The City of Asheville will host Government-Business CONNECT from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 20 at the U.S. Cellular Center. Formerly called the Reverse Vendor Fair, this will be the fourth year the City has invited regional vendors to learn about doing business with the City of Asheville.
This year we are adding more local and nonprofit agencies, prime contractors and extending the event to all day. They will join the City at the event to speak with vendors about opportunities in their respective areas. Government-Business CONNECT is intended to allow you to market your company and network business to business.
This is a great opportunity for vendors to speak directly with government, nonprofit and prime contractor representatives and to connect with the City of Asheville departments on upcoming bidding opportunities. Government-Business CONNECT is intended to be a free walk-through and networking event.
Additionally, on April 20, City staff members from the Community & Economic Development, Purchasing Division, Capital Project Management and General Services will conduct two concurrent workshops on “The Business of Public Contracting” and “Construction Contracting.” The workshops are scheduled for 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. in the U.S. Cellular Center meeting rooms, adjacent to the arena. Attendance is free, but RSVP is required by April 18 as space is limited.
Concurrent workshops will cover the following:
- How to search for bid opportunities
- Areas of purchasing and contracting
- Minority business outreach
- Marketing to the City
- Upcoming bid opportunities and projects
- Building construction
- Non-building construction
- Use of design professionals
- Bonding
- Insurance requirements
For more information about the event, either to RSVP for the training, reserve a booth or sponsor the event, please contact or Brenda Mills at 828-259-8050 or bmills@ashevillenc.gov. Information and updates can be found at the City’s website at ashevillenc.gov/bids.
