On November 10, 2017, Vigilant CEO Carl Ingram participated in HeroZona's Phoenix Suns game event, attended by other members of the Veteran Business community, including Ben Fatola and Ron Williams of the National Veteran Opportunity Coalition, and Cole Woodman and Rebecca Aguilera of the Veterans In Business Network. Vigilant is proud to be part of the burgeoning Veteran business community in Arizona, and is continuing to make strides in the community by connecting with veteran advocates and veteran business and diversity managers throughout the country. Vigilant's goal of improving Federal contracting opportunities became a topic of interest that evening, and drove some of our discussions.
Vigilant is making a significant contribution to the Arizona small business community by taking the initiative in the creation of the Arizona Business and Information Technology Coalition, a non-profit group for small businesses in Arizona to achieve a greater visibility for Federal contracting opportunities within the state of Arizona for Arizona-based businesses. Vigilant has noted, along with our colleagues in the local small business community, that most Federal technical and technology contracting work is falling to companies OUTSIDE the state of Arizona, meaning that a high percentage of the Federal dollars spent in Arizona do not stay here in Arizona's economy. Discussions among the several small business leaders - all of whom are members of the Phoenix Minority Business Development Agency - resulted in a consensus that it was up to all of us to crank up the effort to create the coalition. Vigilant took the reins of the effort back in June of 2017, after extended discussions were held among the other MBDA membership, and we're proud to say that as of Nov. 2017, our coalition is now recognized by the State of Arizona Corporation Commission as a legal non-profit business league.
At the HeroZona event, Vigilant had the opportunity to connect with Arizona Senator Catherine Miranda, another advocate for Arizona businesses, who voiced her interest in further discussing our coalition and its goals. Vigilant has also reached out to our elected representative in Congress, Krysten Sinema, and requested a meeting, and is also working also to make a connection with our U.S. Senate team in the near future.
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