Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Southeast hosted an Industry Day event, March 22, from the Adam W. Herbert University Center located at the University of North Florida (UNF) in Jacksonville, Florida.

The event provided NAVFAC Southeast an opportunity to promote their products and services delivery through enhanced engagement with industry partners, large and small.

"NAVFAC Southeast is embracing the mindset that to be successful in achieving national defense strategy objectives on infrastructure and facilities, we need a strong, collaborative government and industry team that values continuous learning from each other," said NAVFAC Southeast Executive Officer Capt. Jeremy Adams. "In order to better harness this learning mindset, venues such as today’s industry day are at the forefront and are extremely valuable. Our intent is to learn more about our respective challenges and move towards mutually improving performance."

The event allowed contractors to gain a better understanding of NAVFAC Southeast as an organization, and the products and services they provide to the Navy. It also provided attendees the opportunity to ask questions directly through the virtual chat function to command leadership and subject matter experts.

"We are focused on communication and collaborative improvements," said Renee Comfort, chief contracting officer for NAVFAC Southeast. "Champions keep playing until they get it right; we can continue to work towards innovation and improvement together.”

The schedule consisted of presentations from command leadership, "track-based" discussion groups, and a speech from the Keynote Speaker, Submarine Group Ten Commander Rear Adm. Thomas "TR" Buchanan. Areas of discussion included NAVFAC Southeast Operations; Environmental; Contracting; Small Business; Planning, Design, and Construction; and more.

"An integral part of meeting our challenges is a strong collaborative government and industry team aligned to continually learn from each other and accelerate execution performance," said Buchanan. "Events like this one provide a useful forum and platform for open dialogue to share information, ideas and innovations."

Small businesses play a vital role in the American economy - employing half of our country's workforce, creating nearly two out of every three new American jobs, and often being the source of the next great American innovation. NAVFAC Southeast strives to meet its goals and build on its successes by providing contract opportunities to these businesses.

“NAVFAC Southeast invests in small businesses to support our national defense,” said John Bazylewicz, assistant deputy director for small business. “Small businesses fuel the American dream, which grows the local and federal economies that ultimately strengthen the warfighter.”

Bazylewicz explained that sound business processes enable NAVFAC to meet the expectations of supported commanders while serving the public policy objectives of providing opportunities to small business.

Small businesses provide services and expertise that support the Navy’s mission and the men and women in uniform. Each year NAVFAC establishes target goals for Small Business, Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB), Historically Underutilized Business Zone Small Business (HUBZONE), Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), and Women-Owned Small Business categories. Utilizing these small business concerns to the maximum extent practicable is a matter of National interest with both social and economic benefits.

Six hundred participants registered for the event, making this Industry Day the highest attended in the command's history.

“The value in this event was putting together in one place key government contacts and staff with the contracting community that was solely missed during the pandemic,” said Robert Aycock, representative from SpecPro. “It also allowed us to hear and understand what is important to the government so we know how better to serve.”

The command continuously participates in different industry outreach events throughout the year.