The City of Pittsburgh’s Equal Opportunity Review Commission (EORC) and Carlow University invited women business owners to attend its third annual Women Business Enterprise (WBE) event “How to do Business” program on March 8th, 2018.
“The Pennsylvania Minority Business Development Agency’s Business Center which is operated by The Enterprise Center is pleased to support the City of Pittsburgh 3rd Annual “How to Do Business” Series in collaboration with Carlow University. This event is designed to help Women Business Enterprises strengthen their networks that will lead to mutual opportunities for growth. MBDA Business Center brings together businesses and institutional partners from the state of Pennsylvania who works tirelessly to highlight women and minority businesses through their commitment to equity, inclusion, and local economic impact.” said Victoria Hosendorf – Director of Minority Business Development Agency-(MBC-PA).
The “How to Do Business” series was developed based on the feedback that women business owners shared with the Equal Opportunity Review Commission (EORC) during a special roundtable discussion in 2015. Over 25 business owners from the region participated in this focus group discussion.
As a result, the EORC created a yearly event that educates, informs, and encourages networking between procurement officers and vendors with the goal to reduce barriers of entry for women owned businesses. “Our annual outreach event provides a unique opportunity for women business owners to understand the procurement process directly from the decision makers and to also gain some valuable information on how to be successful in the government contracting arena.” said Ricardo Williams Manager of Equity and Inclusion.
The event at Carlow University included practitioner-led workshops from business-lending professionals and government subject-matter experts in an effort to expand participation from women-owned businesses seeking contract opportunities. The City of Pittsburgh’s EORC and our stakeholders ultimately want to increase the vendor pipeline by providing the necessary resources for businesses to compete for future contract opportunities.
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