Saturday, July 2, 2011

Hit the Ground Running

So this week I returned to New Orleans and didn't skip a beat getting back to work on summer projects with the Office of Supplier Diversity. A lot has happened in the 3 weeks that I have been gone: the office has welcomed three new staff members. So with a full team, its all hands on deck to get disadvantaged business enterprises certified and winning city contracts.

With the certification and contract compliance roles in the office now filled, my priorities have shifted a bit to focus on policy development and outreach programming. Building off of the resources that I gathered from last week's WBENC Conference, a summer goal of mine will be answering the question for DBEs of "now that I am certified, what's next?"

This week I got the chance to meet with Melissa Gibbs of Gibbs Construction, one of the major general contractors in the Louisiana area. Melissa is the Business Development & SBE/DBE Outreach Coordinator  for her family's construction firm and was a member of Mayor Landrieu's Transition Task Force on City Contracting and DBEs. As the main point of contact for women, minority and small business owners interested in doing business with Gibbs Construction, my conversation with Melissa shed light on the fact that many DBEs in the city aren't aware of how to approach general contractors about sub-prime contracting opportunities. So helping DBEs figure out what to do after they get their certification from the city is extremely relevant to increasing the number of women owned businesses who win city contracts. Over the next couple of weeks I will be hard at work developing a curriculum around this as well as communication plan to outreach to certified DBEs.

Also, this week I got to sit in on a meeting with Aimee Quirk, Economic Development Advisor to the Mayor and my summer internship sponsor, which resulted in me assisting her on an employment project that will be presented to Mayor Landrieu in the next two weeks. More details to come on this ...

So while I may not have to work through the weekend to meet deadlines, everything this past week hasn't been all work and no play. I arrived back in New Orleans just in time for the Essence Music Festival. The festivities kicked off Thursday night with two parities hosted by the Mayor and Congressman Cedric Richmond and I was in the building rubbing elbows with some of New Orleans business and political elite. Tonight I'm off  to the Superdome to see the one and only, Kanye West. I have to say, I love this city!



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