Spent a lovely day at the Competitive Edge Conference yesterday at Chelsea Piers networking and getting to know my new friends from the world of government procurement. I mingled among fellow WBE and MBE vendors and super vendors and met a network of people from the City of Business Development, U.S. Small Business Authority, US Dept. of Commerce, and the New York State Empire Development all of which exist to support public sector suppliers and government relations and my new potential customers from the Dormitory Authority, the Port Authority and New York City Departments of Education, Transportation, Economic Development, Health and Hospitals, City Housing, Power Authority, among others. These folks control massive budgets on the city’s behalf to procure emergency supplies and I would love to supply each school, dorm, hospital and police station with Ice-Qube Emergency kits.
As a sponsor, I was given a booth at the dead-end of the pier looking out over the water with views of the statue of liberty. The organizers may have seen it as the least desirable booth but I thought it was heaven. The stack of Ice-Qube’s I brought to beautify my booth were lifted over the course of the delicious luncheon, which I viewed as a sign of affection and I spent the afternoon in procurement matchmaking sessions with the major agencies, getting the chance to ask what they are buying.
Congratulations to Chair Zenaida Chape and her team and committee for a well run and interesting meeting. I found it enormously informative and worth the time.
The pearl of wisdom that keeps ringing in my head came from Michael Jones-Bey the Executive Director of the New York State Division of Minority & Women’s Business Development who told me to “be patient.” Now that we have been certified as a WBE we must now apply to each agency to qualify as an approved vendor. There’s lots more paperwork and relationships to grow. Ok, we can handle that.
There is enormous opportunity for Ice-Qube in this arena, as a new NYC & NYS WBE (and other pending federal and state certifications) I can patient, but for now I will return to getting the new Baby Ice-Qube ready for its’ debut in Sept. at buybuy Baby and babiesrus.com
This is what is so fantastic about my business plan and product; the vast array of arena’s to play in. Augustine take note.
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