Following the halting of the GSA Expo and other major government conferences due to tightening travel budgets in 2012, the government turned toward the virtual environment to get in touch with contractors across the country -- employing webinars and other online events to cut costs and reduce logistical concerns. These webinars could not replace the old expos as they were very one-sided and often not as well advertised. Communication between government buyer and vendor dwindled, small businesses began closing down as there was little outreach, and innovation suffered. In 2014, the digital services agency known as 18F -- having just resolved Healthcare.gov -- worked to bring a social media communication channel to government officials. This is the channel FedGov.News utilizes, known as CPDN -- the Contractor Performance Dispersal Network.
The CPDN utilizes government officials -- notably from the Office of Small, Disadvantaged Business Utilization -- to disperse the project history articles published on FedGov.News. These officials, known colloquially as "conduit members" -- receive the information published through FedGov.News (project history, generally) and distribute it out to their networks through social media, email, et cetera. With currently around 150 "conduit members" -- representing every major agency and many of the largest prime contractors -- small business contractors easily can get their message, brand, and project experience out to over 15,000 government buyers (around 3 times the size of the GSA Expo at its height). This technique, often referred to as "prearranged, word-of-mouth, viral distribution" can improve communication, enhance innovation, and generally increase a firm's bid-win ratio significantly, with many finding an increase of 30-80% additional contract wins.
Further, it can be targeted to a particular agency, a particular company, a particular contracting office, and even a particular purchasing agent -- ensuring specificity in your marketing approach to maximize your results.
FedGov.News and the network is completely funded through sponsorship dollars from large corporations and grant funding from the government. Thus, it does not charge for its services. The only "fee" associated with this is a $199 activation and verification fee. In cooperation with Duns&Bradstreet, this fee is to ensure that all information published through FedGov.News and distributed through CPDN is as accurate as possible.
The sole requirement for participating in CPDN -- aside from the $199 activation/verification fee -- is that you have to be a small business with an active SAM registration (go to sam.gov for more information). This is generally defined by your NAICS codes from the SBA. Special consideration may be taken into account for companies whose NAICS codes are especially restrictive (eg, if your NAICS codes are restricted to companies under $7 million in revenue a year), but it will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
Although being a small business is the sole requirement, ideal candidates are companies with revenue between $250,000-$50 million, and are at least one of the following: FSS-holder, 8(a)-certified, and/or veteran-owned/service-disabled veteran-owned. Again, these are NOT requirements, but valued.
