Amtower Off-Center
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Hosted by nationally-known speaker and consultant Mark Amtower, Amtower Off-Center highlights the good, the bad, the ugly, and the just plain silly of doing business in the government market. Every week experts join Mark for a lively discussion of current issues facing the government contractor community.
Amtower Off-Center
2w ago
This week on Amtower Off Center, GovCon expert Katie Helwig of MildRed joins host Mark Amtower to discuss the value of GovCon associations.
Topics include:
Creating visibility in GovCon
The GovCon association landscape
Criteria for selecting the association which will be best for you
Getting involved with your association ..read more
Amtower Off-Center
1M ago
This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower interviews Fergal McGovern, CEO of Visible Thread.
Visible Thread(VT) provides support tools and processes for the contractor side of the proposal community, especially in the evolving area of generative AI.
Topics include:
Fergal's background and what VT offers to the contractor community
An overview of generative AI's impact on the GovCon ecosystem
Why hallucinations occur and some potential work-arounds
Two questions to ask when applying generative AI
Prompt engineering & retrieval augmented generation and how to get bet ..read more
Amtower Off-Center
2M ago
This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower starts year 18 at Federal News Network with guest Kevine Jans, president of Skyway Acquisition and host of the Contracting Officer's Podcast.
Topics include:
Kevin's background as a DOD contracting officer prior to Skyway
Starting his podcast 10 years ago
Proposal "do's and dont's"
The Aristotelian method of RFPS (ethos, pathos and logos)
Why Kevin prefers LinkedIn to conferences ..read more
Amtower Off-Center
2M ago
This week on Amtower Off Center, Nick Wakeman, editor in chief of Washington Technology, joins host Mark Amtower for an animated and wide-ranging discussion of the biggest issues facing contractors.
Topics include:
The top stories of 2023-24
M&A trends and activity
The increasing role of private equity in the federal market
Key elements for growth in GovCon
The impact of a year-long CR
The new National Defense Industrial Strategy ..read more
Amtower Off-Center
2M ago
This week on Amtower Off Center, Host Mark Amtower interviews contract funding expert Teresa Moon of Parabilis on a wide variety of issues facing smaller contractors and those new to the market.
Our topics include:
Is your product or service viable in GovCon and have you done enough research to bear this out
What is your event/networking strategy? Which events are most germane to what you do and who you need to know?
Does your business plan include a plan for funding contracts that you win?
Where does LinkedIn fit in all of this? What do you need to know to be successful ..read more
Amtower Off-Center
5M ago
This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower is joined by ACT-IAC CEO Dave Wennergren for a lively and wide-ranging discussion about ACT-IAC.
Topics include:
a brief history of ACT-IAC
the mission of the organization
professional development opportunities
committees and communities of interest
the ongoing events for the councils and the major annual events
award programs
small business participation ..read more
Amtower Off-Center
6M ago
This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower is joined by Peter Erickson of MoDev, producer of the GovAI Summit.
Topics discussed include:
the current evolutionary stepping point in technology that AI, ML and LLM represent
a little historical perspective on what brought us to this point, including earlier uses of voice recognition
the emergence of AI as a tech transformational event
key players in this emerging arena
and the scope of the upcoming GovAI Summit
  ..read more
Amtower Off-Center
6M ago
Government proposal guru Carl Dickson joins host Mark Amtower on this week's Amtower Off Center to discuss several recent topics Dickson has written about, including:
5 Ways to use AI to Improve proposals
14 ways to determine if your proposal is any good
How branding can hurt your proposals
10 things the customer might choose to do instead of accepting your offer.
  ..read more
Amtower Off-Center
7M ago
This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower is joined by Eileen Rivera, Federal MarCom leader and the author of Hard Talk: Confessions of an Accidental Marketing and Communications Professional.
Topics discussed include:
Why did you write Hard Talk?
Who is the audience
Dealing with unexpected situations that can impact a company's reputation
Lessons learned from the front lines of MarCom in the government market
Advice for would-be authors ..read more
Amtower Off-Center
8M ago
This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower is joined by fellow GovCon consultant Mike LeJeune of RSM Federal for a wide ranging discussion on branding and marketing in GovCon.
Topics include:
Defining your market niche
Being able to enunciate your market position in 90 seconds or less
Why your capabilities statement is not etched in stone
The power of social media in GovCon
Staying on the radar ..read more