Maryland’s small business owners descended on the Hilton Inner Harbor in droves Tuesday for the Governor’s Minority and Small Business Outreach Summit, a conference for small businesses to connect with government agencies and contractors for over $7 billion in available state contracts.
This year’s summit moved from its previous location in Turf Valley in Ellicott City, which previously had to put attendees on a waitlist.
This year, Tony Bridges, assistant secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT), said hosting agencies MDOT, the University System of Maryland (USM) and the Maryland Department of General Services (DGS) wanted to grow the summit. But even at the larger venue, registrations were sold out online.
Bridges said there were over 1,100 registrations at the time of his conversation with The Baltimore Sun at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, compared to about 600 to 700 total last year.
He pointed specifically to the loss of the Francis Scott Key Bridge this year as an opportunity for prospective government subcontractors at the conference, noting that Kiewit, the company awarded a $73 million contract by the Maryland Transportation Authority to replace the bridge, was present at the conference to speak to any small businesses interested in procurement opportunities in the rebuilding process.
Kiewit held a discussion titled, “Rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge,” which, according to the conference’s scheduling materials, was “an opportunity to learn about the project, meet the principals, and gain an understanding of whether this project could be a good fit for your company.”
The conference attendees seemed bullish on the economy, which largely hadn’t affected their businesses negatively, as well as the leadership of Gov. Wes Moore.
“It’s my impression that the state of Maryland is a great place for small businesses, and it seems that the governor, really and his entire administration, is focused on helping to grow small businesses,” said Lisa M. Tompkins-Brown, vice president of Tenacity Solutions, a Montgomery County-based company in the health care, technology and business optimization fields.
Looking to grow her business in Maryland, she came to the conference to learn how her business could better partner with the government, but she also met with procurement officers, program managers and others. Tompkins-Brown said she asked specific technical questions about the state’s procurement system as well as general strategic questions, angling toward better situating her business for the future.
Obiajulu Arah, the proprietor of three small businesses with over 70 employees on payroll, also praised Moore’s leadership, saying, “What brought me here to the convention today was to see what Wes Moore, the governor, was stating. And everything that he stated in his campaign, he’s putting it together.”
Arah said the event was beneficial because it gave him the opportunity to meet with likeminded individuals and vendors who he normally wouldn’t be able to meet with in the course of business. Despite the contentious economy, which some analysts believe delivered Trump his victory in the presidential election, some Maryland business owners didn’t have any complaints.
The consumer price index, or CPI, calculated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, increased 0.2% in October, according to the most recent report released Nov. 13. The year-over-year increase was 2.6%.
The CPI is a common indicator for inflation, since it measures the change in prices for goods over time. The Associated Press called October’s number “its lowest point since it first began surging more than three years ago.”
“I don’t see it,” Arah said of the impacts of inflation on his three companies, Original Queen Limousine Services, OK Identification Services and K&T Security Services. “I mean, gas prices go up, food prices go up. I’m 44 years old. What I paid when I was 30 is not the same, just like what I paid for when in my 20s was not the same.”
“It doesn’t matter who’s in office. I believe in God and hard work. And if you do that and have good customer service, you can go through any Democrat, Republican, Independent. It’s what you put in,” Arah said.
Similarly, Sirina Sucklal of tech firm Apombee, whose business with the government was sidelined during the COVID-19 pandemic, came to the summit Tuesday with the hopes of growing it again. She, too, was upbeat about the economy, she said.
“I think it’s fine,” Sucklal told The Sun.”I don’t think Biden and Harris got enough credit for the economy, getting it back on track.”
But she added that while right now things may seem rosy, she is nervous about the Trump administration’s approach, including tariffs as well as the president-elect’s signature mass deportation policy.
Trump said throughout his campaign that he plans to impose tariffs on Chinese and other international imports in order to encourage investment in American business.
Additionally, Trump said on socially media recently he intends to use the military to assist in the mass deportation of America’s undocumented persons, a policy he’s said he would enact his first day in office.
The Pew Research Center has estimated 11 million undocumented people live in the United States, based on the 2022 American Community Survey.
With the incoming Trump administration, it is unclear whether top-priority infrastructure projects will continue to have federal support.
“I think what’s important to remember is that we are always gonna have to do things across the state,” Bridges said, when asked about the possibility of federal funding for the contracts represented at the summit going away as the Trump administration comes into office.
“Whether funding is coming from one place or another, you know, we still have to do the work on our roads and our highways. We still got to make sure that transit is running and the projects we need to support transit are ongoing.”
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen recently expressed cautious optimism regarding federal funding for Maryland infrastructure projects that would rely on federal funds, namely the replacement of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and construction of the Red Line.
After the Nov. 5 election, Moore pledged to push back on the Trump administration when necessary, but committed to try to find common ground. “Our goal of making sure that this will be Maryland’s decade has not moved one bit,” he said.
Tompkins-Brown, whose business has worked with the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission and Maryland Health Care Commission, remained hopeful for Moore’s leadership.
“We are hoping that for the state a lot of the core values will stay the same and we think it will under Governor Moore, but we will have to see how funding will trickle down in maybe different ways,” she said.
According to the Governor’s Office of Small, Minority and Women-Owned Business Affairs’ website, the state currently has a goal of 29% of state procurement to go to certified Minority Business Enterprises.
Tuesday’s conference had five tracks for the offered workshops, all centered around government contracting. The first track was aimed at business owners new to state government procurement and offered sessions explaining the eMMA online procurement system, how to become a certified Minority Business Enterprise and “How to Be A Great Subcontractor.”
The other tracks’ workshops included proposal and bid writing, public data mining techniques, access to procurement professionals and a panel on artificial intelligence.
Have a news tip? Contact Racquel Bazos at [email protected], 443-813-0770 or on X as @rzbworks.
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