SDOT held its last 2016 session of the Working With SDOT Outreach Event series, Connecting the Dots, at Seattle City Hall on October 20.
Event venue: Bertha Knight Landes Room, Seattle City Hall.
In collaboration with King County, Sound Transit and other local transportation agencies, the event connected more than 100 people with agency staff to discuss ways to better find and access contracting work opportunities within transportation public works. Highlights of the event included:
- A panel discussion about the commonalities between the agencies denoting what information, processes, and experiences can be carried over to obtain work with other agencies
- Information on upcoming Public Works opportunities from SDOT, Sound Transit, and King County
- Technical assistance for the Seattle Online Business Directory, and other partner agency directory systems
- Information on State of Washington Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises (OMWBE) certification
- Information on Bonding/Insurance from the USDOT Northwest Small Business Transportation Resource Center
- An hour-long networking session
Attendees connecting with transportation agency staff.
SDOT’s Women- and Minority-owned Business Enterprises (WMBE) Program, within the SDOT Office of Equity and Economic Inclusion, promotes equity in contracting through the inclusion of small and historically underutilized businesses on transportation projects. Mayor Murray affirmed the City of Seattle’s commitment to promote race and gender equity in contracting through Executive Order 2014-03 Equity in City Contracting.
This event was part of an ongoing series of targeted outreach initiatives for SDOT to increase the inclusion of WMBE firms. To learn more about the SDOT WMBE Program, contact Edson I. Zavala, Manager of the Office of Equity and Economic Inclusion at edson.zavala@seattle.gov or visit our website at: www.seattle.gov/transportation/oeei.htm.