Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southwest hosted an industry forum May 9 at the Balboa Park Recital Hall in San Diego.

The forum gave contractors an opportunity to meet one-on-one with their direct contract and technical counterparts at NAVFAC Southwest to discuss their capabilities and abilities to assist NAVFAC Southwest with fulfilling its mission objectives and support the warfighters.

"The purpose of the industry forum was to have open dialog between the government and industry to obtain capability information from prospective future contractors and to learn of innovative ideas prevailing in industry," said Lora E. Morrow, NAVFAC Southwest Office of Small Business Programs deputy. "Although no contracts resulted from the industry forum directly, NAVFAC anticipates there may be future procurements that use the innovations discussed at the forum."

More than 200 individuals representing 110 companies registered for the event. They were paired with their NAVFAC Southwest counterparts for matchmaking sessions. Most of the registrants were from small business firms seeking to work with NAVFAC.

"NAVFAC Southwest was seeking input from industry regarding commercial trends and practices that may be useful in future procurements," said Morrow. "Many NAVFAC personnel will use the information obtained at the forum as a stepping stone in their market research efforts on upcoming requirements. The forum was also a tremendous means by which firms that have not yet worked with NAVFAC Southwest could introduce themselves and the benefits they offered to the government."

NAVFAC Southwest Commanding Officer Capt. Mark Edelson, spoke at the start of the forum. NAVFAC Operations Officer Capt. Dan Cook gave an overview of NAVFAC Southwest's fiscal year 2018 workload of more than $2 billion in products and services.

"This is the first time NAVFAC Southwest has hosted an event like this," said Morrow. "Due to its huge success, it is likely to become an annual outreach to the contracting community."

NAVFAC Southwest manages the planning, design, construction, contingency engineering, real estate, environmental, cultural and natural resources, public works, and base operating support for the U.S. Navy shore facilities in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. It spends an annual procurement of $1.3 billion with more than half awarded to small businesses in a variety of socioeconomic programs.


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