Recognizing the importance of small businesses to the government IT community, ACT-IAC sponsored the 6th annual Small Business Conference called ConnectSB: Accelerate and Achive earlier this week. The event focused on the unique needs and benefits of small businesses and also tried to promote the value of small businesses to the government and large corporations seeking small business partners.
A frequent theme of government conferences like these is innovation, which has come to mean doing more (work) with less (federal employees).
But I decided what this conference should actually be called is “doing more (work) with more (talent).”
The idea for the suggestion came during the federal agency workshops part of the conference where attendees got to hear from three of nine leading agencies. I elected to listen to the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security – ICE , and Department of Veterans Affairs. During those sessions individuals from the CIO office, the program office, the acquisition office and the small business office, provided a panel that presented their experience and then answered questions.
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