MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. -- As crowds streamed through the Modern Day Marine Expo at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Joseph Garst was making the hard sell for his company’s heat-resistant rifle handguards. On a television at his booth, a handguard was used to tow a 4,600-pound Nissan Titan pickup, which later ran over the object. Next to the TV, a pancake griddle heated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit made a standard aluminum handguard impossible to pick up, while Marines plucked Garst’s product from the hot plate and rolled it in their palms.
“The Achilles heel of any gun on the market is heat,” Garst explained, and the Marines seemed receptive to his pitch.
However, by the expo’s rules, Garst couldn’t sell anything at the event. Were the Corps interested in buying his product, a lengthy procurement process could be set in motion, but most of the service’s purchases are based on requirements established internally.
Moreover, it is common knowledge that with the end-of-war drawdown and Congress imposing heavy budget cuts on the Department of Defense, the military has precious little money to spend on maintaining the equipment it has, let alone acquiring new product lines.
Nonetheless, almost 400 vendors shelled out the fees to appear at the event. That’s down from 475 last year and about 500 the year before but still no small number of hopeful contractors.
Their entry fees, based largely on square footage, cover the entire cost of the event, which Charlie Baisley, spokesman for the organizer, Marine Military Expos, called “a significant amount of money.”
Garst said Ascendance International, of which he is the chief operating officer, spent about $1,400 for its relatively small booth space. It was the company’s first appearance at the expo. “Is it a gamble? Yeah, a little bit,” he said, “but the information I can gather from talking to these Marines is worth $1,400, easily.”
Marine Corps procurement officials hear a lot of ideas from the defense industry, he explained. By talking to the service members who actually use the products, he said, vendors can identify problems and find ways to fix them. “Then, when we talk to the program managers, who are already aware of the problems, we bring them solutions.”
Baisley said the show’s “big value-added” for exhibitors is the feedback they get from the war fighters who are the end-users of their products. “That’s why the base’s support is so instrumental in getting this done,” he said.
Years ago, the expo was held in a Washington, D.C., hotel, and organizers worked hard to get it moved to an installation so Marines would attend, Baisley said. He said Quantico is an ideal location in part because it’s home to Marine Corps Systems Command, the Corps’ primary procurement arm, as well as Marine Corps Combat Development Command.
Gloria Pryor, spokeswoman for Systems Command, said it’s fortunate that so many companies are still interested in the expo. “Even if we may not have a requirement out on the street, sometimes we get great ideas here,” she said, noting that Marines in her command are always looking for ways to solve ongoing challenges, such as lightening Marines’ loads and improving communication systems and intelligence.
“The major benefit is exchanging ideas,” Pryor said.
Not only do Systems Command personnel walk the tents looking for items and ideas of possible interest, she said, but they also schedule face-to-face meetings free of charge with any vendor who is interested and is part of the expo. This year, that was just about every company at the event.
Due to budget constraints, many of Systems Command’s colonels and subject matter experts stationed at other installations were unable to travel to this year’s expo, so some of the face-to-face meetings included teleconferences, Pryor said. “Our colonels are still looking for the best ideas but doing it in the most economical way possible.”
The expo “gives exposure to vendors who might not otherwise have exposure to the decision-makers,” said Michael Blum, executive director of the Marine Corps League, which contracts Marine Military Expos to organize the event. He said this also exposes Marine Corps leadership to ideas they might not have seen, and the interaction between vendors and Marines, whether they’re procurement officials or lance corporals fresh from the field, has the end result of better products for the Corps.
“From all the feedback we get, it’s worked over and over,” Blum said.
Victor Vega, program manager for GATR Technologies, said his company has been part of the expo for the last five years, and that participation has helped the manufacturer of inflatable portable satellite dishes get its goods out into the field with Marines.
Resembling an eight-foot beach ball, GATR’s product draws attention on its own, and Vega said that exposure and some interaction with Marine Corps officials were all the company wanted when it started coming to the expo. Now that the ball-encased satellite dishes are undergoing field evaluations and are slated to become a program of record, he said showing up for the expo is still a worthwhile investment.
“We have a lot of [phone] call meetings,” Vega said. “But face-to-face time with [Systems Command] really adds value to the relationship, to ensure we’re all working together to get the right product to the end-user, which is really the Marines who are using it.”
Another company that already has open channels of communication with the Marine Corps is Lockheed Martin, but the defense industry giant still sprang for the largest single space in this year’s expo.
“When you’ve got your products on the floor and you can actually touch them and have a discussion with the customer with the product present, it just makes the whole dialogue a little more tangible,” said John Kent, senior communications manager with Lockheed.
He said the expo is also a chance to speak with the warfighters who use the systems in the field. “We can get a better understanding of what it is they require, with the end result being that the Marines get a product that helps them be more effective and brings them home safely.”
The company also has an opportunity to meet with existing and potential business partners at the event, he said.
In the small business tent, where vendors could get booths at reduced rates, the owners of Raleigh, N.C.-based INI Power were also making business connections.
“If you look around the tent, you’ll see our generators all over the place,” said Matt Mendez, the company’s vice president of operational and future energy.
While many of the small businesses have put out candy bowls to draw attention, INI’s table holds bottles of high-test distilled beverages, as well as rubbing alcohol and nail polish remover. These are not for sampling, however. They are some of the fuels the company’s portable generators can use.
“Anything that’s flammable is a viable fuel for making power, and we designed an engine to do that,” said Larry Markoski, company president.
He said he was there to hear from Marine Corps leaders about directions the company should take in the future and, like others, to meet with Marines who might use his products in the field. “The more operators we deal with, the better we can tailor our solutions to meet their needs,” Markoski said.
As he was speaking, an organizer passed to let him know a training was about to begin for small businesses doing business with the Marine Corps. He said he already sells to the Corps and had not been aware of the training but regarded it as a bonus.
“You can always get better,” he said. “Especially with government contracting, it’s always a learning process.”
“The real goal of the expo is to be a lot more than just a Marine Corps carnival,” said Baisley, adding that, in times of budget austerity, strategic meetings between the military and industry are more important than ever.
— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com