Vendor Outreach Committee

The Vendor Outreach Committee has identified four general strategies to improve local business participation in the procurement activities of DABD members:

• Education
  • Based on the experience of the City of Dallas 2nd Annual Vendor Fair in which most of the public entities participated, the committee will develop a plan to host a joint vendor fair marketed to all agency vendors.
  • Develop joint education seminars to be held on a quarterly basis to help businesses understand the "ins and outs" of doing business with public agencies. Workshops will include seminars on commodity codes, certification, bidding opportunities, surety support requirements and other common concerns for vendors.
• Networking
  • Develop a plan to utilize the joint education seminars and joint vendor fairs as networking opportunities for vendors.
• Access
  • Provide supplier diversity training for agency buyers with the goal of improving vendor access to the bid process through education.
• Awareness
  • Promote awareness of outreach events and available sub vendors through a website and database that will allow for a calendar of activities, outreach information, a vendor database and networking information. Web site development is a long-range, but vital vendor outreach goal.