APEX Accelerator’s business clients see success at recent Matchmaker event

The recent Ohio Business Matchmaker event brought together participants from across the state for a day focused on helping businesses grow and find new opportunities.

Coordinated by the Ohio APEX Accelerator at Ohio University’s George V. Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service in conjunction with local, state and federal business development partners, the event drew nearly 400 participants representing Ohio businesses, government contracting representatives and others.  

And best of all, the event featured more than 1,600 business matchmaking sessions.

Preparation for what attendees likened in part to a successful version of “speed dating” with potential government customers and other business connections, however, started weeks before with one-on-one meetings between APEX representatives and their clients.

“Planning for this event began months earlier with specific events helping Ohio businesses learn more about government contracting. Offered this year were weekly webinars, the morning webinars geared toward those businesses new to government contracting and the afternoon webinars were more focused on businesses that were already involved in government contracting,” said Sharon Hopkins, director of the Ohio APEX Accelerator at Ohio University.  

“We also offered four virtual Mock Matchmaker sessions where a panel of representatives from federal and state government procurement offices, SBA and Ohio APEX Accelerators listened to Ohio Businesses’ elevator pitches,” she said. “During the Mock Matchmaker, the business had seven minutes to present their elevator pitch and shared their capability statement to this panel of procurement professionals. The panel was given 10 minutes to provide tips, guidance and suggestions on ways to improve the company’s pitch and capability statement. The goal of the panel was to assist the business, promote their product or service and develop a presentation that is effective when they are presenting at the actual matchmaker event.”

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Billy Grill, APEX associate director for Southwest Ohio, said he’s seen hundreds of success stories unfold at the Matchmaker events during his 15 years of involvement in helping businesses navigate the sometimes complex and intimidating government contracting processes.

“Every year it's a success. A lot of connections get made and there’s a lot of conversations going on – not just with buyers, but with small businesses and other potential teammates,” he said.

The key work for APEX consultants, he said, begins well before the Matchmaker event through preparation that he described as “helping clients put a game plan together” and continues afterward with follow-up meetings.

Because the event features presentations by participants and quick interview sessions with potential business partners, Grill said working both sides of that equation by getting to know the players personally and developing a rapport is important to foster successful connections.

Along with explaining some of the regulations and other hoops involved in the government contracting, he noted, “It's still a relationship-based business. There are people on the other side of that regulation.”

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Business representatives discuss the event

Two Ohio businesses that attended the Matchmaker event as exhibitors cited the preparatory work by John Woodard, procurement specialist, Ohio APEX Accelerator at Ohio University, Akron Office, as being especially helpful.

"Helping our clients find success is a wonderful reward for being their Apex Accelerator counselor," Woodard said.

Steven Flaughers, president and CEO of Proforma 3rd Degree Marketing, a provider of a wide variety of commercial printing, promotional products and e-commerce services, said APEX helped the company plan for the event.

At the event, he was able to attend breakout sessions, network and participate in quick “speed dating” meetings with government representatives and distribute a company capability statement developed with APEX’s guidance. The capability statement detailed “what separates us from the rest of the pack, our core competencies and some information on past performance that we’ve done for other organizations,” he said.

The work with APEX helped to alleviate some hesitation about dealing with government, Flaughers said.

“There’s partially a fear factor that people just don’t know how to get into it. If it wasn’t for our APEX coach John, we would never have gotten into it,” he said.

Flaughers said he heard about the Matchmaker event from a supplier, which led to a contact with APEX’s Woodard.

“We dove right in and got set up with our coach, John, who’s just been a world of help, a world of knowledge. He’s so good to work with,” he said. “I can’t say enough about him and the APEX program and the trainings they provide.”

The sessions he had with APEX convinced him it was worth the company’s time to navigate working with government entities and obtain required certifications, Flaugher said.

“This event really helped us bridge the gap to understand what they’re looking for,” he said.

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Flaugher’s comments were echoed by FMD Architects, an Ohio-based firm with a national presence and a broad portfolio of projects that range from K-12 school and college buildings to animal care and hospital facilities and clean rooms.

Firm Principal Mark Moore, Associate Principal Tim Ruzic, and FMD’s Director of Production and Federal Program Matt Silvi lauded APEX’s guidance leading up to the Matchmaker.

“The greatness of the event started a week or so prior with APEX Accelerator. John Woodard came to our office and prepped us. He had talked to Matt even weeks prior before meeting with us,” Ruzic said. “They really set us up for success at this event. The in-person review and what we were going to have for literature, how to streamline it, what to be prepared for – that was one of the key indicators for how well we were going to do there.”

Moore said Woodard introduced him to key contacts “who he wanted to make sure that we met” during the event. The APEX connections, he added, “were impressed we were showing the willingness to grow with their support and be stronger all around and have the information and resources we needed to do the projects.”

Silvi noted Woodard recommended condensing the firm’s “robust” capability statement.

“We incorporated his comments and really narrowed the scope and refined how we were presenting our information,” he said.

Ruzic added, “His knowledge and history of how this event goes and how companies can better themselves and get the most out of this event was a key asset.”

Moore said the firm was able to make many contacts and begin to develop relationships with potential business partners.

“It does take some time, but those who go in there with the open mind of collaboration will have success,” he said. “So we have found some great teams that we can now collaborate with and benefit from in the long run.”

Ruzic said some of those contacts were not on the company’s radar prior to the event.

“It also energized us for our federal side of work and is pushing us to where we want to be and setting goals for us that, if we hadn’t attended the event, we wouldn’t be where we are right now,” he said.