This week on Amtower Off Center, Dr Bob Frey, author author of Successful Proposal Strategies On-the Go and principal of Successful Proposal Strategies LLC, joins host Mark Amtower for a discussion on winning proposals. Topics discussed include:. The six functional areas needed for winning proposals What do evaluators across the spectrum (DOD, military,IC, civilian) care about when reviewing proposals Differences in federal vs commercial and international proposals Key elements of and the...

This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower is joined by capture guru Jennifer Namvar, CEO of The Peerless Group. Namvar developed a multi-point "cheat sheet" on the capture process, which we discuss on the show.  Topics include: The fundamentals of opportuities Acquisition timing and capture process Corporate capabilities to win Customer intelligence 

This week on Amtower Off Center, GovCon expert Katie Helwig of MildRed joins host Mark Amtower to discuss the value of GovCon associations. Topics include: Creating visibility in GovCon The GovCon association landscape Criteria for selecting the association which will be best for you Getting involved with your association

This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower interviews Fergal McGovern, CEO of Visible Thread. Visible Thread(VT) provides support tools and processes for the contractor side of the proposal community, especially in the evolving area of generative AI. Topics include: Fergal's background and what VT offers to the contractor community An overview of generative AI's impact on the GovCon ecosystem Why hallucinations occur and some potential work-arounds Two questions to ask when...

This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower starts year 18 at Federal News Network with guest Kevine Jans, president of Skyway Acquisition and host of the Contracting Officer's Podcast. Topics include: Kevin's background as a DOD contracting officer prior to Skyway Starting his podcast 10 years ago Proposal "do's and dont's" The Aristotelian method of RFPS (ethos, pathos and logos) Why Kevin prefers LinkedIn to conferences

This week on Amtower Off Center, Nick Wakeman, editor in chief of Washington Technology, joins host Mark Amtower for an animated and wide-ranging discussion of the biggest issues facing contractors. Topics include: The top stories of 2023-24 M&A trends and activity The increasing role of private equity in the federal market Key elements for growth in GovCon The impact of a year-long CR The new National Defense Industrial Strategy

This week on Amtower Off Center, Host Mark Amtower interviews contract funding expert Teresa Moon of Parabilis on a wide variety of issues facing smaller contractors and those new to the market. Our topics include:  Is your product or service viable in GovCon and have you done enough research to bear this out What is your event/networking strategy? Which events are most germane to what you do and who you need to know? Does your business plan include a plan for funding contracts that you...

This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower is joined by ACT-IAC CEO Dave Wennergren for a lively and wide-ranging discussion about ACT-IAC. Topics include: a brief history of ACT-IAC the mission of the organization professional development opportunities committees and communities of interest the ongoing events for the councils and the major annual events award programs small business participation

This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower is joined by Peter Erickson of MoDev, producer of the GovAI Summit. Topics discussed include: the current evolutionary stepping point in technology that AI, ML and LLM represent a little historical perspective on what brought us to this point, including earlier uses of voice recognition the emergence of AI as a tech transformational event key players in this emerging arena and the scope of the upcoming GovAI Summit  

Government proposal guru Carl Dickson joins host Mark Amtower on this week's Amtower Off Center to discuss several recent topics Dickson has written about, including: 5 Ways to use AI to Improve proposals 14 ways to determine if your proposal is any good How branding can hurt your proposals 10 things the customer might choose to do instead of accepting your offer.  

This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower is joined by Eileen Rivera, Federal MarCom leader and the author of Hard Talk: Confessions of an Accidental Marketing and Communications Professional. Topics discussed include: Why did you write Hard Talk? Who is the audience Dealing with unexpected situations that can impact a company's reputation Lessons learned from the front lines of MarCom in the government market Advice for would-be authors

This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower is joined by fellow GovCon consultant Mike LeJeune of RSM Federal for a wide ranging discussion on branding and marketing in GovCon. Topics include: Defining your market niche Being able to enunciate your market position in 90 seconds or less Why your capabilities statement is not etched in stone The power of social media in GovCon Staying on the radar

This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower is joined by Kevin Plexico, senior vice president of Information Solutions at Deltek, to discuss the latest Clarity Study. Clarity is Deltek's annual study on trends and contractors perspectives of the government market. Topics discussed include: Companies attitudes and mindsets toward the government market How this impacts their various internal functional areas The differences in government spending of=ver the past few years How DEI is...

This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower is joined by Lee Frederiksen of Hinge Marketing to discuss Lee's new book, The Visible Expert Revolution. Topics discussed include: What is a visible expert The value of visible experts to a company Steps to become a visible expert Five styles of visible experts

This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower is joined by business strategy advisor Shirley Collier of Scale2Market. Topics revolved around strategies for small business growth, including: understanding and controlling how your company is perceived in the market using data to assess market demand for what you do differentiating and carving out a niche focusing your limited resources for the best ROI reevaluating annually to determine if you need to pivot to grow

This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower is joined by contracts guru Larry Allen, to discuss the current GovCon landscape. Topics include: Three GSA audit issues to watch out for End of FY spending and the possibility of a shutdown at the beginning of FY 24 GSA OASIS+ RFP hitting the street and Alliant 3 RFP due out in Q1 24 Is POLARIS dead? Will SEWP VII expand in scope? Q4 marketing and outreach to ensure your pipeline stays full.

Digital marketing pioneer and Evalueserve Vice President Geoff Livingston, joins host Mark Amtower on this week's Amtower Off Center to discuss artificial intelligence and ChatGPT.

Hansang Bae, Public Sector chief technologist for Zscaler, joins host Mark Amtower on this week's Amtower Off Center to discuss zero trust, and why its adoption has been so slow.

GovCon guru and attorney Alan Chvotkin, partner at Nichols Liu, joins host Mark Amtower on this week's Amtower Off Center to share his key rules of government contracting.

Mark Krzysko, president of the Association for Federal Information Resources Management, joins host Mark Amtower on this week's Amtower Off Center, to discuss what his organization is doing for the GovCon community.

David Shea, director of the Office of Charge Card Management at the General Services Administration joins host Mark Amtower on this week's Amtower Off Center to discuss the federal SmartPay program. 

Kevin DeSanto, managing director and co-founder of KippsDeSanto, joins host Mark Amtower on this week's Amtower Off Center to discuss how mergers and acquisitions in GovCon have been impacted by the pandemic.

Washington Technology Editor in Chief Nick Wakeman joins host Mark Amtower on this week's Amtower Off Center to discuss the state of NITAAC & CMMC, mergers and acquisitions, and CIO-SP4.

This week on Amtower Off Center, Naveen Krishnamurthy, CEO of RIVA Solutions, joins host Mark Amtower for a wide ranging discussion covering: The RIVA Story Building the staff- recruiting and retention RIVA’s culture Mentor-mentee program Charity events- RIVA Karma Naveen’s visibility & involvement