Most industry days end the same way. You hears some good pitches. You collect some business cards. Someone in the government says “let’s follow up in a few weeks.” Then nothing happens for a budget cycle.
Not this day.
This summer, ASW SO/LIC hosted an Accelerator Day, where over eight hours, 15 companies pitched. Government teams made decisions in the room. Contracting officers signed $650,000 in prototype awards before everyone went home. The companies could start to invoice that night.
Our company - STEAM Studio - followed three companies through the day: Eudia, Dronetrace, and Dunedain Systems. Today we are premiering the documentary.
Watch the SOLIC Accelerator Day documentary on YouTube.
About Bonnie and Cara
Bonnie Evangelista is the Acquisition Director for the Secretariat for Special Operations in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict. She has 18 years in federal acquisition. Before SOLIC, she worked on the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul at GSA, and she held acquisition roles at Industrial Base Policy, the Chief Digital and AI Office, the Joint AI Center, Army Defensive Cyber Operations, and TSA. If you have watched a fast, odd, creative contract action happen in the Department in the last few years, there is a good chance she had a hand in it.
Carmella Teeter has two jobs. She is the Chief Technology Officer for the Special Operations Forces Enterprise, where she sets the technical priorities and modernization path that USSOCOM carries out. She is also the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Special Operations Analysis, Resources, and Capabilities. In that job she oversees more than $15 billion a year in SOF programs, runs the Center for Special Operations Analysis, and does acquisition oversight of USSOCOM. She also directs a rapid prototyping office that shares costs with six partner nations, at more than $250 million a year.
These two were the primary forces behind the Accelerator day, and they are our primary narrators.
Take a look, and share with a govie who needs a little inspiration!
