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Chicago MBOC News
Chicago MBOC On the Road
Relationship marketing is important. Matching a face with a voice and developing sources of information and contracting intelligence can aid your firm’s search for contracting opportunities.
 The Chicago Minority Business Opportunity Center (Chicago MBOC) recently arranged a series of “road trips” to federal military facilities in Illinois for its portfolio clients. These facilities were Scott Air Force Base (located 20 miles east of St. Louis, MO); Rock Island Arsenal (Rock Island, IL 180 miles west of Chicago); and Great Lakes Naval Station (Great Lakes, IL). Each of these facilities are host to military and civilian “commands and headquarters”, responsible for purchasing billions of dollars in products and services for the US military and civilian agencies. The Rock Island Arsenal, alone, purchases more than $25 billion in goods and services, annually.
The purpose of these trips was to create opportunities for face-to-face meetings between MBOC clients and small business advocates and contracting officials at these facilities. During these meetings, MBOC clients were able to learn about the items (or services) each command or contracting office procures and of current and upcoming contracting opportunities. MBOC clients also got an opportunity to make capabilities presentations to facility procurement and small business program staff.
The first “MBOC Road Trip” took place on March 1st and 2nd and led 15 MBOC clients nearly 300 miles to Scott Air Force Base in Bellville, IL. Chicago MBOC Executive Director, Dave Thomas, Strategic Business to Business Specialist, Harith Razaa, and many of the invited MBOC clients gathered at a Holiday Inn Express just minutes from the base the night before the visit and discussed the logistics and expectations for the next day’s visit. Clients were invited based on the needs of the various commands at Scott AFB. In this case, the clients who were invited provided services in IT/IS, architecture/engineering, training, office furniture, electronics recycling and construction.
 Mr. Edwin Beussink, Director of Small Business for the U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command, played host to the MBOC clients and arranged face to face meetings with the various command representatives. Beussink provided the MBOC clients with a wealth of information about doing business with the military and even showed them where to find military business opportunities on the internet.
Members of the Illinois Air National Guard were also on hand to talk about their current and upcoming bid opportunities. It was learned that they had an immediate need for office furniture and electronics recycling which was exactly what two of our clients had hoped for. Other clients were given valuable information about how best to position themselves to be successful in gaining business with the government. Overall, the clients who participated were extremely happy to make the connections that they did.
The second “MBOC Road Trip” was some 180 miles west of Chicago at the Rock Island Arsenal. This trip took place on Tuesday, March 10th. This trip was more like a matchmaking session. Representatives of Rock Island’s small business program asked for a list and descriptions of MBOC clients and chose the ones that provided a product or service that they were specifically interested in. One by one the MBOC clients were given an opportunity to present themselves to the procurement and small business folks. The great thing about these meetings was that the discussions were about specific procurement opportunities that had some clients giddy with excitement afterwards. Steve Goff and Corey Koch saw a huge opportunity for their company, Funk Linko, that could translate into a very lucrative opportunity. “We can’t wait to get back to the office and start crunching numbers,” said Goff. This has been a great trip for us.” Similar excitement was expressed by the other clients as well, who were grateful for the chance to meet these folks and to the MBOC for putting it all together.
Toward the end of the meetings, Robert J. Mathys, Sr., Chief of the Office of Small Business Programs at the arsenal, stopped by to express the sincerity of his program’s desire to be inclusive of small businesses. He proceeded to hand everyone his business card and asked that they call him at any time with any questions about doing business with the arsenal. He also urged everyone to attend another business fair in nearby Bettendorf, Iowa in May where he assured them that there will be many more opportunities for them to make excellent business contacts.
 The most recent “MBOC Road Trip” took place on Thursday, March 12th. This time it wasn’t really a personalized road trip like the two previous ones but it was just as important. This trip was to a Small Business Expo hosted by the Society of American Military Engineers and took place at the Illinois Beach Resort and Conference Center, located in Zion, IL just north of the Great Lakes Naval base and just 40 miles north of Chicago. This time, more than thirty MBOC clients were registered to attend though many more were turned away due to capacity. The Chicago MBOC had a booth manned by Thomas, Razaa and Client Relations Specialist, Michele Sutton. While the MBOC was bringing on new clients, existing clients were able to take advantage of educational programs and then were able to participate in matchmaking sessions with prime contractors such as Clark Construction, Wight & Company, and Blinderman Construction and government agencies like the Naval Facilities Command, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Again, all of the MBOC clients seemed to be genuinely thrilled by the opportunity to meet with so many people and were very optimistic about the chance to win business for their companies.
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