January 27, 2021
Mian Rice is the Director of the Diversity in Contracting Program.
The Port of Seattle, with the help of the US Department of Transportation Small Business Transportation Resource Center (SBTRC), just finished a six-week series of workshops for Construction, Architecture, and Engineering firms.
The effort supplements basic “PortGen” training sessions and is a more advanced class for small businesses that partner with the Port on construction and Architecture and Engineering projects. Community feedback has been very positive.
“The workshops were really good!! It had very useful information that will help our business grow and to better compete for future government and Port contracts.”
— Cynthia Yiu – First Metal & Supplies
The Port offered the workshop series to small, disadvantaged minority, women-owned, 8A certified, and HUB Zone certified businesses. Workshop topics included technical assistance, business consulting, capacity training, bonding assistance estimating, marketing, and project management.
“The workshops had great presenters and was very interactive! I also appreciated the classes being recorded so I was able to go back and review presentations.”
— Larry Adeyemi — Green Project Solutions Group
As the Port moves forward with record spending and construction, it was rewarding to know that we’ve begun these efforts on the right foot.
“PortGen was a practical and interactive information session that provided us the ability to connect with the right people at the Port and other primes (contractors) to pursue opportunities. Thank you!”
— Samir Chudgar — Chudgar Engineering Company
Companies participating in the workshop series can continue to get assistance from the Transportation Resource Center. The Port also plans to offer this workshop series in 2021 so watch the events calendar for more sessions.
With over a billion dollars of construction in the Port pipeline, we want to make sure small, minority, or women-owned businesses have the ability to bid and compete for these contract dollars, as the Port seeks to rebuild a more equitable economy for our region after COVID-19.
Stay tuned in the coming months for more opportunities for WMBE businesses to get involved as we continue to move forward with projects, particularly the 2021 Business Accelerator Program.
