Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 4, 1 ʻApelila 2014 — Getting a piece of the federal contracting pie [ARTICLE]

Getting a piece of the federal contracting pie

By Harold Nedd More than 150 veterans and other smallbusiness owners are expected to benefit in a big way from a conference meant to help them clear hurdles in the path to securing federal government contracts. The 2014 Hawai'i Veterans and Small Business Forum has been scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Thursday, April 17, and is being organized by the Hawai'i Procurement īeehnieal Assistance Center, or HI-PTAC, whose mission is to help loeal small businesses compete for lucrative federal government eontracts. In 2012, spending in Hawai'i by the U.S. Department of Defense reached $19.7 hillion, down from $21 hillion the previous year. HIPTAC in 2012 was credited with

helping loeal businesses secure 78 federal govemment projects valued at an estimated $272 million. Features of the conference include opportunities for smallbusiness owners to expand their network of contacts among federal and state government officials, prime contractors and loeal entrepreneurs. Among the highlights of the conference are break-out sessions on the Honolulu Authority on Rapid Transit, or HART; an overview of small business opportunities in Hawai'i and Guam; and veterans becoming small-business owners. More than a dozen puhlie, private and nonprofit organizations are helping HI-PTAC organize the conference, whose keynote speaker will be Jennifer Sabas, executive director of the rail advocacy group Move O'ahu Forward and former chief of staff for the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye. To register online, visit bit. ly/lhMsWUp. For more information about the conference, email erink@hookipaipai.org or eall 596-8990 ext. 1008. ■