OSDBU hosts virtual briefings for small disadvantaged businesses

May 24, 2021

GSA’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) hosted three virtual capabilities briefings this month with a simple goal: help R9 Public Buildings Service (PBS) meet its socioeconomic goals with small and disadvantaged businesses.

GSA’s annual goal is to award a minimum of five percent of federal contracting dollars to small disadvantaged businesses. For the past 11 years, GSA has exceeded this goal, closing out Fiscal Year 2020 at 22 percent which equated to $1.2 billion awarded to small disadvantaged businesses.

“This is a significant achievement because GSA was still able to create opportunities for small disadvantaged businesses despite being in the midst of a global pandemic,” said OSDBU Associate Administrator Exodie Roe during his opening remarks at the May 19 virtual event. “You can trust that GSA will continue this trend as a leader in the federal government.”

During this current fiscal year, Region 9, in partnership with its prime contractors, has awarded more than $108 million to small businesses with $73 million, so far, going to small disadvantaged businesses.

“This event represented another opportunity to continually encourage America’s diverse groups of entrepreneurs to do business with GSA,” said Acting Regional Administrator Dan Brown who led two of the three virtual events. “We are committed to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. GSA and our prime contractors are uniquely positioned to support small businesses with contracting opportunities and other resources.”

This month’s virtual sessions facilitated conversations between small disadvantaged business owners from Hawaii, California, Nevada and Arizona, and representatives from large contractors including Clark Construction and Hensel Phelps. 

“We are always looking for new small businesses to match with opportunities we have for the year,” said R9 Acquisition Management Division Director Emma Cocks to business owners attending the May 4 briefing. Her team manages about $50 million in contracts each year, most of which is awarded to small businesses with values ranging from $250,000 to about $5 million for each construction contract.

During this year’s virtual events, small business representatives briefed about their company's focus areas and past successes. GSA and Small Business Administration officials asked the 11 small business reps about their company specialty areas, which included electrical, construction and engineering capabilities.

“The real value of these capability briefings is giving small disadvantaged businesses an opportunity to get valuable feedback and information on what contracting officers are actually looking for on projects,” said OSDBU Small Business Technical Advisor Pamela Smith-Cressel who leads the team that hosts outreach events.

In collaboration with regional PBS leadership, OSDBU’s outreach events are held quarterly and target four small-business sectors: service-disabled veteran owned; women-owned; small-disadvantaged; and, small businesses located in HubZones.

“We hope these events benefit every business by building important and lasting relationships,” said R9 PBS Deputy Commissioner Patricia Chang-Lynn while leading the May 5 event. “We are committed to ensuring your access to opportunities since working with you helps our nation to have a government properly equipped with goods and services it needs to best serve the American public.”

For more information on GSA’s small business outreach efforts, visit our OSDBU webpage.