Camden, NJ- On October 7th LAEDA concluded its first Getting Started in Procurement training. The five-week program, designed for established businesses with a marketable product or service, offered comprehensive instruction on how to begin doing business with governments, institutions and corporations. This effort was a collaboration between LAEDA, the Haddon Avenue Business Association (HABA), Parkside Businesses and Community in Partnership (PBCIP), Camden County Development Association, and NJIT’s Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) to encourage big corporations’ investments in small businesses and the communities they operate in.

The virtual course, taught by LAEDA WBC and NJIT PTAC staff, provided five-weeks of training with topics raning from the basic requirements for becoming a supplier/ vendor to preparing to fulfill contracts. “We want to prepare small businesses to connect with not only large corporations in the city, like Subaru and Holtech and institutions like Cooper and Rutgers but also local government in order to fulfill their supply chain needs. The contracts could be as little as delivering pizzas to Rutgers or as large as supplying all of the toilet paper for Cooper Hospital,” stated Ray Lamboy, the president and CEO of the LAEDA.  The ultimate goal is to foster community economic development in the city of Camden,” Lamboy continued.

In additon to providing training, the program provided real world examples of procurements opportunities from across multiple industries. Representatives from Rutgers University- Camden, American Water, and KIPP New Jersey – Camden offered insight on their company’s procurement process as well as some “dos and don’ts” for getting the contract.

At the conclusion of the program, all participants were offered follow-up counseling and technical assistance from the LAEDA WBC and NJIT PTAC to find practical ways to act on procurement opportunities.