HUNTSVILLE, Ala. --More than 200 representatives of businesses large and small attended the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville Small Business Industry Day 2022 Oct. 20 at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center’s Davidson Center for Space exploration.
The event featured a general overview of doing business with the Huntsville Center and covered major regulatory changes and upcoming acquisitions, followed by an opportunity for attendees to interact directly with program managers and contracting officials for the Center’s more than 40 programs.
Other than small businesses, large businesses also attended the event looking for potential subcontractors, protégés or teaming partners.
Col. Sebastien Joly, Huntsville Center commander, welcomed attendees with opening statements.
“We’ve got a lot of great speakers lined up for you and tons of opportunities across all of the Corps of Engineers to meet our stakeholder’s requirements.” Joly said.
During the overview portion of the event, Albert “Chip” Marin III, Huntsville Center Programs and Business manager addressed attendees by explaining the important role private industry plays in the Center’s mission success.
“Huntsville Center gets zero work done—none—without you (private industry),” he said.
“The partnership HNC (Huntsville Center) has with industry is very important to us. It’s that collective partnership we have with each other that makes us successful and it’s that collective partnership that helps us solve the nation’s toughest challenges.”
Over the last decade, Huntsville Center has awarded more than $6 billion in contracts to small businesses. Huntsville Center awarded more than $825 million in contracts to small business.
Rebecca Goodsell, Huntsville Center Office of Small Business Programs chief, said this past fiscal year the Center awarded more than $800 million to small businesses.
“We had a phenomenal year in Fiscal 2022 and awarded more than $117 million more to small business concerns over FY 21’s achievements,” Goodsell said.