Small Business Industry Days beneficial to Air Force, AEDC

  • Published
  • By Deidre Ortiz
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, TENN. --  In an effort to increase partnerships and small business participation, the Air Force Test Center (AFTC) held the Air Force Small Business Industry Days (SBID) recently in Huntsville.

This three-day event highlighted small business capabilities and new concepts, showcasing existing small business products and promoting collaboration and integration of their services, products and technologies.

William Mallory, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program manager at Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC), stated the event serves as an important networking and learning opportunity for those who attend.

"Numerous innovative technologies being developed by small businesses were discussed during the one-on-one sessions that could potentially address many of our capability gaps and technology needs," he said.

Mallory explained these discussions are advantageous for AEDC because they lead to partnerships that will be beneficial to the Complex in the future.

"The next step internally is to make decisions as to which technologies are a good fit for AEDC and to then prioritize them," he said. "Once that is complete we will begin advocating for funding through the Commercialization Readiness Program (CRP) and other externally leveraged funding sources so that these technologies can be brought to AEDC to further our capabilities."

Douglas Hoffelt, director of AFTC Technology Transfer and Research, stated SBID is also valuable to small businesses because it makes them more aware of the Air Force vision.

"The participating small businesses receive better understanding of the AFTC's future needs and this provides them an insight on where they may want to focus their efforts," he said. "Parallel informational briefings were also provided for small businesses to inform them on the processes involved in securing government contracts. This event was very successful for all involved."

This year, 206 small business representatives from 147 small businesses across the nation attend the SBID. Of the 65 government personnel at the event, 23 were from AEDC and 18 were major defense contractor representatives. In total, 306 people attended.

Representatives from AEDC participated in various programs throughout the event, presenting 34 technology needs briefings and sitting in on approximately 80 one-on-one sessions with small businesses.

In addition to the one-on-one sessions, General Session presentations were given by senior Air Force keynote speakers, including Maj. Gen. Arnold W. Bunch Jr., the Commander of the Air Force Test Center; Mark Teskey, the director of the U.S. Air Force Small Business Programs; and Richard Lombardi, the Air Force Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Integration.

"We ensure we have senior level Air Force keynote speakers to welcome and provide attendees insight into the level of importance that the Air Force is giving this approach to embrace small businesses to better our support to our warfighters," said Richard Flake, CRP program manager.

Flake mentioned that SBID offers more than other conferences in that it more often than not will lead to business opportunities.

"These events directly involve Air Force subject matter experts (SMEs) identifying small businesses of best fit to business opportunities and technology based needs," he said. "Numerous months of data mining the Small Business Administration's discovery database, as well as the DOD SBIR database, provided small business candidates... one-on-one sessions. We go much further than the typical conference preparation that simply provides attendees the opportunity to collaborate. We focus and expect results that are followed up to ensure we take advantage of all matches identified."

It's anticipated that these partnerships will lead to lower costs and more agility in support of the warfighter.