This week, I joined hundreds of other acquisition professionals in Tacoma, Washington for the GSA’s Professional Services & Human Capital Symposium. This symposium brought together several program offices and approximately 600 attendees for three days of informative and collaborative discussions, which included industry acquisition workshops focused on the PSS, OASIS Program Management Review (PMR), and the HCaTS PMR, as well as meet your CO and IOA sessions. Events, such as this week’s Symposium, play a crucial role in enhancing the acquisition process by bringing together critical stakeholders, from both government and industry, to identify opportunities to enhance policies and programs. The Coalition sincerely appreciates the significant care and effort that GSA put into this Symposium.
GSA’s success this week builds on its achievements from the second annual GSA Federal Acquisition Training Symposium in April. That event brought together approximately 1,300 attendees and multiple Federal agencies for informative and collaborative training sessions. Having attended both events, their success only further substantiates recent appeals for the return of the GSA Expo. For years, the show provided an invaluable resource for cost efficient training, marketing, and communicating. The GSA Expo provided a platform, free from the constraints of a specific transaction, for members of the acquisition community to engage in dynamic discussions about the Federal market, innovative solutions, and best practices. Crucially, it brought together government and industry in an environment that fostered constructive exchanges for common sense solutions.
The procurement community witnessed a significant demonstration of support for government- industry collaboration by GSA this week. GSA’s Symposiums have provided a vital resource for acquisition professionals, demonstrating the significant impact of effective communication. We sincerely appreciate GSA’s tireless efforts associated with hosting these Symposiums. At both events, I witnessed so much of what made the GSA Expo so great for 15 years, and it’s time for GSA to build on this recent progress by bringing back this incredible event.