Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southeast hosted an Open House, Oct. 31, to provide the opportunity for industry partners to network with the command’s different business lines. The event was held at their headquarters building onboard Naval Air Station (NAS) Jacksonville.

The open house was attended by 81 industry partners from construction, environmental and base operations support service companies.

“The goal was to further foster engagement with industry partners in a new and unique way,” said NAVFAC Southeast Assistant Deputy Director for Small Business Cory Iselin. “We provided them a chance to find out more about how NAVFAC Southeast is organized and what the different business lines do and how they support the overall Navy/DoD mission.”

In order to receive a more personal experience, guests were split into six separate groups that rotated throughout the facility’s conference rooms. Each stop featured a brief presentation from a different business line and an opportunity for guests to ask questions.

“I think [the event] gave a clear understanding of how NAVFAC Southeast is organized and kind of the different ways as a contractor hoping to help, how we can support and how that support would fit in to the organization,” said attendee Lisa Thoele.

NAVFAC Southeast is focused on enhancing its current relationships as well as developing new relationships with industry partners. The command has hosted several Industry Day events that focus on their high priority projects and have several more already scheduled. These events allow industry partners and NAVFAC Southeast to come together to have open dialogue about current and upcoming projects, and how each party can help each other.

“The open house was important because it enabled us to increase our communications with our industry partners and develop more of a collaborative, team relationship,” said NAVFAC Southeast Executive Officer Capt. Tom Bestafka. “We absolutely intend on conducting more events like these in the future.”

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