Hammond businesses among other organizations will unite for coastal restoration at the Louisiana Small Business Development Center Procurement Conference.
The Government Procurement Conference will be hosted by the city of Hammond at the Worley Training Center Thursday, May 29 from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. The conference will help local businesses better understand the federal, state and local government procurement processes.
"In attendance will be representatives from organizations that assist businesses with getting ready to do business with the government," said Sandy Summers, assistant director of LSBDC. "Any business interested in learning more about government contracting can attend."
The LSBDC is the state's largest and most accessible source of assistance for entrepreneurs and provides business consulting for entrepreneurs at no cost. It has a network of 10 centers, all qualified to give one-on-one consulting, training and information resources to help businesses grow and thrive. Their overall goal is to help develop and diversify the Louisiana economy through equipping its businesses with the right tools and information for success.
In order to accomplish this goal, they offer consulting to help a business evaluate their ideas, prepare marketing strategies, determine financing needs and anything else the business needs in order to better themselves. They also set up workshops and seminars to educate entrepreneurs of business basics or to further advance their management skills. Lastly, LSBDC provides business information and resources, such as industry and marketing statistics, all of which are free of charge.
For this conference, the LSBDC will be mainly focusing on government contracting.
"We will focus on the ways that a business can sell their products and services to local, state and federal government agencies," said Summers.
Along with helping businesses improve their knowledge in regards to becoming successful government contractors, coastal restoration projects will also be another issue focused on in the conference, which overall ties into their main teachings of how to do business with state and federal governments.
Due to the increasing need to protect and restore Louisiana's coast as a result from the BP oil spill, more coastal restoration projects will be commencing; but LSBDC wants to help local businesses get in on the efforts to save the state's coast in order to give them more business and help Louisiana's economy as a whole.
"As a result of the BP oil spill, the federal government has recently ordered BP to pay for millions of dollars of coastal restoration projects in our area," said Summers. "We would like to equip our local businesses with the information they need to be awarded those coastal restoration projects and keep those dollars local."
According to Summers, specific details about the projects and what they entail will be discussed at the conference.
Certification processes will also be discussed, including the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) and the Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZone) certification processes. Both certifications are geared toward encouraging an increase in participation of small businesses in large-scale operations.
Sponsors for the conference include the city of Hammond, Hammond Industrial Development Board, Hammond Area Economic & Industrial Development District, Louisiana Procurement Technical Assistance Center and Louisiana SBDC at Southeastern.
For more information about the conference, contact LSBDC Southeastern at [email protected] or 985-549-3831. Registration is available through the LSBDC website, www.lsbdc.org.