SANTA CLARA, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- 100 procurement officials representing dozens of federal and state agencies along with buyers from major corporations will join forces in the Silicon Valley to provide selling opportunities for 600 small businesses. Most of the entrepreneurs, who provide products and services ranging from office supplies to software and engineering to janitorial, are from women, minority or disabled veteran owned firms.
The February 23 program, with 1,500 face-to-face meetings, is produced by Business Matchmaking, Inc., a not-for-profit group that has emerged, after 8 years of successful events, as the nation's most effective public-private small business initiative according to the former SBA Administrator who helped launch it. "Business Matchmaking has been outstanding and helped tens of thousands of small businesses pursue opportunities that would not have otherwise been available. It has been the SBA's most successful public-private project," said Hector Barreto, who was the second longest serving Administrator in SBA's history.
Senior procurement officials in the private sector at Fortune 500 companies agree. Brian Tippens, Hewlett-Packard's (News - Alert) lead insupplier diversity and one of the nation's most respected experts in that field, said, "Business Matchmaking has consistently brought together qualified and reliable small business owners with our procurement team. The results have been outstanding and enabled us to provide contracts to a growing number of women, minority and disabled veteran owned firms."
In addition to a national tour of procurement events following the Silicon Valley session, Business Matchmaking has been selected by the US government's Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) council, the National Center for American Indian Enterprise conference, the GSA (News - Alert) and the Disabled Veterans Business Alliance to produce customized matchmaking programs for members of those groups.
To date some 80,000 one-on-one meetings have been arranged at Business Matchmaking events with billions of dollars in contracts granted to small firms in every industry. The events are free for small business, thanks to sponsorship by HP, the original private sector SBA partner, which has now been joined by Symantec (News - Alert), Dun & Bradstreet, Lockheed Martin and Greatland. HP also provides tech centers and on site experts in addition to a delegation of buyers.
In light of FBI Director Robert Mueller's recent congressional warning about cyber attacks and the growing number of digital corporate thefts of smaller companies, Business Matchmaking is adding an advanced security section to its program presented by Symantec.
At the upcoming event, Dun & Bradstreet (News - Alert), which provides corporate America and the federal government with credit reporting and related services, will introduce a small business package of credit reports that enables growing firms to benefit from what has traditionally been primarily available to large corporations as well as small business website opportunities.
Following the Feb. 23 event at the Santa Clara, California Convention Center, Business Matchmaking will host comparable events in Irvine, California; Chicago; Houston; Miami; Washington DC; Los Angeles; Philadelphia; Seattle; San Diego; Las Vegas; Nashville; New Orleans; and Phoenix.
For more information or to register for these free events, go to businessmatchmaking.com.
