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Issue 41 | Spring 2023
The year is almost halfway completed, and we have all attended many shows and events to support our National Guard partners. I hope the events have generated great relationships and business opportunities for you. Your CAP is busy working with our NGAUS Industry Liaison, Blaise Lemke, to ensure you have information on events that may have value to your business in support of the National Guard community.
The NGB State Partnership Program (SPP) Conference was held 17-21 April 2023 at the Denver Marriott Tech Center. The SPP is a strategic military-to-military relationship facilitating broad interagency engagements between our National Guard and Partner countries. The conference brought SPP Directors, Foreign Partner Dignitaries, State Senior Enlisted Leaders, and General Officers together with industry to discuss today’s hurdles for state partnership and the sharing of best practices and ideas. Exhibitors were able to demonstrate their product and capabilities to conference attendees, share knowledge of the SPP program, and determine how to best support and work with SPP Directors. With 300+ attendees and 23 exhibitors, this was a great event for all who participated.
The Modernization Equipment Requirements Conference, also known as MERC, was held 22 – 25 May 2023 at the National Conference Center in Leesburg, VA. The ARNG MERC provides the status of equipment portfolios and empowers the States, Territories, and the District of Columbia to provide input into the requirements and validation process for the development of the FY24 ARNG National Guard and Reserve Equipment Account (NGREA) buy list. Each state sends two representatives, most of whom were the State’s G4, PBO and/or FIRO as their representative. The attendees were required to sign an NDA, so information from this conference cannot be shared with any Corporate Conference Attendee or non-attendee. The corporate attendees were in another building to ensure there was no preferential treatment towards conference attendees. If you are trying to gain interest in your product, grow your funnel, or make sales, this is not your target event. Instead, think of MERC for professional development and a terrific way to best understand the process of NGREA, meet the portfolio team, and any state/territory POC’s.
We are quickly approaching the NGAUS 145th General Conference & Exhibition in Reno, NV 18-21 Aug, 2023. It is not too late to reserve exhibit space—just a few booths remain. If you have not made your travel arrangements, now is the time. For the most current information, always visit https://www.ngaus.org/events/145th-general-conference-exhibition
You will see many changes and additions at NGAUS. There will be training sessions in the exhibit hall; an industry session on day one to hear industry feedback; refreshments on the exhibit floor; and hopefully, name tags that do not turn around. We are looking forward to a successful event.
There are still several other events and business opportunities available. Remember, it is important to your success to develop relationships with your State and National partners within the National Guard Association and their supporting Agencies.
