E-Newsletter
Fairfax County E-Bird for September 2, 2019
Now hear this: The FCEDA’s popular Entrepreneurship 101: Starting a Business in Fairfax County workshop is back from summer vacation on September 10. This interactive session is presented by the FCEDA with its partners the Community Business Partnership, the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity, and the Fairfax County government. Click here for more information and to register.
A best place to work: The FCEDA announced Friday that in the second quarter of the year our staff worked with 35 companies adding nearly 3,000 jobs to the local economy. President and CEO Victor Hoskins said the FCEDA continues to work to diversify the economy to attract and retain skilled employees to the area, and the employers announcing jobs during the quarter include IT staffing company Aerotek, the Inova Schar Cancer Institute, Furnace Record Pressing and Caboose Brewing. “It really is fantastic that we’ve been able to maintain growth…We are poised for really strong forward growth,” Hoskins said. Read more in this LocalDVM.com story.
Equal representation: Nick Wakeman of Washington Technology notes that Reston-based contractor SAIC just hit a diversity milestone. By adding Carole Goode and Yvette Kanouff to its board of directors, the 10-member board at SAIC now is evenly split between men and women. That includes Donna Morea as board chair and Nazzic Keene as CEO. Katharina McFarland is the fifth woman on the board and joined the acquisition of Engility last year.
Saved to the cloud: Carten Cordell of the Washington Business Journal was one of many to report that the Pentagon’s second-biggest cloud deal, the $8 billion Defense Enterprise Office Solutions contract, will go to Fairfax-based General Dynamics IT. GDIT will collaborate with Dell Marketing and Great Falls-based Minburn Technology Group on the project. The other DoD contract for commercial cloud services, the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract, could be worth $10 billion but has yet to be awarded.
Weekend (and weekday) warriors wanted: WTOP shared that the National Museum of the United States Army will open on Fort Belvoir in southeastern Fairfax County on June 4, 2020. The 185,000-square foot museum, which is expected to draw 75,000 annual visitors, will be the first in the nation to tell the branch’s full 244-year history. It will be a part of the publicly accessible section of Fort Belvoir.
Granting innovation: The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) awarded the Herndon-based Center for Innovative Technology a grant to support small businesses developing and commercializing high-risk technologies. Technical.ly DC says the CIT is one of 24 grantees receiving awards up to $125,000 as part of SBA’s Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership Program. The FAST program was created to support underrepresented entrepreneurs in SBA’s programs.
Progress report: In 2010, Fairfax County supervisors approved a vision for Tysons to transform it from a suburban office park into a walkable, transit-oriented urban area filled with more residents, more jobs, culture and activities by 2050. Check out more from Greater Greater Washington about how the effort is going. Also, the Washington Post focused on residential growth in the Tysons West neighborhood.
On the move: According to Bisnow, consulting firm Dean & Co. is relocating its headquarters within Tysons. The firm signed a lease with Lerner to move its corporate headquarters to 1600 Tysons Blvd. The firm has been in another space in Tysons until now.
Making a splash: Washingtonian magazine named the Water Mine Family Swimmin’ Hole at Lake Fairfax Park in Reston one of the region’s best waterparks. The August issue of the magazine featured the Water Mine in the “Big Kid” category for children age 7 to 11. The magazine wrote, “Older children beeline for the three lengthy, winding water slides standing three stories tall. There’s also a log walk, a lazy river, more slides, and a splash area for younger kids.”
Notable contract wins by firms in Fairfax County
- The Aerospace Corporation won a nine-year follow-on contract to provide NASA with specialized engineering, a deal that has a potential value of $621 million over a 5-year base period. WashingtonExec
- A Lockheed Martin-led team received a potential $347M contract from the Army to build and integrate a ground-based hypersonic strike weapon-system prototype. GovConWire
- Maxar Technologies booked a new potential four-year, $176 million contract with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to extend access of U.S. government users to the company’s library of Earth imagery. Washington Technology
- Parsons received a three-year, $139.1 million contract to perform repair work on a runway at the Bucholz Army Airfield located on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. GovConWire
Featured business events
- September 6 – High Tech Meets Low Tech in Sales – How Artificial Intelligence and the Simple Checklist Will Accelerate the Path to More Revenue Attainment. Look ahead at the AI and sales technology landscape, and share ways to incorporate AI into your business processes. Click here.
- September 10 — Entrepreneurship 101: Starting a Business in Fairfax County. Presented by the FCEDA with its partners the Community Business Partnership, the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity, and the Fairfax County government. Click here.
- September 11 — Intro to Selling to the Commonwealth — A Vendor’s Perspective. Part of the Business Education Series presented by the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce. Click here.
- September 12 – Strategies for Creating Competitive Proposals. Learn basic strategies for how to compete in the $500 billion federal contract marketplace. Click here.
- September 20 — Shaping the Future of Fairfax County Together. Special event on the first-ever county strategic planning process especially for members of the business community and philanthropic and higher-education partners. Click here.
- November 14 — BL Small Business Expo. Visit with about 70 different exhibitors presenting a wide range of products and services that could help you enhance your business and/or life. Keynote speaker will be Victor Hoskins, president and CEO of the FCEDA. Click here.
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