Small Business Vendor Outreach Sessions and Events
GovTribe has compiled a calendar of small business events and vendor outreach sessions for just about every federal agency — civilian and defense.
You can view the google calendar here and sync it to your own calendar.
Disclaimer:
GovTribe makes no guarantees that this calendar will be perfectly up to date or comprehensive. This event information is scattered across dozens of webpages, and the agencies have no set schedule for posting updates. The details regarding which agencies are covered, and how, are below — along with links back to the sources. I will endeavor to update the calendar quarterly.
Background
Most federal agencies have in place some process or set of protocols for engaging with the small business community. To start, each agency has an office dedicated to liaising with small businesses. The most common name for this office among civilian agencies is the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU). On the DOD side, you’re looking for the Office of Small Business Assistance, or simply the Small Business Office.
So if you are a small business and have some questions about opportunities with a specific agency, a google search for the agency name plus one of those office names is a good place to start. Each agency OSDBU (or similar) page lists points-of-contact, information about how they interact with companies, and a lot of other information.
Several of the largest civilian agencies regularly hold Small Business Vendor Outreach Sessions (VOS). These are scheduled dates on which the OSDBU office will accept registrations for one-on-one meetings with small businesses. Some other agencies, particularly the DOD, tend to interact with small businesses primarily through formal conferences or events. And several smaller agencies have a much more informal process of meeting with companies upon request on a more ad-hoc basis.
I conducted an audit of every major agency and compiled all of the events I could find into a single google calendar, which we have made public. Add this calendar to your own google account to stay abreast of your opportunities to interact with the federal government on small business issues.
Details and Sources
FY19 Dates in GovTribe’s Calendar
The following agencies have set registration periods for their SB vendor outreach sessions (VOS). Our calendar contains both the sessions themselves AND SEPARATELY the date that registration begins saved as calendar events.
- DOL — Events in calendar through 7/19
- DHS — Events in calendar through 8/19
- HHS — Events in calendar through 8/19
- Treasury — Events in calendar through 8/19
The following agencies have scheduled VOS (or similar) events on our calendar, but no set registration period, rolling registration, or no registration requirement.
- SSA — Events in calendar through 12/19. Rolling registration.
- VA — Events in calendar through mid 2/19. No set registration dates. Check events.
- NASA — Events in calendar through mid 8/19. No set registration dates. Check events.
- DLA — Events in calendar through mid 8/19. No set registration dates. Check events.
- DOD Office of Small Business Programs — Events in calendar through mid 8/19. No set registration dates. Check events.
- MDA — Events in calendar through mid 8/19. No set registration dates. Check events.
No Set Schedule of Events
The following agencies seem to schedule VOS upon request, but with no set schedule (and so no events appear on our calendar).
- OPM — Contact them to request a VOS.
- Education — No posted schedule of VOS. Contact them to schedule.
- State — No posted schedule of VOS. Contact them to schedule.
- Interior— No posted schedule of VOS. Contact them to schedule.
- Transportation — No posted schedule of VOS. Contact them to schedule. They appear to post upcoming SBIR events in which DOT will participate. No events are currently posted for FY19.
FY 2019 dates not yet posted
The following agencies DO appear to post a schedule of VOS or similar small business events, but have not yet published an FY 2019 calendar. We will re-check in January for updates.
- DOJ — Through 12/18 only.
- HUD — Through FY 18 only.
- Commerce — Through 11/18 only.
- USDA — Through 12/18 only.
- USAID — Through 12/18 only.
- Energy — They have their own calendar here of conferences and events. Many of them have fees associated with them, and none are what could be considered VOS (as the other agencies define them). Events not added to our calendar for these reasons.
- EPA — 2019 calendar not yet posted
- SBA — 2019 calendar not yet posted
- DISA — 2019 events not yet posted
