WT Industry Days take the stage at June ACQUIRE Show

We are about a month out from the ACQUIRE Conference and Expo that Washington Technology’s publisher, 1105 Media, is producing at the Washington D.C. convention center.

WT will have a strong presence there with a line up of industry day sessions. We’ll have speakers from the Marines, Air Force and Social Security Administration on June 8 and the FBI, GSA and NOAALink on June 9.

These will be quick, 35-minute presentations with a Q&A. They kick off at 2 p.m. each day and end at 4:20 – just in time for happy hour.

We’ll have a special focus on small business, but I think the presentations will have something for everyone.

For example, we’ll have Paul Courney, the chief acquisition officer at the FBI. He’ll be describing the small business landscape at the FBI, but he’ll also be sharing a list of best practices and common pitfalls complied by FBI contracting officers. That’s information anyone can use.

We’ll have two speakers from NOAALink – Mario Lopez from the CIO’s office and Victoria Mason, senior action officer and contracting officer’s representative. They’ll be talking about how to work through NOAALink and give insights on a growing range of opportunities available there.

There also will be time for networking throughout the entire ACQUIRE show as well as other educational opportunities.

There are what we are calling “hubs” around acquisition management, IT, professional services, office management, and project management.

We also have a strong lineup of keynote speakers. We announced earlier that former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and her astronaut husband Mark Kelly will speak on Thursday, June 9. And we also have Joshua Cooper Ramo, author of the Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune, and Survival in the Age of Networks. He’ll be the opening keynote on June 8.

Our partner, the Professional Services Council, and Grant Thornton will be presenting the results of the PSC 2016 acquisition policy survey. The survey is based on interviews with over 70 acquisition policy professionals from across government. The results will cover key issues around budgets, workforce, procurement and the role of oversight.

I’m going to try to get an advance copy and maybe do a little sneak peek before the show. It should have some great information.

Obviously, I want to encourage you to attend. More information on the show can be found here.

And I forgot to mention we also will have an expo with pavilions of exhibitors grouped around professional services, IT, office management, acquisition management and the Happy Fed, which is focused on talent management.

There will be plenty of opportunities for networking and education. I hope to see you there.