7511.