NASA’s Business Opportunities Expo 2019 was held Oct. 23, at Port Canaveral in Florida. As in the past, the expo drew hundreds of attendees to this annual event that featured about 200 vendors, including 50 women-owned businesses, from a variety of product and service areas, such as engineering and communications, IT and computer technology, and construction and safety. Exhibitors from 47 states, plus Puerto Rico and India participated.
“The expo provides exhibitors and attendees an opportunity to showcase their capabilities to NASA, to federal agencies and to other small businesses,” said Janet Petro, Kennedy Space Center’s deputy director. “Kennedy is physically the largest NASA center, and I think, the most vibrant. So, I think it’s entirely appropriate that this expo, being NASA’s largest Small Business outreach event, is held very near to our center.”
Currently, the center has 285 partner agreements with private-industry partners. And that number continues to grow. Today, these partnerships enable industry in making contributions to NASA’s space endeavors.
“Women-owned businesses have provided some of the most innovative solutions to help NASA achieve its mission. Just recently, NASA conducted its first all-female spacewalk from the International Space Station. It is a milestone worth noting,” Petro said.
Now in its 29th year, the annual expo is facilitated by Kennedy Space Center’s Office of Small Business Programs and Prime Contractor Board in conjunction with the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing and Canaveral Port Authority. Expo participants include Office of Small Business Programs representatives from each NASA center and Kennedy prime contractors, including Jacobs, Lockheed Martin Space, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, SpaceX and The Boeing Company.
“This one-day event brings together a vast array of businesses, featuring information sessions and networking opportunities,” said Joyce McDowell, Small Business specialist at Kennedy. “Our mission is to help small businesses achieve their business goals by bringing some of the brightest minds and best resources from around the county and beyond together.”
For example, Alertgy, a small business located in Melbourne, Florida, is working to develop the world’s first real-time non-invasive continuous blood glucose monitor technology for diabetes. Ryan Bailey, director of innovative engineering for the company, said the technology currently is in pilot studies in a clinical environment.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer Marc Rippen is working on vetting this technology with NASA to illustrate how the monitoring results could be tailored to detect the radiation levels of astronauts in space.
Rebecca Granger is a senior project manager with Alluvionic, an 8 (a) woman-owned company, also located in Melbourne. “We’ve been in business six years now and have participated in this business expo since 2016,” Granger said. The company’s CEO and President Wendy Romeu credits the networking opportunities of the expo for its partnership with Millennium Engineering and Integration Company, a contractor at Kennedy.
Many of the small business exhibitors are veteran-owned, service-disabled and/or located in Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZones).
Human Capital Resources and Concepts Inc. (HCRC) is a woman-owned company with offices in Winter Haven, Florida, which is designated a HUBZone, and Springfield, Virginia. HCRC also is SBA 8(a) certified. Marnice D. Miller, president and CEO, says the majority of her clients are Federal government agencies. “This event is very special to me,” Miller said. “One of my first contracts came from the first business expo I attended and a contact I made through the networking opportunities.”
Leak Tight Analysis, with offices in New Church, Virginia, and Merritt Island, Florida, is another success story. In business since 2011, the company attended its first business expo in 2018. Paul Tronti Jr., the company’s vice president, said participating was very beneficial. “We were awarded a small business contract with J.P. Donovan to provide quality control, inspections and testing of the pressure systems for mobile launcher 1. It’s exciting to be part of NASA’s Artemis missions to the Moon and on to Mars.”
“This expo is very special to me. It’s an opportunity to develop relationships in order to do business, which for me is always a very good thing,” said Glenn Delgado, associate administrator, NASA’s Office of Small Business Programs. “Small businesses are critical to NASA’s mission. For example, through Artemis, NASA and a growing host of partners will establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon by 2028.”
Throughout the day, breakout session speakers provided information on topics covering solutions for enterprise-wide procurement, doing business with the U.S. Department of State and how to get on a GSA schedule.
“It’s important to know how important small business is to NASA. Small business touches every one of our missions,” Delgado said.