Blog: City Blog

City's Business Breakfast Welcomes Record Number

A record number of business representatives -- approximately 420 -- attended the City’s 10th annual Business Breakfast, held Wednesday, June 13, at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum.

Wyatt Catering

Wyatt's Classic Caterers, in business for 20-plus years, cooked and served a breakfast buffet of biscuits, pastries, egg quiche, fresh fruit and sausage.

The City’s Purchasing Agent Boyce Evans and Chief Policy Officer and Deputy to the Mayor William Lyons welcomed attendees and set the scene for the rest of the morning: The City of Knoxville and other participating entities want to do business with local businesses, particularly women-, minority- and veteran-owned businesses in our region.

Lyons noted that, to his knowledge, no other major cities in Tennessee hold meet-and-greets of this scale.
All told, the contracts for goods and services discussed at the breakfast—that will be put to bid in the next 12 months—add up to $100 million.

Break-out presentations were led by the purchasing agents of several City departments and agencies, including: Parks and Recreation, Community Development, Engineering, Fleet Services, Public Service, Redevelopment (shown above with presenters Redevelopment Director Dawn Michelle Foster and Director of Engineering Jim Hagerman), Knoxville Police Department, Knoxville Fire Department, Knoxville Area Transit, Knoxville Utilities Board, Knoxville’s Community Development Corporation, and Public Building Authority.

Community Development Senior Project Manager Kathy Ellis discussed the City's long-time Homemakers Program, which presents opportunities to purchase City-owned properties and rehab or construct new housing. The City maintains a "Qualified Contractor List" of pre-approved contractors that can be hired by property owners involved in these programs.

Parks & Recreation Director Sheryl Ely discussed the products and services her department intends to buy for a variety of projects, including park improvements, sports equipment, uniforms and more.

Some common needs across the many anticipated projects: janitorial services; roofing and flooring; electrical work; security cameras; and lots (and lots) of building and paving.

Presenters offered tips for doing business with the City of Knoxville and other area governmental agencies, one of the top being: sign up for the online vendor registries. The City’s vendor registry is located at KnoxvilleTN.gov/bids, where you can see current RFPs and RFQs.

Business Liaison Patricia Robledo welcomed attendees and collected business cards.

Posted by ptravis On 15 June, 2018 at 10:21 AM