The East Tennessee Purchasing Association will hold its 2nd Annual "Doing Business with Your Local Governments" Conference for small businesses on Thursday, Sept. 27, at the Knoxville Convention Center.
It will be held from 5 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. in Ballrooms EF&G.
The event is free and is aimed at bringing the owners and managers of small businesses - including minority and women-owned businesses - in direct contact with representatives from the purchasing departments of various local governments and agencies. The ETPA works with numerous local governments including both the City of Knoxville and Knox County, which are both helping sponsor the conference.
Included among the many other local governments and public agencies that are supporting the conference are:
Knoxville's Community Development Corporation
The University of Tennessee
Knoxville Utilities Board
Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership
Blount County
Anderson County
The City of Chattanooga
The Knoxville/Knox County Public Building Authority
The Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority and
Pellissippi State Technical Community College
The event is also designed to make people involved in small businesses aware of the opportunities to do business with local governments and provide them with information allowing them to take advantage of those opportunities.
Attendees, for instance, will be able to learn about current bid opportunities and procedures used by each entity in procurement among many other things. Light hors d'oeuvres will be provided.
Parking for the event will be free at any city garage including the Locust Street Garage, which is near the Convention Center.
Parking is also available at Knox County's Dwight Kessel Garage and at other locations like the World's Fair Park North Lot.
To attend the "Doing Business with Your Local Governments" Conference please RSVP by contacting Cindy Akins at KCDC by Sept. 20, 2007. Ms. Akins can be contacted at 865-403-1107 or by fax at 865-594-8858 or at her email
[email protected]
Please provide your company's name, names of your representatives that will attend, telephone and fax numbers (with area code) and the email addresses of all the attendees.