Washington, D.C., July 25, 2017 — The Non-Commissioned Officers Association (NCOA), the foremost organization for non-commissioned officers in all branches of the military, and the Government Technology & Services Coalition (GTSC), the premier non-profit organization for companies in homeland and national security have launched GovCon Academy, a series of online and in-person courses on government contracting for transitioning Veterans.

“NCOA has been hosting Career Expos for our military for over 44 years and we have recently added the GovCon Academy to provide even more resources and opportunities for transitioning military. We launched the Academy at our Job Fair at Nellis Airforce Base during NCOA’s Annual Conference and Business Meeting last week and we are extremely excited about the potential for our members to have such exceptional resources available to them,” said Jon Ostrowski, Executive Director, NCOA.  “I’m sure there are a lot of Vets who would like to help their Commands improve technologies for the field or innovate solutions to existing challenges.”

Courses range from “Is Government Contracting Right for You” to Ethics training, to Business Development, and Cyber Security.  CEO of GTSC Kristina Tanasichuk will Chair the Academy and a number of Strategic Advisors from GTSC have joined the faculty, including: Earl Holland, CEO, Growth Strategy Consultants; Amy McDougal, CEO, CleaResources; and Jackie Santisteban, President, JBS Consulting.  Devon Hewitt, CEO, Protorae Law will join as faculty for understanding the legal maze of contracting.  The courses will provide a combination of in-person training as well as webinars and other web-based resources.

“We believe that Veterans are some of the best candidates to create mission driven contracting firms that understand government requirements and needs, and are committed to solving problems with true innovation,” said Kristina Tanasichuk, CEO of GTSC at the announcement.  The Government Technology & Services Coalition represents nearly 140 companies that work in homeland and national security across the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, Justice, State, Treasury and the Intelligence Community.

The NCOA was established in 1960 to enhance and maintain the quality of life for noncommissioned and petty officers in all branches of the Armed Forces, Active Duty, National Guard, Reserves, Veterans (separated and retired), widows, and their families.  NCOA is currently a leader in Veterans and Spouse Employment, a strong voice on Capitol Hill and in the Veterans Administration.  The NCOA will be hosting 25 Career Expos across the continental U.S. and Europe in 2017. The goal of the Career Expo program is to connect America’s heroes and their dependents with profitable, meaningful employment.

For more information on NCOA’s GovCon Academy, go to http://ncoausa.org/career-center/ and for more information on GTSC, go to www.gtscoalition.com.

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ABOUT GTSC

The Government Technology & Services Coalition (GTSC) is a nonprofit, non-partisan 501(c)(6) association of companies that work with government partners to achieve mission.  Our vision is to provide an ethical, effective platform to leverage the private sector to bring the best homeland and national security ideas, technologies and innovations to the mission of securing our nation.  GTSC’s mission is to provide exceptional advocacy, capacity building, partnership opportunities and marketing in the Federal security space for small and mid-sized companies and to support and assist our government partners achieve their critical missions with the highest integrity; best and most innovative technologies; and results-based, quality products and services to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to and recover from any terrorist attack or natural disaster. For more information on these mentors and the Government Technology & Services Coalition, please visit www.GTSCoalition.com or learn about our mid-tier initiative at www.GTSCMidTierSolution.com.

ABOUT NCOA

The Non Commissioned Officers Association is the premier organization representing the enlisted of our military since 1960, founded to enhance and maintain the quality of life for noncommissioned and petty officers. The voice of the Active Duty, National Guard, Reserves, Veterans (separated and retired), widows, and their families, NCOA leads efforts on Veterans and Spouse Employment, Capitol Hill, and at the Veterans Administration on behalf of our nearly 60,000 members.   Learn more at www.NCOAUSA.org or www.ncoacareerexpos.org.

Speakers:

Lisa Martin

CEO, Leap Frog Solutions, Inc.

Brian Nault

President, Blue Water Federal Solutions, Inc.

Devon Hewitt

CEO, Protorae Law PPLC

We met with procurement officials and contracting officers to discuss some of the challenges of “being noticed,” by federal agencies, particularly for small businesses. We conveyed the shortcomings of the “Requests for Information” from a small business’s perspective, described how the lack of response from some agencies to the information provided in an RFI hindered a robust response from industry, and explained how the value of responding often was not high enough given the need for companies to spend time staying afloat chasing real opportunities. All of these shortcomings held true for any size business.

We are still working on improving the RFI process but recently we were able to provide some tangible assistance to a partner in the government – and were successful in showing that with the proper partnership, the government can get better, and faster access to qualified providers.

It began with a call from GTSC member and GTSC Small Business Member of the Year 2016 Kathy Pherson, CEO of Pherson Associates, a Woman-Owned Small Businesses (WOSB), who was concerned that a partner agency found no Woman-Owned Small Businesses in a certain NAICs code. The member connected us with the agency and to their credit, they were very interested in hearing from us! GTSC put out a call for firms qualifying for the requirements. In less than 48 business hours we had amassed over 25 qualified WOSBs and submitted them to the agency.

With that, they altered their initial track structure for the intended procurement to reflect this market research.

Why am I writing about this? This is obviously an “ideal” scenario!

I wanted to provide a real life example of how our government partners can leverage their industry partners to find their most qualified providers and best solutions competitively. We encourage all of our government partners to consider:

1. Go to where the small businesses live.  There are very few organizations that really represent small businesses in the federal market. Why? Simply because they do not have tremendous marketing dollars. Small companies look for the most resources for the least outlay of the capital they use to grow. Federal agencies should forge close ties with non-profits that work with, and actively represent small businesses.
2. Develop and Leverage relationships.Every market is a series of relationships – healthy markets are composed of those you trust and those you do not. That is why “industry relations” are so important to a vibrant federal market. Good relationships with industry allow an agency to reach and get assistance to find the small businesses they need. It also saves a tremendous amount of time and leg-work to try and find new communities around every procurement.

3. Be strategic.  Different organizations are good at different things. The best federal industry liaisons, procurement officers, and leadership understand their market’s industry partners, who represents what, the organization’s mission, and the efficacy of the organization. Developing these relationships with industry allows them to understand how to best leverage existing resources and find active, engaged businesses.

4. Talk to your industry partners.  We may finally be coming out of a period where many in the federal government were reluctant to talk to industry. The message we’ve been hearing more than ever – from nearly every component within the Department of Homeland Security – is that acquisition and procurement leaders are encouraging their staff to get out more and talk to, and learn from, industry. As a matter of fact, under the leadership of DHS CPO Soraya Correa the Department has undertaken “Reverse Industry Days” – devised by industry – to provide their contracting staff an opportunity to learn about industry and how it operates. GTSC’s Acquisition & Procurement Workgroup lead, Carolyn Muir from SE Solutions and a former contracting officer with the Navy has been instrumental in crafting and adding tremendous value to the topics and lessons provided in these “Master Classes” on government contracting.

We continue to applaud these changes to our procurement and acquisition process and look forward to continue leading both industry and government as we navigate a market environment moving faster than conventional procurement can handle.

Kristina Tanasichuk is CEO & Founder of the Government Technology & Services Coalition, a non-profit, non-partisan organization of small and imd-sized companies working in homeland and national security.  She is also the president of InfraGardNCR, a public private partnership between the private sector and the FBI to share information to protect our nation’s critical infrastructure, and the president and founder of Women in Homeland Security.

The Government Technology & Services Coalition (GTSC) will host a Capacity Building Session in early August to help small and mid-tier contractors understand insurance, benefits, compliance, accounting, staffing, legal and contractor specific requirements in homeland and national security (like developing SCIFs, security clearances, etc.) they must understand to have the internal capacity to grow.

We invite vendors to submit a discussion or workshop related to these topics for consideration to speak at this ½ day session. We are looking for substantive presentations that will:

• Educate companies on current requirements
• Inform companies of upcoming or recent changes to requirements
• Identify trends in buying, trends that impact companies and how companies are positioning to address these trends
• Share new and innovative approaches to the topic
• “Sales pitches” will not be accepted
• Apply as speaker or workshop – for speakers (15-30 minute presentations); for workshops, (1-1.5 hours)

Submissions will be accepted until midnight, June 30, 2016.

Please submit:

NAME

COMPANY

EMAIL

TELEPHONE NUMBER

WEBSITE

TITLE OF PRESENTATION

PRESENTATION OR WORKSHOP?

HOW LONG IS YOUR PRESENTATION?

OBJECTIVE OF PRESENTATION/WORKSHOP

TOP 3 LEARNING OBJECTIVES FOR ATTENDEES

BRIEF 4 SENTENCE DESCRIPTION OF SESSION

BIO(S), PHOTOS FOR EACH SPEAKER

SUBMIT TO: Kalyna White, GTSC at kwhite@gtscoalition.com by June 30, 2016.