rickweiss.ca

In July, I started a new job!

I joined the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises (OSME). It’s part of PWGSC, so I am still working for the same federal department, but I’m learning a lot of new things. I worked with OSME frequently when I was in the corporate communications group, so I had some familiarity with the group. But government procurement is a whole new beast for me to learn about.

What does OSME do?

OSME is a small group in PWGSC that helps SMEs learn to navigate the Government of Canada’s procurement processes. This is done through seminars (free to attend at 4900 Yonge Street, every Wednesday – register on buyandsell.gc.ca).

OSME also partners with community organizations like municipal economic development groups, chambers of commerce, and others, to bring seminars to communities across Ontario (and other regional offices serve communities across Canada).

Its been a fun 7 weeks so far. I’ve been to “exciting” places like Windsor, Peterborough and Oshawa, becoming familiar with how these events are organized and rolled out. I hadn’t posted anything because it began as a 2-month assignment, after which, I didn’t know where I would be. Fortunately, I was extended to help promote the Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program, which wraps up in March, 2013.

What is CICP?

The Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program was created to do two things

1. encourage the use of innovative goods and services by government, with the goal being improved efficiencies and/or capabilities.
2. offer an opportunity for companies with a pre-commercial innovative product or service to sell to the government.

It’s the first program of its kind in Canada, and it launched last September. Its different, because every other federal program to encourage research and development has focused on the early R&D stages. CICP helps companies in the final stages of development when they have a field-ready product or service. Government end users work with suppliers to create a test plan and feedback is given throughout the process.

It’s a pilot program, and companies need to submit proposals and be selected based on various criteria. There will be several Calls for Proposal until the pilot ends in March 2013. These are similar to tenders, and are posted on MERX.

OSME is a new challenge, and its a place where I can apply my communications experience in a different context.

How about you, have you started a new project or accepted a new position recently?