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The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (FCEDA) will present a webinar, “Second Draw PPP and Resources for Business,” this Tuesday, February 9, at 11:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Eastern Time. Join us to hear the latest information from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) about the second draw of the Paycheck Protection Program and how to take advantage of free Northern Virginia business resources and mentoring services.

Partners for this event are the SBA, Fairfax County Office of Economic Initiatives, Community Business Partnership, SCORE and Start Small Think Big.

Click here for more information and to register for the event.

The featured speaker will be Antonio Doss, district director of the Washington Metropolitan Area District Office of the SBA, who will discuss “PPP 2.0 — the details.”

A panel on Northern Virginia business resources will feature Mark Scarano, executive director, Community Business Partnership; Elizabeth Rogers, legal fellow at Start Small Think Big; and Kristin Sharpe, volunteer small business mentor, SCORE. A Q&A period will follow both presentations.

“We are pleased to present this webinar to help businesses get access to the second round of the PPP program,” said Victor Hoskins, president and CEO of the FCEDA. “During this unprecedented time financing such as this can be the resources that a company needs to bridge the pandemic. We thank the SBA, Fairfax County Office of Economic Initiatives, Community Business Partnership, SCORE and Start Small Think Big for their participation in the webinar to highlight vital resources that are available to businesses.”

Air & Space Innovation Series wraps Feb. 10

Watch the video below featuring Colonel Nathan P. Diller, United States Air Force, Director of AFWERX, who will deliver the keynote presentation during the FCEDA’s Air & Space Innovation webinar event on Wednesday, February 10.

With the focus on “Defense Innovation in Air and Space,” the webinar will also include a defense technology solutions showcase that will be moderated by Daniel Wasserbly, editor at Janes International Defence Review; and feature Ted Bowlds, CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries North America, based in Herndon; Joshua Niedzwiecki, vice president, strategy and planning at BAE Systems, headquartered in the U.S. in the Falls Church area; Scott Herman, chief solutions architect, BlackSky, based in Herndon; and Matt McCrann, vice president of sales, DroneShield.

The closing keynote presentation will be delivered by Nathan Merritt, International Business Development at Reconnaissance Mission Systems Sector, Integrated Mission Systems, L3Harris Technologies. The topic for the discussion will be “Integrated Mission Solutions for the Next Fight.”

Click here for registration details. The webinar will be broadcast using the Whova platform, which allows for networking opportunities beyond the program and presentations. Instructions for event access on Whova will be provided upon registration.

Q&A with Col. Nathan P. Diller, Director, AFWERX

AFWERX, based in Arlington, is an Air Force program with the goal of fostering a culture of innovation within the service. Col. Nathan P. Diller, Director, AFWERX, also serves the team leader for Agility Prime, an initiative launched by the federal government to accelerate the growth of the transformative vertical flight market. Prior to his current assignment, he was the assistant director for aeronautics, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and served in the Strategic Capabilities Office of the U.S. Department of Defense. Col. Diller has been an Air Force officer for 21 years. He is a senior pilot with more than 2,700 hours of flying time logged in more than 50 aircraft.

As the keynote presenter at the Fairfax County EDA’s Air & Space webinar series event on Feb. 10, which focuses on Defense Innovation, Col. Diller will discuss “AFWERX: The U.S. Air Force program for service innovation.”

Col. Diller talked to FCEDA to provide a peek into his keynote presentation.

FCEDA: Please describe AFWERX

Col. Diller: AFWERX is the Air Force’s innovation organization specifically designed to accelerate agile and affordable capabilities by partnering with new startups, non-traditional industry to build the American innovation ecosystem, and by also partnering with our airmen and guardians across the Air and Space Force so that we can bring new capabilities to the field sooner for our operators.

FCEDA: What about this conference seems most interesting to you and why?

Col. Diller: This conference is particularly interesting to me, just in the opportunity to start to build partnerships, the importance of thinking about when we have a diversity of industries really starting in so many new places, particularly in this COVID-19 world, where you start moving away from maybe some of the traditional tech clusters. And now what does partnership look like going forward… in particular with state and local communities and being able to highlight that in many of the tech sectors that are out there.

FCEDA: Can you provide us with a sneak peek of some of the topics that you plan to cover during your keynote presentation on Defense Innovation?

Col. Diller: I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to provide the keynote on some of the defense innovation that we’re doing. I want to spend some time focusing on the partnerships that we’re developing with industry, with investors, inter-agency and with international partners to accelerate new technologies for our Department of the Air Force and across our country.

FCEDA: We will have many international companies tuned in for that day. Do you have any preview specifically for those audiences?

Col. Diller: As part of the national defense strategy, one of the pillars is expanding the partnerships that we have with these other countries around the globe with shared values, shared interest in developing these new technologies. And some of the technologies that are out there are really phenomenal. We had an opportunity to do at International Space Pitch Day last year. We look to build on the success of that particular event as we go forward into 2021 along with these international partners.

 

February 4, 2021