More than 25 area companies will tout their capabilities, products and services to a number of government and military organizations at the 2015 Southeast Region Federal Construction, Infrastructure & Environmental (FEDCON) Summit, held at the Wilmington Convention Center on Wednesday and Thursday.
“FEDCON is good for us,” Chris Nesselroade, president of Wilmington-based WB Brawley Co., said Tuesday. “It’s in our backyard. A lot of high-profile agencies attend. There are good speakers, and they provide a 2015 and 2016 projection, which is very informative and helps assist us in planning.”
The event brings together representatives of agencies ranging from military to the General Services Administration with several hundred contractors, engineers, designers and construction suppliers from throughout the Southeastern United States, according to a news release from the N.C. Military Business Center (NCMBC), which is organizing the summit. The annual event has been held at the Wilmington Convention Center since 2011 and this year is expected to attract about 700 people, NCMBC spokeswoman Courtney Smedick said in an email.
An expansion of previous summits, this year's FEDCON will include military and federal agencies from Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia as well as North Carolina, the release stated. Also participating are U.S. Army Corps of Engineers districts from Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington and Norfolk as well as representatives of the Corps’ South Atlantic Division headquarters and Naval Facilities Engineering Command offices in Norfolk, Virginia, and Jacksonville, Florida.
“The FEDCON Summit is the premier, best-established and most-recognized federal construction event in the Southeast,” Scott Dorney, executive director of the NCMBC, said in the release. “FEDCON networking and trade show activities allow businesses to market their services and products directly to over 650 military and federal participants and to other general contractors, specialty contractors, engineers, architects and suppliers. Businesses that are already engaged or that want to perform in the federal market need to be there.”
This will be the third year at FEDCON for WB Brawley, a company that designs, builds, renovates and furnishes hospitality facilities for the military, commercial and health care industries. The company has had such a positive experience the past couple of years that this year it reserved a booth to increase its visibility.
Also available at the summit is information on how much the government plans to spend on building or upgrading hospitality facilities on its bases and other sites, where those projects will be, and what they will consist of. That enables WB Brawley and other construction companies to anticipate possible future projects.
Nesselroade said that he and other company representatives will be talking to government representatives in an effort to expand their business, but will also be looking for potential partnerships with complementary businesses that could lead to bids on multi-award contracts. WB Brawley has qualified itself to be on a short list of companies that can bid on government hospitality jobs, he said.
