El Paso businesses meet state agencies

The cost of traveling to Austin to court state agencies for contracts may be prohibitive for El Paso small businesses, so Wednesday, Austin came to El Paso.

Representatives from 50 state agencies met with 350 small-business men and women at the sixth annual Regional Economic Opportunity Forum, organized by the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Texas Tech University and the State of Texas HUB Discussion Outreach Committee.

Teresa Gándara, president Pencil Cup Office Products Inc., liked the face-to-face meetings.

"We met with several folks who said, 'Oh, my God, you have office products. That's great.' Without meeting people you can't create that relationship," Gándara said.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, was the guest speaker for the event.

"Right now, El Paso is the best place to be. In other places, people are worried about job losses and home foreclosures. Not in El Paso. This is the biggest growth era in our history. The question is, Are you prepared for that kind of growth?" Shapleigh said.

Lt. Gov. John Dewhurst, who was scheduled to speak at the forum, canceled because of state business, said said Hispanic Chamber CEO Cindy Ramos-Davidson.

Forum participants had panel discussions on "How to obtain valuable HUB certification" and "How to do business with the state."

HUB manager Paul Gibson said he encouraged small businesses that were not HUB-certified to apply for the certification. "We're looking to grow our HUB vendor base and educating
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them about various other registrations. We're going to be following up with them," he said.

Agency representatives also said the meetings were productive.

"We'd like to make this an annual event," said Darryl Gaona, director of purchasing and HUB coordinator for the Texas Department of Agriculture.

Lorenzo "Bubba" Sedeno, HUB manager for Texas Tech University and the organizing force behind the event, said the agencies present represented more than $1.5 billion in annual procurement opportunities for women- and minority-owned small businesses.

"At every event we sponsor, at least one or two companies have landed a state contract. We've had some good success stories," Sedeno said.

Beatriz Fernandez, co-owner of El Paso company DataXport, attended the event three years ago and said she came away with a few contracts, albeit, very small ones. "El Paso being so far from Central Texas, we don't get many opportunities to meet with all the state agencies. We're trying to meet with key people," she said.